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 25/11/2024 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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Sunday, 13 May 2012
D
Davdi12:38 PM
I live in Peterborough. Before the re-tune IO got ITV3 and the other channels really well on 31. After re-tune to c51 nothing. I thought it was supposed to improve signal reception.
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J
jb381:14 PM
Davdi: Carry out a "factory reset" on your TV or box before carrying out an auto-tune, as the SDN multiplex on Ch51 is being received at not far off 100% strength in the Stamford area as I have just checked it.
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L
Lisa6:34 PM
Hi jb38
many thanks for your quick response and advice. I have done everything you have suggested including the 'factory default' re-set, another auto-tune and have also tried to manually re-tune channel 51 which didn't work at all, therefore, unfortunately I am still missing my 4 channels that I had previously - based on your advice, even IF I did get ITV3 back, I am still also missing 5*, 5USA and Challenge. This is getting soooo frustrating now, especially when things get changed that are 'supposed' to be an improvement. :-(
Any further help or advice you are able to give me would be very greatly appreciated. My TV is a SAMSUNG. Many thanks.
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J
jb388:25 PM
Lisa: If you carried out a "factory default" before re-tuning then thats a bit odd as starting afresh generally cures problems such as yours, and of course when you mention Challenge then that brings another mux into the equation as its on mux Ch52 and not Ch51 that ITV3 / 5* and 5USA operate on.
However, to enable me to know if you are receiving any of these two muxes plus an additional can you receive the following programmes: EPG11-Pick TV / EPG19-Dave / EPG27 ITV2+1 / EPG38-Quest / EPG12-Yesterday / EPG24-ITV4?
Maybe along with the answer you could also provide the model number of the Samsung you have plus a post code, or at least on from nearby (a shop / post office etc) as I cannot assess the signal levels expected in your area without this knowledge.
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M
mike,9:12 PM
Northampton
I am having similar problems to Lisa. I live to south of northampton and am targeted at Sandy Heath transmitter. Reception in this area has never been great but is significantly worse since retune was required. I am getting no signal or poor reception on ITV3 (10), Pick tv (11), Dave (19 now much worse), E4+1 (29) Price drop (37), Gem tv (43), CH5+1 (44) Challenge (46) and food net (49). I have done a reset to purge the memory and auto retune and still have problems. TV is a samsung UE32B6000.
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mike,'s: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
mike,9:45 PM
Northampton
Just to confirm aerial position and type, because of historically poor reception aerial is a large quadra pole on top of a 3m mast on top of chimney.
Perfectly adequate until latest changes.
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mike,'s: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
L
Lisa10:40 PM
Northampton
Thanks again jb38.
Ok here goes - I can still receive Pick TV (11) and Dave (19) - both crystal clear as always, however, I can no longer get Yesterday (12) nor ITV4 (24) and get a message saying 'serivce not available', and I no longer even have a Channel 27 for ITV2+1 nor Channel 38 for Quest - again, all of these I previously received and watched regularly prior to 9th May.
Apologies, I confused Challenge on 46 with Quest! - I CAN still get Challenge but not Quest.
Of course, sorry - my postcode is NN5 6YE and TV model number is a Samsung LE32B551A.
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Lisa's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 14 May 2012
C
Clive Field1:46 PM
I live in Great Stukeley, just north of Huntingdon. All of the 4 of the HD programmes that should reside on C21+ (474.2MHz)are now missing (Mon 14 May). My HUMAX box detects no signal for either standard Freeview of Freeview HD on Ch21 or Ch21+. [All worked fine prior to May 2012 retune].
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Clive Field: My understanding of the Humax HD machines is that when you manually tune, you need to specify the appropriate mode of the signal in question or else it won't find it.
So for HD it needs to be set to DVB-T2, rather than DVB-T which is the mode used for standard definition broadcasts.
I'm not familiar with them, but I should imagine that somewhere near to where you enter the UHF channel number you want to manually tune to, there will be a way of selecting DVB-T or DVB-T2.
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D
Davdi7:49 PM
Tried a factory reset as suggested but still no reception on 51. Used to get channels really well on 31.
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