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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
Wednesday, 1 January 2020
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:10 PM

Nigel Johnson:

It is highly unlikely that any engineering work will be postponed merely because of high pressure. There has been no change in the occurrance of temperature inversions related to 'Global Warming', and no increase is envisage in the future.


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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Thursday, 2 January 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:24 AM

Nigel Johnson:

MikeP has already commented about tropospheric ducting. The only thing I would add is the tropospheric propagation conditions have been unusually strong for the time of year, even in summer we rarely see it as strong as this. Have you not noticed how the weather has been unusually warm? But also note that high pressure doesn't mean that temperature inversion also occurs.

In general, the only time engineering work gets postponed is where engineers need to climb/work on a mast, generally for antenna work and the weather is too bad to do so. No antenna work is likely to be needed as that was completed some considerable time ago.
There is only one change at Sandy Heath on the 12th Feb. when the SDN/COM4 multiplex moves from UHF C51 to C33, there are no power changes.
If you can do manual retunes/scans then you would probably get away with just doing so for C33 if conditions were such that you might lose other multiplexes.

It's also worth remembering that frequency allocation is subject to International Agreements primarily through the ITU. Then within that there is the European Radio Spectrum Policy and The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) which has representatives from member countries. They carry out studies and other activities to harmonise the use of the radio spectrum in Europe, and have supporting bodies such as the ECC & ECO also the Radio Spectrum Committee (RSC). Recommendations/decisions are made and this usually results in EU level legislation. EU Member States who have representatives on the various bodies, manage the radio spectrum in their national responsibilities, in the case of the UK this is OFCOM.
The particular channel allocations, powers and radiation patterns at each transmitter results from studies and agreements with neighbouring countries to ensure little chance of interference with others transmitters using those particular frequencies. (I have so far only come across one case in the UK of what I would regard as a cock-up & that affects only a small area).

The squeezing of Freeview channels closer together, as you put it, is unlikely to have any significant effect. With the sort of propagation usually seen, interference usually comes from greater distances, eg. Yorkshire transmissions being received on the South Coast/Isle of Wight. Channel sharing of transmitters that sort of distance apart has always been the case. In the old B&W 405 line analogue days, on one occasion I recall receiving pictures from Eastern Europe ! and we used to talk about "Continental Interference". So that should give you some idea about the potential effects of such unusual propagation.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 12 February 2020
N
Nigel Johnson
8:29 PM

After the refund of Sandy Heath today, all channels report stronger signals and better quality( 10 out of 10 for both signal and quality), apart from channel 35 which is signal 6 out of 10 and quality of 4 out of 10. Most of the time this is unwatchable.
My location is in the Wisbech area.

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Nigel Johnson's 16 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:17 PM

Nigel Johnson:

Not certain where you are getting C35 from, but it is not transmitted from Sandy Heath.
Sandy Heaths channels are C27, C24, C21, C33, C36, C48, C55, C56 in the order PSBs1-3, COMs4-8.
If C35 is as I suspect a Local multiplex from Cambridge from the Madingley Light transmitter, then you are doing quite well to pick it up. There was a slight power increase on that Local multiplex last week, but it is still low power at 3.2kW.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Thursday, 13 February 2020
N
Nigel Johnson
4:28 PM

Chris.SE: I was surprised to see C35. I assumed there was an error on the list of sandy heath channel frequencies.
I am interested in C35 because it is transmitting services not on the other sandy channels, such as Sony movies classic.
By the way in my last post, auto spell corrector managed to turn "retune" into "refund". Maybe this is appreciate, comment refering to the TV license and the inability to access all the Freeview channel services..

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Nigel Johnson's 2 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:51 PM

Nigel Johnson:

For a list of which channels are on which mux, see Channel listings | Freeview

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Thursday, 20 February 2020
F
Freddie Archer
4:57 PM

I pickup C35 from Madingly, very well in Brandon, Suffolk.
An unexpected extra!!

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Freddie Archer's 4 posts GB flag
Sunday, 29 March 2020
M
margaret swannack
2:16 PM
Wellingborough

why in this troubled time can you not bring back what used to be channells 51 & 52. NN9 5yt

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margaret swannack's 2 posts GB flag
margaret's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:56 PM

margaret swannack: If you're referring to the former True channels, which were rebranded as Sony, the reduction in coverage was a decision taken by the broadcaster. It is only Sony who can decide to increase the coverage of their channels again, which would require paying for capacity on a multiplex with wider coverage (if there is even any space available) and technical changes which would require many viewers to retune in order to receive the channels (such changes are unlikely to be made during the current public health crisis). In short, the chances of that happening are probably very low right now.

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StevensOnln1's 3,605 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:40 PM

margaret swannack:

I expect you mean 60 &61, 50 & 51 are NI channels. It was explained to you back in September in response to your post then, that unless you lived near the Manchester area and could receive the Manchester multiplexes then you wouldn't be able to get those channels.

Sony renamed and reorganised most of their channels last September and moved many to different multiplexes, that was/is the broadcaster's choice (this is an independent help site). To see which channels are on which multiplexes, see Channel listings | Freeview

StevensOnln1 has explained the commercial implications. To pursue this you are best trying to contact Sony, see Sony Movies UK | and towards the bottom of the page you'll find many ways of reaching them.


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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
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