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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
_______

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
Saturday, 7 July 2012
P
Patrick
11:50 AM
Northampton

On top of my last message! Both have freeview built in....thanks, Patrick

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Patrick's 1 post GB flag
Patrick's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
KMJ,Derby
12:17 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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KMJ,Derby's 4 posts GB flag
Friday, 13 July 2012
J
JVO
9:36 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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JVO's 6 posts GB flag
N
NigelJ
11:05 PM
Wisbech

Further to my last comment on the poor quality of channel 27 from Sandy Heath.

I have noticed that all other Sandy Heath channels can be received without a problem, both with frequencies above and below channel 27. A closer examination of the reported signal strength and quality, indicates that even with a very strong signal, the quality is extremely poor, but only at certain times of the day.
I am beginning to wonder if the channel is subject to external interference.

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NigelJ's 19 posts GB flag
NigelJ's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 14 July 2012
G
G.F.Lewendon
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

11:15 AM

Dear Lisa
Re :- Saturday 2 June 2012 5:28PM.
I do not feel that I can offer any better advice you than you seem to be getting re TV reception. But the following may help re PC crashes.

Yes re installing the PC operating system is both time consuming and tiresome.

All the following need to be prepaid befor any disater hits.

(It took me almost a week to rebuild and install a replacement XP system recently)

as so often you have to plod through various set up options it would be nice if those people that made the OS (M/S windows versions ?-all) could gather all the answers at the beginning then go of and apply the answers given by the user. But it does not stop there, email accounts need setting up with details only the user should know. But there are ways to make it simple the more simple the higher is the price. For email only and is quite cheap will cost price of floppy or space on memory stick / card or CDR / CDRW it should be possible to save / export the details of your email account to either or all of the above storage devices whilst the system is working as required. Then next time it lets you down once Windows is working again you import from the file you have the email account and your back sending emails real fast without messing with account details In Windows XP and Vistor find tools tab in the respective email application next look down new list for accounts open tab select account type then import saved data from file by using import function - it works rather like Save / open as found in file / menu of many word processors. A second option places a image of the hard drive onto CD's or DVD's the product is called "Nortons ghost" you have to stay with PC as image is made so that disc can be loadded into writing drive as required and same is true when using disc set to reload hard drive when system reinstall is felt only way to resolve problem. A copy of ghost may need to be purchased from the Symantic / Nortons web site. If you would like it easyer considder cloneing the hard drive whilst all is well with the system do not wait till theres a problem its to late by then. You might find free soft ware on line else can purchase from web also required is a formatted hard drive as big as the one you have in PC that can be housed / slid into a device* that is connected via a lead to PC whilst in use. Also you will need a blank disc to make into a start up disc that gets whole reload process going and of coures if you download the cloning software it is a good idea to keep a copy on a CD or DVD. Note this is differrent to backing up the hard drive or using system restore but unlike those data back up / repair tools the whole drive as at time of cloneing ends up being reloaded while you enjoy those more interesting things. Cloning will take some hours but once actvated runs without you sitting there. You end up with a working PC with minamal fuss but its not cheap.

*After drive is cloned store drive holding drive rebiuld data somwhere it will not be mistaken as a blank drive. However device can be used to attach diffrent hard drive giving you extra data storage space rather like swapping disc. So its not got to be used exclusiverly for drive cloning.
These devices let you attach a Sata drive via a USB lead even if there is no Sata connection on your PC the data transfer is just a bit slower via USB. Some permit attachment of 2.5" and 3.5" hard drives so are more usfull.

Hope thats helpfull.

Sorry to those who say this is a TV RX help site not a PC help site but as techs converg is it not up to those of us than understand one type of tech to help others that may like to know all the possible options to make life easyer.

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G.F.Lewendon's 29 posts GB flag
G
G.F.Lewendon
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

1:15 PM

Dear NigelJ RE Friday 13 July 2012 11:05PM 12 hours ago Wisbech. Have you had a new neighbour move very close by that's using power line type Home plug adaptors instead of a wireless router with a PC for networking the house LAN. These device's can produce bad harmonics all over the RF spectrum & are bad news if you like to use short wave and in some cases have been known to effect DAB (band 2 FM as used for 405 TV in 30's-40's-50's through till final turn of in I belive late 80's or very early 90's Even extending into the UHF band See on web what the Radio society of Great Britain thinks of them. Nasty bit of kit! Problem is they are aproved standerd issue to customers who use the BT vision system. Its a bit like when astra started up in the late 80's and some manfactures said they could produce cheap 65 cm dia dishes with a beam width of 3 degrees which worked fine untill eutelsat took up its pre standing location option and replaced a weak satellite at 16.0 degrees east of south with a much more powerfull one. The problem not understood by UK MPs as at time astra was positioned at 19.2 degress east of south and if the astra home dish was of by only 0.2 degrees say pushed by strong gust of wind in a gale UK Gold was on same astra transponder downlink frequncy as the Egyptian channel "MBC" from eutelsat 2F2 or was it 2F3 positioned at 16.0 degrees east of south. All the positioning given to eutelsat had been granted by the european govening bodied based on recieving dishes being 90 cm dia or greater and as such had a acceptance angle or beam width less than 3 degrees so had to be much further of alinement for a problem to occur. Affected users would get a kind of co channel interferance as a result... is that why S.E.S Astra is now at 28....ish degrees east of south for digital use in uk ie like any lens the smaller the diameter the wider the beam. using a 1 meter PM dish on a H to H mount I had no problems and could see the weak feeds from a weak eutelsat parked between the above mentioned sats even if tuned to same frequncy and pol as UK gold. Following web address PLT / BT 'Home Plug' / PLN / Radio Interference / PLA / Powerline Telecoms / Broadband By Powerline (BPL) - QRM Part 1 - M0MTJ Will show how annoying these home plug adaptors can be. Whether this could be your problems source is not always easy to prove and or resolve even with much diplomacy. Have read on line of suffers offering to supply kit and instal to replace offending newsance when all other options have been tried. Another thought is has a construction crane poped up in your local area that during daytime because of its size or shape and even position is acting as a reflector at problem frequncy. Third thought :- Have you got two UHF aerials on the mast placed such that both dipoles are in line one above the other in same polarity this can cause problems but would always be presant. Forth thought :- Is person next door new user of sky box which is connected via boxes modulator if a older syle box (It maybe second hand) rather than via skart The modulator can be turned of from a user accesable menue. The cable used if poorly screened might be acting as a low level TX dipole if installed just on other side of wall to your viewing room again diplomacy may help resolve problem Following web address is full of aerial instal tips including my third thought interestingly in the sites section tab for aerial positioning find the table of results and note the effect found at ch 27 they report a 2.0 db signal loss. Quite a informative site. A.T.V (Aerials And Television) TV Aerial, DAB Aerial, FM Aerial. Hope above gets you on road to a cheap and simple answer.

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G.F.Lewendon's 29 posts GB flag
Monday, 16 July 2012
D
David Mann
11:38 AM

Lost BBC1,2 etc as well as CBBC, CBeebies. They were working at about 6am this morning, but are not working now (11:30am). All ITV channels etc are OK. But BBC says there is not problem with Sandy Heath at present. Have tried retuning one of the Freeview boxes, and it has found no BBC channels.

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David Mann's 3 posts GB flag
J
James Osbourn
1:33 PM

I have lost BBC channels as well and a retune has not picked them up, some one please fix this

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James Osbourn's 2 posts EU flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:48 PM

James Osbourn: Checked a few minutes ago and all channels from Sandy are perfectly OK in the Peterborough area.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
J
James Osbourn
10:13 AM

retuned again later day and BBC came back again

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James Osbourn's 2 posts EU flag
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