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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.

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 25/03/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


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.

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),

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 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -0.2dB
C36 (594.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -0.2dB
C48 (690.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 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
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

1:49 PM

Jason: In the situation you are in, you should probably go straight for Freesat HD, as you are never predicted to have "excellent" Freeview reception, just "variable" on everything on the commercial multiplexes.

Before Crystal Palace switches over, Sandy will provide the three PSB multiplexes, but at the point of the London switchover, Sandy will no longer provide you the PSB multiplexes and you will have to switch to Crystal Palace.

So I would save your money and get Freesat HD - see Compare Freeview Light and Freesat TV | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Doug B
8:50 AM
Harlow

I have retuned my TV this morning and Mux A, ITV 3 Etc. appears to be missing. Are there any known problems with this. All were ok yesterday.

link to this comment
Doug B's 20 posts GB flag
Doug's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
MickO
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:09 AM
Milton Keynes

ITV3 OK from Sandy.

Might be a good idea to include expected number of channels to be found after tuning, somewhere on the Tx/Mux/CH information pages?

link to this comment
MickO's 26 posts GB flag
MickO's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
Jason
5:05 PM

Thanks for your reply Briantist.
So Freeview, for me, doesn't deliver what it should. I had perfectly good analogue reception before the switchover.
If variable reception equates to minor things like occasional blips or lost frames/pixelisation then I can probably live with that, but if it means some channels/mux's lost completely for a time, as I get now on the weaker mux's due to weather effects, then as you say, freesat will be the only way.
If I remember correctly, not all of the freeview channels are available on freesat?
To be honest after the latest fiasco with Formula1 and Sky I might end up back with them anyway, not that I really want to be giving them money again!
Thanks
Jason.

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Jason's 6 posts GB flag
Thursday, 1 September 2011
M
Mike Williams
12:10 AM

Similar problem to Doug -- lost Mux A today and retuning doesn't find it. TV and PVR both report zero signal on C31 (as per Mike D's post). Mux A was previously okay.

CB7 area.

link to this comment
Mike Williams's 2 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:56 AM

Doug B: Just purely for information purposes, reception of MuxA/SDN (Ch31) is indicated on the trade predictor as being poor at the location given, with this state continuing right through until April 2012 when it then picks up until sometime after June, as then its forecast as dropping back off into the variable category as far ahead as 2013.

Predictors (even trade ones) cannot ever be 100% accurate as they cannot fully cater for local conditions, but Mux A certainly doesn't look promising as its only this Mux on its own that stands out as being unreliable.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Doug B
8:07 AM
Harlow

Thanks Mike & JB38. Tried another retune this morning,but to no avail, have borrowed a meter & no signal from C31. I know I live in a fringe area CM18 but had an adequate signal off MuxA/SDN until 31 Aug 2011. Looks like I may have to do without the delights of MuxA for the forseeable future

link to this comment
Doug B's 20 posts GB flag
Doug's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

8:25 AM

MickO: If there was any consitancy in the way that Freeview boxes report the number of channels, that might be helpful, but some report just TV, some TV+radio, some TV+radio+text, and some have HD and other's don't, some count the encrypted channels (ESPN, Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 2, G.O.L.D) even if they can't show them, and so forth. So you would have to present so many numbers it would be confusing at best.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
S
Steve P
sentiment_satisfiedGold

9:27 AM

I don't recall any of my boxes quoting a total number of channels at all!

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Steve P's 1,173 posts GB flag
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