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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 04/11/2024 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
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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), 71 That’s 60s,

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 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -0.2dB
C36 (594.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -0.2dB
C48 (690.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 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
Friday, 3 August 2012
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:41 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.

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Saturday, 4 August 2012
N
NigelJ
1:36 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.

link to this comment
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
Friday, 10 August 2012
S
Suzy
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

8:56 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

link to this comment
Suzy's 25 posts GB flag
S
Suzy
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:01 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

link to this comment
Suzy's 25 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:35 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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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
N
Neil
6:36 PM

Hi, I have no signal in Cambridge. Is the transmitter down

link to this comment
Neil's 1 post GB flag
Friday, 24 August 2012
R
reg
9:38 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 .

link to this comment
reg's 1 post GB flag
Sunday, 2 September 2012
C
Claire
8:30 PM
Peterborough

I live in Stilton and for the last 2 days have experienced signal loss or signal delays( picture freezes for a second) constantly on ITV, channel 4 & 5. Have tried retuning etc but still the same. Have checked with someone else in my village who I know is on freeview and they're experiencing the same problems. It's starting to make these channels unwatchable with all the jumping etc.

link to this comment
Claire's 2 posts GB flag
Claire's: ...
Monday, 3 September 2012
M
Mrs PD Arendse
8:41 AM

Claire: I live in the Stevenage area and receive Anglia TV. Since Saturday evening September 1st at about 7pm the signal started breaking up and the picture was blocking. This lasted until about 10pm. This problem only affected ITV1. I did a reboot on the TV and Freeview box but this made no difference. Again last night at about 7.50pm the sanme thing again. I know it is not my box of TV as my second TV was the same. I live in a block of flats which has a communual aerial. What can I do as my reception on this channel is unwatchable.

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Mrs PD Arendse's 1 post GB flag
R
Russ Dring
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:13 AM
Spalding

I have had similar problems on Sunday evening,with Sandy Heath on ITV1 Ch4 and 5.

Signal strength very good 84%(as normal) quality 100%(as normal) Humax Fox T2, Loewe TV and Panasonic TV.

Could well be a transmission issue on this multiplex as there is no indication that the signal is poor.

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Russ Dring's 48 posts GB flag
Russ's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

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