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

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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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.

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

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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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C27 (522.0MHz)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	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)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	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)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H -0.2dB	C33 (570.0MHz)	291m	DTG-8	170,000W
	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)	289m	DTG-8	170,000W
	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)	289m	DTG-8	170,000W
	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?

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	ITV_waves
C21		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C24		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C27		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C31		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves
C32						com7
C33						SDN
C34						com8
C35						_local
C36						ArqA
C39			C5_waves	C5_waves
C43					_local
C48					ArqB	ArqB
C51_{tv_off}					SDN
C52_{tv_off}					ArqA
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						COM8_{tv_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

Local transmitter maps

Sandy Heath Freeview Sandy Heath DAB Sandy Heath AM/FM Sandy Heath TV region BBC Cambridge Anglia (West micro region)

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

Oct 1959-Feb 2004	Anglia Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

S

Sean
8:49 AM

I am in Bedford. Used to get all . retuned on 4th april: all BBC channels lost. retuned 13th april only itv3 of main channels available. what can i do please

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Sean's 1 post GB flag

G

Greg
9:00 AM

Chanel 67 has not moved yet.09:00.
When might we expect the re-alignment to complete?

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Greg's 2 posts GB flag

C

Charlie
9:43 AM
Northampton

Is it the final ? when do multiplexes A,C and D go to full ?

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Charlie's 2 posts GB flag

Charlie's: C's Freeview map C's terrain plot C's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

9:46 AM

Charlie: NOTE: The commercial multiplexes at will remain on their pre- and powers for a period after digital switchover. SDN will then temporarily move to channel 31 (at 20kW ERP) on 31 Aug 2011, before adopting its final allocation of channel 51 on 18th April 2012. Arqiva A will adopt its final allocation of channel 52 on 23 Nov 2011. Arqiva B will no longer temporarily move to channel 67 (at 20kW ERP) during the third quarter of 2011, it will adopt its final allocation of channel 48 on 14 Sept 2011. NOTE: D3&4 and HD use transitional S1 until 27 June 2012.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

T

TheWoodman
10:43 AM
Cambridge

Rescanned successfully on 3 TVs, 2 digiboxes serving TVs and 1 Elgato EyeTV for the iMac. Each receiving all , all MUXes, all programmes from .

HOWEVER...

We have a DVR (Digihome DTR0207 twin tuner) which worked just fine (well, with the occasional freeze or pixelllation consistent with a loft aerial pre-) until 3-6 months ago. We considered replacing this box but decided to await the mid-April 'final' re- and associated -boost.

After today's re-scan, ALL that it will find is MuxC on .

This PVR is fed by an aerial which does not go through a /splitter. (I have tried it fed from the other loft aerial, through the booster/splitter same performance.) The RF out from the PVR feeds a Freeview TV which re-scanned successfully today, finding all channels, all MUXes, all programmes.

Any suggestions?

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TheWoodman's 11 posts GB flag

TheWoodman's: T's Freeview map T's terrain plot T's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage

C

Colin
10:47 AM
Milton Keynes

Your table above shows Aquiva B on 48 from Wed 13th April 2011. It seems that it is on CH67 from today 13th. I beleive it is at because yesterday I could receive the old BBC MUX B on CH67, today I cannot receive anything. Its seems they are parking ARQ B on 67 for a while according to digitaluk.co.uk

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Colin's 7 posts GB flag

Colin's: C's Freeview map C's terrain plot C's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

11:05 AM

TheWoodman: I would think replacing the DTR0207 with a new + or Freeview+HD box is a good option.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

11:08 AM

Colin: One place it says yes to , another it says no. I am waiting to see which is the correct.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

C

Colin
12:03 PM
Milton Keynes

: digitaluk.co.uk/manualretuning for my postcode MK130QG gives a very useful table of MUXES / Frequencies for current status and next FOUR changes requiring a retune. is so complex!

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Colin's 7 posts GB flag

Colin's: C's Freeview map C's terrain plot C's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage

J

John
12:56 PM

In simple language when will be able to receive all of the currently designated against transmitters A C and D with 20,000W low .
At present only channels avialble are those on PSB1/2/3.

Thank You

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John's 5 posts GB flag

Page 23

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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