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 22/04/2024 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, 2 August 2012
J
jb3812:11 AM
Suzy: I was beginning to have a sneaking suspicion that the property Google earth was indicating as corresponding to the code provided was possibly inaccurate as the whole row most likely uses the same postcode, however now you have said that you are in the corner position then I fully understand why satellite reception is out of the equation, as that particular position is almost completely shrouded by trees.
Before you give up though there is one final thing you could try and at no cost to yourself provided that you carefully remove it from its packaging without damaging it as it "is" a returnable item, the item in question being a signal booster sold by Argos item number 534 / 4235 and as seen on page 565 of the latest catalogue.
Admittedly I do have my doubts about exactly how effective it will be in your particular situation where fluctuations in the signal level are so commonplace, and I only really suggest trying because its known to be feeding into a box with a stable tuner, i.e: the Humax, but though a device like this can be easily adjusted to keep the signal received running high enough to keep it well away from the lower threshold reception level which should (in theory) help kill off some of the glitches you are experiencing, as boosters "do" serve a purpose albeit that they might well be seen demonized in certain places.
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J
jb3812:26 AM
Sam: Out of interest where exactly are you receiving your main signal from? as on the property with a satellite dish mounted on the chimney stack I can see one aerial pointing at Sandy, another at Waltham, and an FM aerial that "appears" to to facing towards Sutton Coldfield.
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Friday, 3 August 2012
S
Sam9:22 PM
Kettering
It's the Sandy one. BBC news is always look east.
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Sam's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb3811:41 PM
Sam: Well Sandy is located at 28 miles @ 133 degrees from your location whereas with Suzy its 20 miles @ 37 degrees, so your problem isn't necessarily directly linked to Suzy's unless through the possibility of atmospheric conditions applying in both cases.
Of course in cases where reception problems are suspected of being caused by external reasons, although I fully understand peoples reluctance into taking this action but making an enquiry with someone that lives reasonably nearby is really the only way of finding out for certain if the problem being experienced is common to the area, and in your case it would be particularly interesting to know if the resident of the third house up (white door as well as panel above) from the very end pebble dashed one is also having problems with Sandy, as their property appears to be fitted with a Log 40 aerial pointing towards Sandy, these aerials being a good standard to judge reception on whereby if they are having problems then anything will.
By the way a Log 40 aerial does not have a reflector on its rear and tapers inwards towards the front.
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Saturday, 4 August 2012
N
NigelJ1:36 AM
Wisbech
I would be interested to know how many people are experiencing single RF channel interference. i.e. problem receiving all the logical channels on the same RF MUX frequency. I would like to establish if the reported problems are due to weather and time of day related co-channel interference. Should this be the case no amount of adjustment of the receiver or aerial is going to improve the situation.
Such interference is characterised by a high signal strength, which may change rapidly in value, and poor quality as measured by bit error rate.
Symptoms include picture freeze, pixelation and breaks in sound with associated pops and squeaks.
The tuning menu of most TV sets allow the user to check both the signal strength and quality on a scale of 0 to 10. This menu option also displays the frequency and/or RF channel number.
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NigelJ's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 10 August 2012
S
Suzy8:56 PM
jb38: Hi again, i will try a signal booster as this is driving me round the bend, even though i like watching the Olympic ( not much choice really ) i am getting a bot board with it and i miss my programmes from Really, Pick tv etc, but do you think a booster will help ? if it pours down with rain i have a great picture but for the past few days ive had nothing at all on those stations :( i just cant understand the weather causing so much trouble with my viewing . so will get a booster like you said if it doesnt work i can always return it lol thanks again x ( oh cut down a lot of those trees that you see on google, but cant cut down the ones surrounding the property as they are council ) lol
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S
Suzy9:01 PM
Had a look at the signal booster in argos, i will also have to get an aerial extension and if my outside aerial goes into that i will need something to run from that to the digibox i will see how it goes x
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J
jb389:35 PM
Suzy: Yes, give it a try as you have nothing to lose provided that you do not damage the packaging and have kept your receipt safely away.
By the way, test it out by first of all selecting a channel on your TV and checking the results "before" connecting the aerial to the TV via the booster, then once connected via a jumper lead from the boosters output to your TV and the aerial straight into the booster, set the booster at just above zero indication making sure the reception was still as before, if not advance it until it is, then if the channel is suffering from intermittent freezing etc try "slowly" advancing the booster whilst observing the picture for any improvement.
I do have to say though that although these boosters can in many cases make a vast difference to reception its in situations where although the signal level received is maybe dropping off in the evenings resulting in pixelation etc, that although the signal might well be at a lower and critical level its "not" of an erratic nature as far as quality is concerned as virtually nothing can compensate for that, and of course trees are notorious for causing that type of problem.
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Wednesday, 22 August 2012
N
Neil6:36 PM
Hi, I have no signal in Cambridge. Is the transmitter down
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Friday, 24 August 2012
R
reg9:38 AM
after retuning again today 24/08/12 , as do every morning , find reception totally useless . it was much better when on analogue . all system components are fine . why should we have to have satalite to get a decent t.v. service ? we pay full license fee for around 25% of the service . try reporting , but , fulls on deaf ears .
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