Full Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 52.130,-0.242 or 52°7'47"N 0°14'33"W |  | SG19 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.
Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) mast?
Sandy Heath transmitter - Sandy Heath transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 04/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
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.
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?
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
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?
| 1965-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 12 Feb 2020 | ||||
| VHF | A K T | K T | K T | W T | W T | ||||
| C6 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C21 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C24 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C27 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C31 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ||||||
| C32 | com7 | ||||||||
| C33 | SDN | ||||||||
| C34 | com8 | ||||||||
| C35 | _local | ||||||||
| C36 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C39 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C43 | _local | ||||||||
| C48 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C51tv_off | SDN | ||||||||
| C52tv_off | ArqA | ||||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_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
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Monday, 27 November 2023
S
S bresland7:26 AM
Chris.SE
We have had bad pixelated tv for two days now. How long will this be for? As unable to watch it as it is?
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Pixilation on bbc1 for 2 days making it impossible to watch. Is this a problem you are working on?
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P
paul 9:27 AM
I don't know if HD is working again this am/27th
[Data on Sandy Heath seems inconsistant the map had not listed Sandy Heath as having issues
Transmitters | free and easy for 21 years
]
I'm incredulous Sandy Heath do not provide more detail on when (day+time)services will be impacted, so that customers can rule out other causes (like 5g) if they have issues.
Their weekly pixelation+flickering messages have been running for months.
I had already checked the restoretv link post-code checker and had no messages about 5g
Paul
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paul 9:35 AM
Radio and Television Investigation Service site actually shows a specific fault on sandy heath
Check for transmitter faults | RTIS
"
TIMESTAMP MULTIPLEX STATUS
From 8:27am on 27th Nov 2023 BBC B HD Poor quality due to a fault
"
I wasn't aware of this site before
Paul
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L
Luke Bellamy9:57 AM
I'm based near Hertford and our freeview signal comes from Sandy Heath (no idea why!). The HD channels have been unwatchable since last week.
Did some digging over the weekend and found that all channels broadcast on MUX BBCB/ Ch21+ have the problem. Signal Power and Signal Quality are both 100% on this channel.
There is obviously a problem, but the general lack of information around the issue and timeframe to fix is unacceptable.
Given the message here, maybe everyone using Sandy Heath has this problem.
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C
Chris.SE1:26 PM
paul : And others
As you can see the BBC report says -
From 8:27am to 9:15am on 27th Nov 2023 BBC B HD Poor quality due to a fault
NOTE - 8.27 to 9.15am on 27th Nov 2023 - That's TODAY. There was no report there yesterday, it's one of the places I regularly check to see if the BBC have made any reports.
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C
Chris.SE1:32 PM
Luke Bellamy:
It certainly seems that it was a widespread issue judging by the information now available. I am rather surprised that the BBC were that slow in identifying it as a fault rather than anything due to the planned engineering, especially as it's a main transmitter and all the monitoring that they have.
Perhaps it was just a bad day!
You mention that you don't know why your signal comes from Sandy Heath. If you provide a full postcode, we can check your predicted reception to see which transmitters (if more than one) you may get and which may give you the best reception.
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Chris.SE1:40 PM
S bresland: Gordon Durrant: Paul: Nigel: Tom:
Unfortunately, as I've posted quite a few times before, and it's very frustrating on a number of occasions for many -
Arqiva, who are the company responsible for the great majority if transmitters in the UK, never give any details of what the work entails or how long it will last especially as some of it may be weather dependent which means delays can happen as you can't climb masts, service antennae, cables, guy ropes, etc when weather is unsuitable.
Just also worth noting, that it's a good 10 years since DSO and many transmitters will have needed extensive maintenance etc to ensure they continue to provide reliable transmission during the worst of the weather conditions we may see, etc.
Sandy Heath has had Planned Engineering for several weeks now, one assumes that quite a lot of maintenance and possible repair work has been needed.
Having said that, most of the main transmitters in the UK have had extended periods of Planned Engineering this year.
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Wednesday, 3 January 2024
G
Giovanni Maiello9:56 PM
I can't pick up 5Action anymore, and some other channels. I'm based in Cranfield, Bedfordshire. Does anyone know what's going on?
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Thursday, 4 January 2024
C
Chris.SE4:15 AM
Giovanni Maiello:
The transmitter isn't currently listed for Planned Engineering and I can't find any currently listed faults but 5Action is on the SDN multiplex and finding fault reports from COM multiplexes can be like getting blood from a stone!
How long have you had the problem?
Are the other missing channels also on the SDN/COM4 multiplex?
For which TV Channels are carried on which multiplex, see
Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview
As you haven't given a full postcode, we can't check your predicted reception for the SDN or other multiplexes, or whether you might be vulnerable to interference from a new/upgraded mobile mast now using 700MHz, if so you could be entitled to a free Filter.
Do check in your TV Tuning section that you are correctly tuned to Sandy Heath's UHF channels, as you may receive other weaker signals from another transmitter which often disappear as the weather changes.
They are C27, C24, C21, C33, C36, & C48 that's in multiplex order -
BBCA/PSB1, D3&4/PSB2, BBCB HD/PSB3, SDN/COM4, ArqA/COM5, ArqB/COM6
If you can normally get the Local multiplex from Madingley, it's on C35.
If you provide a full postcode, we should be able to advise further.
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