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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter._______
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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Friday, 29 June 2012
C
chris davies5:23 PM
Can we now take it Sandy Heath is transmitting on it's final frequencies, power and aerial, i.e. now more changes so it would be safe to assume this is a good point to set up an aerial and receiver.
It seems odd there was no engineering work prior to the transitional aerial change over.
Chris
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Saturday, 30 June 2012
T
Tim7:06 PM
Radlett
Just as a matter of interest since Sandy Heath has stopped the use of the transitional aerial I can now receive Anglia and Merdian region programming,also helped by the channel change and power increase from Bluebell Hill, my aerial is pointing at Crystal Palace which is roughly in the direction of Bluebell Hill but is about 45 degrees out of alinement from Sandy, both signals are stable
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Tim's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 2 July 2012
M
Mark Fletcher7:11 PM
Halifax
Chris Davies.Yes should be the answer to your question,but come 2020 if the plan to clear the 700mhz frequencies does take effect then the COM multiplexes on Sandy Heath either within group B or group C/D frequencies will have to relocate elsewhere.As the 2020 scenario is not yet known for Sandy Heath main transmitter (see above this page) there is a likelyhood that Sandy Heath may revert back to an all group A or possibly a group K mast,so the possibility of changing group W wideband aerials to group A aerials once again come 2020 if the 700mhz band is cleared and Sandy Heath were to revert to an all group A mast once more will cause grief and consternation come that time.But then again Sandy Heath may instead become a semi-wideband group K transmitter by then,and a good quality group K aerial (grey tipped) even working right down to frequency 55 (for either Yagi 18K or X-Beam 16K in poor/marginal areas is the new future proof wideband aerial that has a higher gain on group A frequencies than the group W widebands,though group A aerials have higher gain than group K aerials,and even higher still than group W widebands.
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Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 4 July 2012
S
steve Nelson4:27 PM
Bishop's Stortford
Mark Fletcher: I have freeview working in three rooms via RF2 output on sky box linked to to an RF amplifier, this also enables me to control sky in other rooms using a "TV Link".
Two of the tv's have built in freeview and are working fine. The third one which is analogue only and I have a scart mini freeview box and on approx the 20th June I couldn't get BBC1 BBC2 ITV1 CHANNEL 4 AND 5 amongst others, also the BBC radio stations disapeared, I got "no signal" after a few days the programmes came back, albiet with a pixalated picture. They have now disapeared again.
I do however get most of the other commercial TV and radio stations crystal clear.
The signal strength today on the scart decoder was approx 67% and the quality was between 30 and 39 on the missing channels and upto 97% on the ok channels.
I am using the Sandy Heath transmitter, my post code is CM22 6.
Is there a simple answer to my problem ?
With Thanks
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steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mark Fletcher5:39 PM
Halifax
Steve Nelson.Bishop Stortford,CM22 6AY.
From what you stated it appears you lost both the BBCA and D3+4 multiplexes from Sandy Heath on frequencies 27 and 24 respectively.One possibility here would be to reset your affected appliance as such by first unplugging from the electric socket for over one minute then replug back in,now unplug the aerial or an aerial connector lead (if this applies) from your affected mini freeview box and perform an automatic scan from start to finish,the result it will find zero channels but clears the previous memory of the affected mini-freeview box as such.Now once this stage has been completed replug the aerial or aerial connector lead (if this applies) back into the affected box as such,and this time perform if your affected box allows it a manual scan of the Sandy Heath multiplexes.BBCA on frequency 27,D3+4 on frequency 24,BBCB (HD) on frequency 21 if your affected box is a Freeview HD or Freeview +HD type,SDN on frequency 51,ArqA on frequency 52,ArqB on frequency 48.Hopefully this should work.
But if your affected box does not perform manual scanning then instead perform automatic scan instead,it should also work.
However if all the above fails,one scenario is to bypass the affected set-top box from the analogue TV you indicated earlier and onto one of the two built in freeview TV's you have elsewhere preferably one with a direct aerial feed,then rescan preferably manual scanning if this allows,if not then just automatic scan instead and monitor the situation.After this return the affected box back to the analogue TV then assess the situation,it should now hopefully work.
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Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 7 July 2012
N
Nigel J5:07 AM
Wisbech
Since the beginning of July 2012, CH27 on Sandy Heath has produced weak and poor quality signals. especially during the day. All other mux channels are producing 10/10 signals.
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Nigel's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
P
Patrick11:47 AM
Northampton
Weak or no signal message coming up on both of my tv's! Randomly showed up last night. Unplugged everything and rescanned and it can't find any tv channels, I live in a block of flats so no idea if it's happened to anyone else! I live in NN1, any ideas what the problem could be? Thanks, Patrick
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Patrick's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
P
Patrick11:50 AM
Northampton
On top of my last message! Both have freeview built in....thanks, Patrick
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Patrick's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
KMJ,Derby12:17 PM
Patrick: The BBC status report for Sandy Heath shows no problems. It is likely that there is a fault with the communal aerial which supplies your flat, possibly due to the wet weather that has been experienced. Check with your neighbours to see if they are also having problems. If they are, contact your landlord or building management company to have the aerial checked.
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Friday, 13 July 2012
J
JVO9:36 AM
Hi. Since my last message had a period of poor reception for C52 but for the last few days been good yet find I am back to the situation of no stations detected for C48 ?
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