Full Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter
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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, 4 April 2011
K
KMJ,Derby11:10 AM
John: I would select Cambridge and Beds 21 services. I am guessing this is Mux BBCA and the others are MuxB options as you dont say which,if any, other muxes were found and channels stored straight away.
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Mike Dimmick1:21 PM
Reading
John: When the broadcasters make changes to the transmitters, they often add a dot to the end of the region name, so they know that a change has gone through. You probably have one with a dot and one without. I believe the boxes are supposed to ignore this, but not all do.
It also ought to be possible to select top preference and second preference, in case you actually want services from two regions, but again, not all boxes allow this.
What make and model of box do you have? It's worth checking to see if there's been an update that you've missed - particularly if this is a new box but could have been sitting in the shop or warehouse for a while.
The 21 services region is likely to be the BBC A multiplex, while 18 services is likely to be the low power Multiplex B - all services on Mux B are also on BBC A for the next 10 days, except for Sky Sports 1 and 2. On the 13th, Multiplex B closes for good (at Sandy Heath) and is replaced by the HD multiplex.
It may simply be that the box is telling you it's found three different versions of BBC Four, CBeebies, Red Button and the BBC radio stations.
My understanding is that it should also have listed the ITV channels if your signal quality is good enough to receive those. The prediction looks reasonably good - have you had Freeview before? Are you using an outdoor, roof-mounted aerial, or a loft aerial?
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Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Myrvin9:06 PM
Wellingborough
In Wellingborough, we have lost at least BBC1, 2, 3, News. We have updated the box several times. Sometimes the box does not recognise these channels; sometimes they are there but have rubbish reception. Others seem OK.
Digital aerial is on the roof.
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Myrvin's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
P
Peter9:55 AM
Similar Problems down the Nene valley in Irthlngborough, had to do a manual tune on Channel 27 to get it to work on one TV, other worked, but both show very high signal, expect problems is too strong a signal.
If you have an aerial amplifier try turning the gain down or fitting an antenuator.
Unfortunately I also have opposite problem on Channel 67, the signal is barely there, all beit at half decent quality, don't expect much luck when it qoes to 64QAM next week.
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Michael Mann4:50 PM
I recently purchased a Digital Stream 8205 Freeview HD recorder and carried out a complete scan. At the end of the scan I had the option of Cambridge & Beds or East Midlands and natually selected Cambridge & Beds living in east Cambs.
Most programs seem OK except ITV3 which comes with a very weak signal this appears to come from East Midlands on CH 29. During the actual scan I noticed ITV3 also came up on CH43 is this the Cambridge & Beds (Sandy) signal if so how can I tune this in?
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D
Derek9:23 PM
Drop of signal strength on all channels and signial quality down to 35% ish from 9 PM tonight
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Wednesday, 6 April 2011
D
Duncan9:01 AM
Hi,
Reading on this link 2011 switch-overs start today at Sandy Heath, Nottingham | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice it says that Sandy Heath will be an 'oddity' and require a wideband aerial - I have only ever had a Type A aerial, and have had freeview since it changed over from OnDigital - I can receive all channels and have no breakup (I only live approx 15 miles from Sandy Heath itself) - After DSO will I suddenly lose a load of channels - or, as I can receive them all now, will all be okay?
Any advice gratefully received...
Thanks,
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Mike Dimmick9:16 AM
Reading
Duncan: The pre-switchover digital transmissions are all outside Group A - above C38.
There are really a few possibilities. Either you've had a wideband all this time and not known it, some part of the aerial is missing making it pick up outside the designed channel range, or you're close enough to the transmitter that it actually doesn't matter.
If you're getting all the Freeview channels already, you should still be able to get them all after switchover completes.
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Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
D
Duncan9:26 AM
Shefford
Thanks for the quick response Mike :)
It's definitely a Type A aerial, so - I shall consider myself lucky (some fat pigeons have - over the years, bent some of the elements, so I guess I could've just got lucky!!)...
Looking forward to the new HD channels - only one week to go!! :)
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Duncan's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 7 April 2011
C
Chris7:26 PM
I retuned my Sony VTX-D800U a couple of days ago and since then if I select BBC2 I get BBC2 for about 2 seconds and then the program switches to BBC1, yet all the on-screen data continues to show BBC2. Same problem on BBC4; that also switches to BBC1.
A Google search indicates lots of VTX-D800U owners have the same issue. A retune does not solve the problem, so basically I can no longer view BBC2 or BBC4.
Any ideas what's happened and how do I solve it?
Many thanks.
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