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, 17 August 2014
S
sb6:30 PM
Cambridge
I live in central Cambridge and the signal is very good on all channels except C48 (690MHz), which has lower signal strength and quality (as shown by the TV on screen) and often breaks up. This seems to be worse when the weather is bad or windy, but maybe it's just a wrong impression.
For the last couple of days I've also had problems on C32 (562MHz), but maybe this is due to the recent works on the transmitter (Sandy Heath - are they finished?)
Anyone else seeing this, and what could be the cause of these frequency "holes"?
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sb's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 20 August 2014
D
Dave10:37 AM
The reception in south west Milton Keynes has been very poor from Monday 11 August with our our TV reporting less than 50% signal strength with a high BER on our freeview TV's
This did recover last weekend to nearly 100% signal strength and reception was OK but it has now returned to less than 50% is there any issues with the transmitter power level at this time as this problem is affecting all channels
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M
MikeB11:44 AM
Dave: Although there has been some complaints about Sandy Heath (as you can see), there has been no faults reported, nor any work done. Remember that even if 99% of people are getting a perfect service, Sandy Heath serves 920,000 homes, thats over 9000 homes with a problem, even if its in their own home.
Logically, its probably your system. Your signal strength is fluctuating between 100 and less than 50 %. Is there any corrolation with weather? Do you have an indoor or outdoor aerial? Do you have a splitter or booster fitted? And we really need a postcode, so we can see what the signal path is, etc.
However, it sonds like a fault with the system, so trace the signal back from the TV. Could just be a loose aerial lead, but sounds like a partial break, loose connection, corrosion or moisture getting into the system. The moisture getting via a loose or damaged section makes sense, because the signal is degraded, which might be due to water getting into the system during bad weather, but then drying out.
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Thursday, 21 August 2014
J
jb387:39 AM
Dave : In addition to that said by MikeB, although some people are understandably loathe about doing this, but when a number of complaints about reception from Sandy Heath seem to be originating from areas that are not exactly unknown for suffering from reception problems at around this time of the year, its always advisable to check with a neighbour or anyone else residing nearby to find out if the problem being referred to is solely confined to your own installation, or possibly not!
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J
jb388:46 AM
Dave : Although possibly not being applicable to your area, but another reason for having advised checking with others is just in case any newly installed 4G transmitter located not that terribly far away is being tested out, as although a 4G signal can have a greater impact on channels from 60 downwards, its presence will "still" be detected and reacted to irrespective of channel range being received, due to the wideband nature of a Freeview tuner.
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D
Dave8:13 PM
Hi,
I got to the bottom of my problem. It turned out to be a loft distribution amplifier that had failed. Thanks for the advice.
Dave
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M
MikeB9:16 PM
Dave: You found the problem, with is great. One question - without the booster part, whats the signal like?
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J
jb3811:21 PM
Dave : Although its pleasing to know that your problem as apparently been solved by replacing the loft amplifier, however although aerial amplifiers can and do fail, usually caused by their internal power supply having overheated, they are "not" known to be intermittent in this respect, my reason for saying this being down to you having said that the signal returned to about normal at the weekend.
Therefore, if you still have the old amplifier and are able to access where its located? maybe at some point you could try reinstalling it just to verify that it is indeed defective.
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Friday, 22 August 2014
D
Daniel6:08 PM
I'm from Florida I've just moved to the UK only a few years ago and I hate it and your TV system is a joke .... Constant poor signal
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M
MikeB6:42 PM
Daniel: If your getting a poor signal, its generally something to do with your system. If you supply a postcode, it woulld help discover why you might have a poor system.
Believe it or not, reception in the US isn't always perfect either, even without the hurricanes...
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