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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Saturday, 29 October 2011
S
Simon9:27 AM
Forgot to mention (re DAB reception loss in nothampton) I am NN3 postcode area, eastern side of the town. Many thanks anyone who can shed light on this, would be interested to know when reception might return also? :).
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Simon: Can you please provide a full postcode?
Is your DAB radio connected to a rooftop aerial?
If not, whereabouts in the house is the radio located?
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D
Dennis5:17 PM
I have 2 tv's in the house all working OK with freeview, with all channels, I have recently acquired an oldish freeview box a Sony D800U and have tried to set it up in a bedroom with another TV, but the freeview box only picks up 56 channels 36 TV, 14 radio I do not know what the other channels are?, I have checked everything and have done auto channel searches again and again but the Sony box will only pick up the 56 channels, I have tried to manual tune but to no avail, the first channel that it doesn't tune into is channel 15 Film4.
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R
Russ Dring6:17 PM
Peterborough
Dennis, I think that you will find that this box does not tune the freeview channels from transmitters which have undergone "digital switchover". I had one, which worked very well until Sandy Heath changed it's mode of transmission on some multiplexes in April, since then as multiplexes powered up and changed mode it will not decode the signal.
Looks as if you need to invest in a new one, not Sony!
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Russ's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb388:34 PM
Dennis: Have you tried re-setting the box? this done by holding down the power button on front of the box for about 5 seconds or so before releasing, then after the boxes power light turns red again press the power button on the remote control and the box should be back to normal operation.
The other thing that you could try is to carry out a re-scan without the aerial being connected, this blanking out anything stored, then re-connect the aerial and try another auto-tune.
If this still doesn't help your problem then maybe you could state if you receive any of the following, BBC1 / ITV1 / EPG Ch10 -
ITV3 / EPG Ch29 - E4+1 / EPG Ch24 - ITV4.
What Russ has mentioned might well apply, as the technical spec on the manual is very scant and cares not to mention if the box is 8K compatible, however if you can receive BBC1 or ITV1 then it has to be, but from what you have mentioned I cant determine whether or not you are picking up the two main stations.
Another point to note is that the Film4 etc is temporarily on a very much lower power than the main stations, and so if your aerial isn't up to standard you might not pick it up.
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J
jb388:37 PM
Dennis: It would also have been of assistance if you had provided a post code, as this would have enabled your reception possibilities to be checked.
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S
Simon11:55 PM
Northampton
Hi Brian,
Thank you for your reply.
The postcode is NN3 8NG, Weston Favell area, Northampton. Radio is on second floor of house. Has been in exactly same position, aeirial untouched for two years and workd 8 hors a day or so no problem. Suddenyl mid last week, nothing, could not find any station. Tried retuning different rooms, aerial positions etc etc...
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Simon's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Simon11:58 PM
... but nothing made any difference, so bought ao=nother (Pure, Mi). Put it in same place, with aerial in same position as old radio, nothing, could not find a single station simply, no signal. Tried again in different parts of house, aerial positions etc, makes no difference. I am puzzled as to whats changed, we are a pretty major town after all and should receive it pretty constantly i would guess. There have been occasional outages before but only for a matter of hours, never days. Thanks again for your help and speedy response, am hoping i can listen again soon :).
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Sunday, 30 October 2011
S
Simon2:10 PM
Reading this again i see it might be worth mentioning that the radio has worked for two years with the telescopic aerial attached to the set being the only aerial used. This aerial was in the same position all those two years. The new radio we tried (the Pure, Mi model) also had a telescopic aerial, initially we tried this with aerial in exactly same position as worked with older radio. Also tried many room/aerial position variations, makes no difference. Seems something has changed somewhere and seems unlikely its the radio or aerial, unless i should buy another radio just in case? :) Any help appreciated and thanks in advance :).
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Monday, 31 October 2011
S
Simon7:15 PM
To add to this DAB radio tale... the signal is back again though slightly weaker. Whatever changed in the middle of last week has changed again either yesterday or today. Reception is noticeably and definately not quite as good as before the 'event' but it is quite listenable-to. Would still be fascinated to know what happened, if anyone is in-the-know enough to comment, and why its not quite so good anymore afterwards (thought its really quite acceptable with the reduced quality still). Good to have reception back though!
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