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, 8 August 2011
M
MickO9:54 PM
Milton Keynes
So there will be a need to retune for Sandy Heath...
31 Aug 2011
15 Sep 2011
23 Nov 2011
09 May 2012?
And the final National retune day is?
Oh, and I saw somewhere, but can't find it, at what date do the rest of the Mux's go high power? I get enough RF down the co-ax to split/2 and then split/4, except I'm still having to use an amp for the lower power mux's, as they are borderline.
regards,
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MickO's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick10:56 PM
MickO: There is no final national retune day. You will have to retune from time to time as services come and go from the multiplexes, but those dates are all that are planned in terms of multiplexes moving to different frequencies.
ArqB will move to final channel and final power level on 14 September.
ArqA moves to final channel and final power on 23 November.
SDN moves to its final channel and final power level on 9 May 2012.
The vertical beam tilt on the main antenna carrying the PSB multiplexes will be adjusted, to remove the restriction to the south-west, on 27 June 2012. For people further away from the transmitter, in the south-west of the coverage area, this will increase signal levels, although technically the transmitter power isn't increased and nor is the transmitting aerial's gain.
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Wednesday, 10 August 2011
J
joe3:12 AM
Hi mike, the problem is nothing to do with the crystal palce transmitter, we have retuned all four sets multiple times in in the past month and are definitely receiving the signal from sandy heath (cambs & beds) on our sets? .
our aerial is also fairly new ( 3 years Max) , I installed this myself and we got great signal up until around 2/3 months ago, I have also been on the roof & removed the aerial to check for damage and there's no problem with it.
I have purchased some new cable and we will rewire the whole house to see if the cable is the problem..
i'll update you if we don't solve the issue
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Thursday, 18 August 2011
M
Mark8:26 AM
We have received a message on one channel saying that we need to restart and re-tune all channels before 31st August. The message does not appear on all channels so I'm wondering if this is incorrect, or that we whether do need to re tune all our TV'S???
We have a new external aerial
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Mark: Bit hard to say without a full postcode, but if you are getting messages about retuning then you will be using Waltham that completes switchover on 31st August, so you must retune ON that date, not before.
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Saturday, 20 August 2011
J
John Fuller10:50 PM
Ely
Aerial is on a pole as we live in bungalow.
I have discovered that ARQb will move to final allocation and full strenth on 14/09/2011.
We will see what happens then. Thank you for any help you may offer
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John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 22 August 2011
rickety
6:40 PM
6:40 PM
I have a newish Panasonic HD TV with Freeview built in and have good reception from Sandy Heath which is near to me (postcode MK45)
I have done your 'Freeview reset procedure' but there are no HD channels listed (channels between 49 and 70 are blank) Is there something I've missed ? This TV also has Freesat and I can get 5 x HD channels via the dish so it's not vital but I am of the 'belts and braces' brigade and I am also curious!
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J
jb389:38 PM
rickety: You could be as near as 12 miles from Sandy Heath, and as such be suffering from signal overloading problems as Panasonic tuners are very sensitive.
You haven't mentioned anything about your aerial, but should you have any type of booster fitted you must remove it, however if you don't, then you will likely have to purchase a simple attenuator to insert between your aerial connection and the TV socket. (attenuators only being a few pounds)
Maybe you could mention what model of Panasonic your TV is?
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rickety
10:59 PM
10:59 PM
Thanks for that jb38. I live in a park home so the aerial is only 10 feet off the ground
and is a basic type without any fancy 'spoilers' and has no booster. It hadn't occured to me that the signal might be too strong but I'll plug in a cheap indoor aerial and try a reset as per your procedure. If that's no good I'll get an attenuator. The tv model is TX-L32V10B with Freeview and Freesat built in.
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Tuesday, 23 August 2011
A
Adam B10:23 AM
Dunstable
rickety: Your TV is "HD Ready". That means it is capable of displaying a full HD picture from a source such as a SKY HD box or a Freeview HD settop box. It does not have a DVB-T2 tuner (Freeview HD), and therefore it cannot, by itself, receive a freeview HD signal from the transmitter.
Hope this helps,
Adam.
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Adam's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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