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Full Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.130,-0.242 or 52°7'47"N 0°14'33"Wsa_postcodeSG19 2NH

 

The symbol shows the location of the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter which serves 920,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
_______

Which Freeview channels does the Sandy Heath transmitter broadcast?

If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.

Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C27 (522.0MHz)291mDTG-180,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) Cambridge, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 16 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C24 (498.0MHz)291mDTG-180,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Anglia (West micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) South ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 South ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Anglia east), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C21+ (474.2MHz)291mDTG-180,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Cambridge, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H -0.2dB
C33 (570.0MHz)291mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -0.2dB
C36 (594.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -0.2dB
C48 (690.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Sandy Heath transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Look East (West) 1.0m homes 3.7%
from Cambridge CB4 0WZ, 29km east-northeast (65°)
to BBC Cambridge region - 4 masts.
70% of BBC East (East) and BBC East (West) is shared output
regional news image
ITV Anglia News 1.0m homes 3.7%
from Norwich NR1 3JG, 119km east-northeast (60°)
to ITV Anglia (West) region - 5 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Anglia (East)

How will the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1965-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-1312 Feb 2020
VHFA K TK TK TW TW T
C6ITVwaves
C21C4wavesC4wavesC4waves+BBCBBBCB
C24ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C27BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C31BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C32com7
C33SDN
C34com8
C35_local
C36ArqA
C39C5wavesC5waves
C43_local
C48ArqBArqB
C51tv_offSDN
C52tv_offArqA
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off

tv_off Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 30 Mar 11 and 13 Apr 11.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4 1000kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7.4dB) 180kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-7.7dB) 170kW
com7(-13dB) 49.6kW
com8(-13.1dB) 49.1kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-17dB) 20kW
Analogue 5(-20dB) 10kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sandy Heath transmitter area

Oct 1959-Feb 2004Anglia Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Comments
Monday, 13 November 2023
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:46 AM

Ian Leslie Jackson:

Further to my previous reply to you at Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) DAB transmitter | free and easy for 21 years I've been doing some further research.

A number of very adjacent postcodes to your locale, have received postcards from https://restoretv.uk/
It seems that you may have not, but that does not mean that you aren't suffering interference problems from a new/upgraded mobile phone mast.

Contact them on 0808-1313-800 and explain that you are having persistent problems with your Freeview reception and that this has been happening now for a couple of months and that you understand that neighbours in adjacent postcards have had postcards. Can they please send you a Free Filter.

In the meantime, the HD channels at Sandy Heath are on UHF Channel 21, so try a MANUAL retune of C21 and as previously mentioned make sure that Automatic Retuning on your TV is turned off if possible.
Once correctly tuned, do NOT retune.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,359 posts GB flag
Sunday, 26 November 2023
I
Ian Leslie Jackson
2:10 PM

Chris.SE: Hi Chris, I have read all of your messages but, today the pixilated pictures on BBC HD channels today are making the viewing impossible. I am talking with Panasonic about the tuning problem where the TV is not designed to disable Auto tuning. I have infact been speaking to them for 3 weeks and, will be speaking to them tomorrow. I feel these TV'S are sold under the banner of Not fit for purpose.
Kind regards,
Ian Jackson

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Ian Leslie Jackson's 12 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:28 PM

Ian Leslie Jackson:

I agree with you that sets where you cannot disable automatic updating/retuning are a pain in the proverbial when engineering, weather conditions or even faults on your own aerial system my result in brief periods of no or weak signal. Panasonic should be able to provide a firmware update to add this functionality.

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Chris.SE's 4,359 posts GB flag
T
Tom
7:59 PM

Suffering pixilation on all HD channels Cambridge CB24 area.

link to this comment
Tom's 1 post GB flag
S
Steve Donaldson
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

8:15 PM

Tom: You're the second person to report an issue with the HD multiplex of Sandy Heath this evening. See this other comment:

Final Freeview retunes to allow 5G mobile at 700MHz listed | free and easy for 21 years

link to this comment
Steve Donaldson's 254 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:28 PM

Tom:
Steve Donaldson;

Sandy Heath is currently listed for Planned Engineering as noted further up the page. That's the most likely cause.

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Chris.SE's 4,359 posts GB flag
N
nigel
9:09 PM

Steve Donaldson: Issues here too with the HD multiplexes this evening

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nigel's 2 posts GB flag
P
paul
9:45 PM

Like others, in Cambs Ely region/CB6, HD multiplexes have been unwatchable evening of today/26th.

Seem to be no SandyHeath maintenance mentioned on the map at https://ukfree.tv/extras/…ing.

If there were a new 5G inteference problem would this be so intermittent ?
(I've not yet looked for a site that lists new local mobile masts/transmitters)

Paul

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paul's 10 posts GB flag
P
paul
10:20 PM

4g mast locations seem to be shown at
https://www.cellmapper.net/map
but, for Cambridgeshire, does not show which of them may have also had 5G services turned on

Paul

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paul's 10 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:34 PM

paul :

As listed at the very top of this page -
Sandy Heath transmitter - Sandy Heath transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 20/11/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick

Sandy Heath has been having Planned Engineering for a few weeks now.

All: To check if you should have received a postcard about possible interference from a new/upgraded phone mast, enter your full postcode on this page -
https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/

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Chris.SE's 4,359 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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