Full Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter
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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 
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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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Monday, 3 January 2011
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
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mawihtec's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
B
Breaking Up Kettering!8:05 PM
Does anyone know when we are going to get a freeview service that works? We had a great service at the start of Christmas period, now rubbish.
Can anyone tell us where to go to complain about the rubbish service we get!?
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F
Frank8:34 PM
I'm in Bishop's Stortford CM23
They're coming t install a Freeview ariel as the Sandy heath is going digital at End of March, however the freeview coveage checker says I'll get no channels whatsoever once the switchover is done - is this true and what's the best option?
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K
KMJ,Derby9:26 PM
Frank: I don't think reception will deteriorate on all transmitters to the extent that you have no channels.I tried a couple of postcodes and Crystal Palace, Sandy Heath and Sudbury all offer full Freeview to various parts of the locality. Basically if you enjoy good analogue reception now you should receive the PSB muxes without problems. The COM muxes could in some areas be affected by signals from other transmitters on the same frequency, however you should be able to receive a useable signal from one of the alternative sites if this became a problem.
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Friday, 7 January 2011
S
SteveM11:41 AM
Northampton
I live in Northampton I believe I am receiving free-view from Sandy Heath, my aerial is certainly pointing in that direction. I appear to get good reception from 3 rooms, bar my bedroom, whereas the "Waltham" dtv has th problem of picture breaking up. This set has always been a problem, is it possible its just a poor TV set? Can you advise what channel/mux I should be receiving for ITV broadcasts as this appears to be the worst out the lot. Sky3 is spot on. Many thanks
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SteveM's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
KMJ,Derby1:42 PM
SteveM: It is quite possible that the tuner in the tv which does not receive Mux2 correctly is not as sensitive as your other receivers. Sometimes expensive PVRs and IDTVs do not work as well as a cheap Freeview box from ASDA. Your tv should be tuned to C45- for Mux2 from Sandy Heath. Remember that after switchover in a few weeks time MuxD3+4 will be 9 times stronger than current Mux2, so should no longer give trouble.
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S
SteveM2:04 PM
Northampton
Many thanks KMJ, much appreciated.
I think I have also answered my own question. I have tried the same aerial socket (non isolated screened) with a cheap 5mtr coax lead to my pc in another room with a usb/dtv dongle - perfect, not a bit of trouble, as with my other tvs/receivers. I think the small Waltham dtv I have, is just poor quality. I had also changed the coax fly lead with no improvement. It will be interesting to see if there is any improvement after the switchover.
Once again, many thanks
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SteveM's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 10 January 2011
A
Ant9:45 AM
I live in Ware and have to use Sandy Heath for Freeview as on side of a hill so cant get Crystal Palace. Have now lost all signal, all channels. Have checked all connections except on the roof at the aerial. Is this to do with engineering? Will I get the use of my TV back?
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Ant: There's no transmission problems or engineering work - I would look at Freeview reception has changed? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .
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A
Ant10:20 AM
Briantist. Thanks for the speedy response. I checked out the link - I appear to have lost all signal, both analogue and digital to both TVs/boxes. Having checked all the internal connections to both digiboxes and TVs I assume that only leaves the roof aerial connection as the likely problem. Oh dear.
Ant
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