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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
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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),

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
Tuesday, 27 November 2018
S
steveP
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:20 AM

i HAVE HAD ABOUT 20 EMAILS NOTIFYING ME OF THIS POST.

link to this comment
steveP's 1,173 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 28 November 2018
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:23 PM

Neil Mellerick:

There is transmitter engineering work this week at Sandy Heath with possible weak signal from time to time.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Friday, 30 November 2018
J
J Knights
1:54 PM

Yet more emails from you - over 20 this time.

link to this comment
J Knights's 12 posts GB flag
Thursday, 27 December 2018
C
Celina Fox
7:18 PM

I come back from three days away, having switched my television off at the power switch and on switching my Panasonic Smart tv back on, cannot now get BBC1 and BBC2 on channels 1 and 2 - the screen says no signal. I have done all the usual things - erasing and auto-retuning channels - but no change. I can get HD on 101 and 102, but why can't I get the standard channel for regional news &c? Why am I paying a licence fee for no standard service?

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Celina Fox's 2 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:19 PM

Celina Fox:

There is no fault at the transmitter so you are paying for a service you would be getting were it not for a problem with your equipment. Please check all your aerial cables and connections, unplug any coaxial plugs/sockets and refit them. Then check what programmes you get. It does not help to have retuned, all that has done is removed all the correctly tuned channels you wanted. You will need to check that each of the multoplexes broadcast from the Sandy Heath transmitter are being received correctly and at what signal strength. The multiplexes are on channels 24, 21, 27, 51, 35, 48, 55 and 56.

As you have not given a full post code, as requested, we cannot check the reception conditions at your location.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Saturday, 29 December 2018
N
Nigel tofield
7:23 PM

Hi, We have been experiencing loss of picture and or sound for the past month at 7pm to 7.30pm every day without fail, does'nt matter what channel, always same time. I have retuned TV and dig recorder , both show 100 % reception. Is there a reason for this regarding s/heath transmitter? Our aerial is sited near roof and our post code is mk64hq.
Please advise.
Many thanks,
Nigel.

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Nigel tofield's 1 post GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:14 PM

Nigel tofield:

Retuning was the worst thing you could do as it will never solve the problem you report.

You need to investigate what equipment comes on and goers off at the times stated. Also ask your neighbours who also use Freeview if they have the same problem. If they don't then the source is likely to be in your property.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 2 January 2019
H
hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

12:10 PM

Nigel. reception should be very good at your location. (see coverage checker) I think if all channels are knocked out it suggests very strong nearby interference . Could be tricky to sort out . Possibly an anti phone signal filter might fix it . But it could be you are very near a phone mast . However check with neighbours to see if they get the same problem . If they don't then I would check your aerial system . You may even need a small attenuator in the aerial lead if the signal is too strong .

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hardy's 137 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:44 PM

Nigel tofield;

As has already been said, this sounds like a problem with interference. It's unclear from your post if it just "starts" at some point between 7pm and 7.30pm, or is present for exactly that period only. Whichever, it's clearly a regular event probably on a timer. The most common things are central heating, hot-water heating (Immersion heaters) etc. Igniters or thermostats may have gone faulty, but external flood lighting is another possibility, nor should you rule out any internal lighting such as fluorescents (compact or otherwise) and I'm afraid some LEDs (non-filamentary types which are the most common) all of which may have developed a fault.

Check the timing of your own electrical equipment, and also see if neighbours are having similar issues. It could be a near neighbour that has the faulty equipment.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Thursday, 3 January 2019
H
hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

9:50 AM

Celine . It is unusual to loose standard signals yet have HD ok. I suspect that your tv is partially tuned to the wrong transmitter . This can happen if youre near several transmitters . The auto tuning might pick the wrong one . You may need to do a manual tune on the UHF channels listed by Mike .

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hardy's 137 posts GB flag
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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.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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