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 04/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
_______
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
|
|
Saturday, 1 January 2011
S
Steve2:51 AM
Hi Brian. I've just ditched SKY for Freeview and have a problem. My loft aerial has never had a signal. Plugged in a booster and picked up several Freeview channels, but not all (missing MUX 2 and B). I also bought a Humax Freeview + recorder, and from the SAME aerial I get a different channel list! MUX 2 and B appear but not MUX 1. I'm also missing a few channels from various MUX's. How can two Freeview devices served by the same aerial have different channel lists?
I want the Humax box to get the full channel list. Clearly my aerial is capable of receiving all the channels. Any clues?
My postcode is Peterborough PE2 and my aerial points to Sandy Heath.
| link to this comment |
G
Greg Dean5:15 PM
We live in the shaddow of the sandy heath transmitter and over the last couple of weeks the reception on certain channels has been getting worse and worse, while some channels are perfect. other local friends have seen the same. This suggests transmitor issues but nothing is reported (as far as I can find out).
Any ideas?
| link to this comment |
M
mawihtec6:20 PM
Stansted
we also have been getting channel break-up over the past couple of weeks it appears to be mostly on the commercial channels (which has been a bit of a bugger when recording with my usb recorder tv only to find i get channel loss part way the the programme is this to do with "atmospheric conditions" i.e "inversion effect" like we had in oct-nov time
| link to this comment |
mawihtec's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Colin B10:52 PM
Northampton
I to have been receiving a good signal and upto 50 channels from the Sandy transmitter until mid October and then i have lost all but mux 1 and B and even the reception is awful. Does nayone know what's going on?
| link to this comment |
Colin's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike, Horton10:59 PM
Northampton
Signal strength problems on Sandy heath transmitter commenced around 16-17th December and have NOT recovered with snow melt. Post Code is NN7 . The aerial is a Quad pole on a 3.5m pole on top of the chimney. There is also a signal booster on the line.
Have completely lost ITV and other channels associated with the LOW rating bands 2 and A. Also sound and guide data on other channels seems to drop out hinting at signal or band width problems.
Surely all these recently posted signal quality problems cannot be everyone's aerials or sets going faulty? The common factor is the Sandy Heath transmitter and what was bad weather. Are you sure there have not been some connections/seals subject to freeze/thaw actions?
| link to this comment |
Mike,'s: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 2 January 2011
W
Wayne Drury10:32 AM
We are in same boat as Mike H above, we have also lost all our MUX 2 and A channel since appx. 28-Dec. Everything until then was fine and crystal clear and we originally put it down to the thick fog in the NN3 area.
However, no fog or snow now and we still have no improvement (i.e. not back to our full 64 channels).
Is there something wrong at Sandy Heath currently? Are they tinkering in prep for April 2011 switchover and accidently turned something off?
| link to this comment |
S
steve4:46 PM
Steve - sounds like your Ae is getting two different signals at similar weak levels, making it a toss-up which the tuners pick. That could change with time, or with the detailed sensitivity of each tuner.
As there seems to be suggestion of local problems suggest trying retuning once others are not having troubles.
A well pointed rooftop Ae would probably solve your problem.
| link to this comment |
C
Carol P8:04 PM
Recently my upstairs TV (using aerial in loft) has lost the commercial channels - after retuning they have come back but won't store. The downstairs TV (using the same aerial from the loft) is absolutely fine - any clues as to what the issue is. Postcode SG6
| link to this comment |
Monday, 3 January 2011
W
Wayne Drury12:51 PM
Northampton
We seem to have all our 102 channels back now. Very wierd, wish there was easy way to produce a signal strength check.
| link to this comment |
Wayne's: mapW's Freeview map terrainW's terrain plot wavesW's frequency data W's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
mawihtec1:18 PM
Stansted
@ Wayne :- i know that our tv's (with inbuilt freeview) and our freeview boxes all show signal strength when doing a scan so i can keep an eye on signal strength when i periodically check for extra channels/rescan
| link to this comment |
mawihtec's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Select more comments
Your comment please