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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Thursday, 22 September 2011
L
Louise9:38 AM
Ely
Hi, can somebody please tell me when all of the channels transmitted from Sandy Heath will be in their final positions and when future retunes are. My postcode is CB6 1JU. Thanks
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Louise's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
A
Al2:40 PM
I have a very similar issue here in Welwyn Garden City. I was getting HD freeview channels just fine on 31 from CP until (I assume) Sandy Heath started broadcasting on 31 too and blew away my HD signal. Through no fault of my own I now have no HD channels, a fairly useless HD PVR box, and Im £30 out of pocket for having an aerial installer come and tell me there was nothing wrong with my kit. Not happy.
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Louise: From above
"The commercial multiplexes at Sandy Heath will remain on their pre-switchover channels 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 temporarily move to channel 67 (at 20kW ERP) at switchover and then it will adopt its final allocation of channel 48 on 14 Sept 2011."
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Al: You will get the HD channels back soon, I can't say when this will be as you didn't provide a full postcode.
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J
jb385:13 PM
Al: Although as Briantist has mentioned a full post code is really required for accuracy, but as you suspect that Mux Ch31 from Sandy is causing you problems (which is most likely) and its on low power, then you should try a manual scan on Mux Ch21 which is Sandy's high powered HD channel.
If you still have HD channels in your EPG then its maybe best to first of all carry out a scan without the aerial connected to blank out the stored channels, then manually tune in Sandy's Mux Ch21, if you get results then you can use "add channels" or "find other channels" (whatever your set calls it) to load the remainder in.
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Friday, 23 September 2011
D
Donald Thomas11:05 AM
Newmarket
Since the beginning of Sept I have lost all BBC channels. Everything was fine before.
Signals on other channels - including signal strength and quality - are fine but I have nothing on 27 - and no amount of manual or automatic returning (on any of our 3 TV's) makes any difference.
I have tried everything suggested - short of completely replacing the aerial and boosters that worked fine before. I am struggling to understand why it has gone progressively from bad to worse
I am probably going to get freesat as I am fed up with this now - but any suggestions, explanation or reassurance would be welcome.
Post Code CB8 9TH
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Donald's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Steve P3:25 PM
DT try REMOVING your boosters.
Digital signals can be too strong as well as too weak.
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J
jb385:09 PM
Donald Thomas: Yes, as SteveP has mentioned try removing your boosters, if thats what they are? and not just splitters which generally only have a mild boosting effect.
If if find that by removing the splitter your reception comes back, remember that you might have to re-scan though if BBC1 is not in the EPG, then you can still use your splitter if you purchase a simple attenuator to place in line with the splitters input from the aerial, provided that its not powering a mast head amp!
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L
Louise9:15 PM
Ely
Does the age of a freeview receiver make any difference at all to signal or reception? Mine is a Bush DFTA11, had it about 5 years.
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Louise's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 24 September 2011
R
Rachel Curtis8:03 AM
Hi since the last upgrade of the sandy heath transmitter we now have very poor reception on a number of channels we have retuned twice. They previously worked well .
Any ideas ?
Thank you
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