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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
Sunday, 29 March 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:47 PM

margaret swannack:

Apologies for the typo in my previous post, I meant 61 & 62, and 51 &52.

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Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
Monday, 6 April 2020
C
Chelsea
6:46 AM

Hi

I am trying to pick up the sandy health transmitter as I'm currently in Northampton one which has no channels! The sandy one says it picks up in Northampton, I have tried to do a manual re tune but no luck is there anyway I can move my Ariel in the loft so that it may catch the Ariel and the a pick up? If so what way would it need to face? Thanks
Chelsea

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Chelsea's 1 post GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:55 AM

Chelsea : We need a full postcode in order to see the predicted reception at your location (Northampton isn't accurate enough) to determine whether Sandy Heath is likely to be receivable and the compass bearing to point your aerial.

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StevensOnln1's 3,606 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 21 April 2020
J
James Benneyworth
10:39 AM

Which Freeview Radio stations should I be able to get from Sandy Heath transmitter. I used to get LBC and Smooth radio until a few days ago, and now when I do a retune my TV is not is not picking them up?

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James Benneyworth's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:34 PM

James Benneyworth:

Those two stations are on the ArqA/COM5 & ArqB/COM6 multiplexes respectively.
Sandy Heath is currently listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible weak signal" so it's probable that you weren't getting those two when you retuned, but then you should also be missing other channels on those multiplexes, see Channel listings | Freeview
But this may have depended on exactly what they were doing at the transmitter.

Sandy Heath's channels are C27, C24, C21, C33, C36, C48, C55, C56 in the order PSBs1-3, COMs4-8.
If you can carry out a manual retune, you can just try C36 & C48 for those two multiplexes, otherwise you may only be able to do an automatic full retune. You may need several attempts if there is still "weak signal", but once you have everything back, it's best not to retune when you lose signals due to weak signals or no signal, it usually just clears the correct tuning.

Also note C35 is a Local multiplex for Cambridge from the Madingley Light transmitter, which you may or may not receive depending on your location.

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Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 5 May 2020
S
Stu P
1:46 PM

I currently can't pick up any of the HD channels on PSB3/BBCB in Harlow from the Sandy Heath Xmitter. Both an onboard TV tuner and an external TV box has the same problem on this mux. Both tuners recognise the channels but it seems to be a particularly weak signal as I only get a few odd pixels showing occasionally. I even added a booster which didn't help.

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Stu P's 2 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:33 PM

Stu P:

Whilst Sandy Heath is one of the main transmitters not currently listed for Planned Engineering, there is no guarantee that the Freeview/DUK list is 100% ! Many others are currently listed with "Possible weak signal".
I can't find any current reports from Freeview or the BBC (in particular) regarding any problems with PSB3 at Sandy Heath, but in the current situation there could be delays in updating the information.
I assume you have checked you are tuning to UHF C21 (see the post before yours) and you have a Group T (or Wideband) aerial (or Group K if COMs 7&8 are not receivable at your location). Parts of Harlow do not necessarily get good reception from Sandy Heath. We'd need a full postcode to check the predicted reception.

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Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
S
Stu P
5:59 PM

Chris.SE: Thanks for your reply. I have a wideband aerial, I did a manual scan on 474MHz DVB-T2 but no luck. Only recently begun having this problem which is only on that mux funnily enough. Maybe Southern Harlow can be patchy.

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Stu P's 2 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 23 June 2020
C
Christopher peachey
11:17 PM

Just lost most of my channels. I am still picking up that's tv and associated channels, the rest are registering no signal. It happened all of a sudden so is not my end. There is something wrong at sandy Heath.

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Christopher peachey's 13 posts GB flag
J
Jane Webb
11:28 PM

Lost all channels suddenly just says no signal

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Jane Webb's 1 post GB flag
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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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