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 19/05/2025 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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Tuesday, 4 March 2025
O
Owen4:11 AM
Chris,
Thank you for your update 'correction' over this.
Despite the 700MHz clearance apparently being completed by Sep 2020 - So max frequency that should have been used was 694MHz (Ch.48) - it seems COM7 etc still carried-on, operating on channels above 48, on some transmitters after this.
However, I've now found out that this apparently finally-ended in June 2022.
Although, strangely, group T aerials are still being sold by many DIY places
- with them only stocking that (originally 'universal' group replacement for group W) group T.
And, even more strangely, some aerial manufacturers still appear to be making group T aerials (as well as group K), such as: 48 Element F-Type High Gain Aerial Group T | Blake Aerials - Blake UK
So it seems no-one has told them there's now no point in having a Group T aerial!
And in-fact it could be much worse than using a group K one (of which some have Low Pass Filters to reject signals > Ch.48), as you could then be picking-up more 5G interferrence in future!
Therefore, it looks like getting a decent Group K aerial, and hopefully that will improve things, if it help to reject unwanted frequencies, and also hopefully the in-band performance on a bit-narrower band should be flatter / more likely to be better directivity and less pick-up from the sides at band edges.
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C
Chris.SE6:46 AM
Owen:
I think you'll find that all the aerial manufacturers are well aware of the fact that Group T or W aerials are no longer required, only Group A or K are needed. Even Group B is a bad idea as most of them go above C48.
Most manufacturers and suppliers will have a stock of W, T and B to get rid of, as no doubt will many retailers and installers! I doubt any can "afford" to scrap stock.
It's also likely that some manufacturers won't have "redesigned" Group K aerials for all their models as this obviously costs money and in the current economic climate they likely won't be rushing to do it!
As far as the 700MHz Clearance goes, it was well publicised by Freeview and DUK (as well as others) that COMs 7&8 would continue on UHF C55 & C56 until June 2022 on those main transmitters that were continuing to carry them (not all were). However COM8 closed in June 2020 for commercial reasons - the drop in advertising revenue affecting broadcasters during the Covid-19 pandemic. All that information was posted many times around this site on relevant transmitter pages by myself and a few others.
As far as anyone with an existing W, T or B aerial (and even possibly A or K in worst cases) who starts getting interference issues from new/upgraded phone masts, they can get Free Filters from Restore TV.
If you want a flatter gain response then a log periodic would be the best BUT you need a good enough signal as they can't give the gain that some of the very high gain yagis can give.
The answer is to check the manufacturer's gain curves before you buy (IF they actually have one, if not, go to another manufacturer if it's that important).
Oh, and just to clarify my remark about Dallington Park, it was just a suggestion to see of you could get enough signal off the BACK of your Sandy aerial (probably not) IF you were suffering interference on the Sandy PSBs (By the way, it's listed by OFCOM as 50W).
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