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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter._______
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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Friday, 20 July 2012
N
NigelJ6:32 AM
Wisbech
NigelJ: The quality problems I have been experiencing with Sandy Heath channel 27 have for the moment spontaneously disappeared. I cannot say if this was due to the switch off of a local interference source, a corrected fault at the Sandy Heath transmitter or changes in atmospheric conditions reducing co-channel interference from some other transmitter.
Th fact that the problem was specific to CH27 and that the signal strength was consistently high, seems to rule out multi-path and fading due to atmospheric conditions, as these effect were unlikely to be restricted to only one MUX transmit frequency and would be associated with changes in signal strength.
I would be interested to know if there are any likely candidates as a source of co-channel interference, since this would mean that similar reductions in signal quality can be expected whenever the weather conditions match those of the past few days/weeks.
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NigelJ's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Spa11:55 AM
My problems with ch27 have disappeared as well (for the time being). I was wrong about it only affecting the receiver on my PC. The quality was so bad on Wed afternoon that all my tvs were breaking up.
It looks to be the same problem as NigelJ is having, which indicates it can't be local interference as Ampthill is a long way from Wisbech. I suspect engineering work on the transmitter. The problem appears to be mainly restricted to during the day.
Other people may not be experiencing the same problem because they probably have much better reception than me. There's a slight hill between me and Sandy Heath, so I have to use an amplifier to boost my signal. This is probably why a slight drop in signal strength/quality on a particular channel may be causing a problem for me but not for most people.
Ch27 is perfect today.
It would be a big help if "Transmitter engineering" posts were a little more detailed.
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Saturday, 21 July 2012
N
NigelJ1:34 AM
Wisbech
NigelJ: After a brief period of good reception of CH27 from Sandy Heath, I am back to the strong signal and unusable quality situation. I am now convinced that the problem is due to co-channel interference from other TV transmitters. In my case, most likely from Crystal Palace.
I can only conclude that during the system planning, an insufficient frequency reuse distance was defined to cope with adverse weather conditions.
If the co-channel interference source is in the direct line of the receiving aerial, there does not appear to much that can be done at the receiver to improve the Cr/Ci ratio.
Maybe a few more frequency channels should have been allocated to DTV and fewer to GSM4 LTE.
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NigelJ's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 27 July 2012
i keep getting no signal/ bad signal / this channel maybe blocked or scrambled on certain stations , Digital UK says i should be receiving my signal from Sandy Heath as my postcode is LU55HR when i check the signal detection it say Oxon & Bucks, its coming from and Digital Uk says there is no such transmitter ?? strength is good but no quality, i have to daily do a rescan to keep trying to pick up a signal so i can view some of my stations or to get the missing ones like Pick tv , Really, etc back again and when i do get them back i keep getting the same messages and if i am luckily enough to get a picture its keeps breaking up, I have had some one out to check my aerial and it cost me £40 to be told everything was fine and i had good signal strength and quality, i can afford to get some one else out and its driving me mad by having to retune, some of the signal detedtions says they are East Yorks & Lincs ! which is way up country from me, am really at a lost, is there anyone can help please
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that should of read i CANT afford to get some one to come out again
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other signal detection am getting is Cambs & Beds , none of my detections are coming from Sandy Heath have check all the station i have
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J
jb388:07 AM
Suzy: Carry out a factory reset on your TV or box to blank out everything already stored, if you do not see a factory reset option take your aerial out and carry out an auto-tune without it, as this will also blank out the channels stored, then once completed go into your TV or boxes "manual" tuning menu and enter Ch24 followed by pressing "search" or "scan" storing the programmes found if not done automatically.
Once you have completed this action do exactly the same with each of the following channels : 24 - 21(only if HD TV or box) - 51 - 52 - 48.
You "may" be able to bypass having to carry out this procedure if after having carried out an auto-tune you had seen a "select area" option popping up when you would have selected "Cambs & Beds" which "is" Sandy, but it depends on the device you are using and Sandy (20 miles / 36 degrees) is indicated as the station giving the best signal.
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K
KMJ,Derby8:36 AM
Suzy: The transmitter identification names were changed to "area" names some time ago so as not to give incorrect information on the signals from relay transmitters. Sandy Heath and dependant relays now show Cambs and Beds, Oxford is Oxon and Bucks and Belmont is East Yorks & Lincs. If your aerial is pointing NNE/NE to Sandy Heath you should receive BBC1 East and ITV1 Anglia at positions 1 and 3 of the channel list. If the aerial is pointing WSW to Oxford then BBC Oxford and Meridian ITV1 should have been stored. After you have established which transmitter you should be receiving, do a manual tune for the correct set of frequencies after first clearing the channel list. SH is C24, C27, C48, C51, C52 plus C21 (HD). Oxford is C53, C60, C55, C59, C62 plus C57 (HD). Note that if you are seeing a signal from Belmont (which the "variable" prediction for C53 and C60 from Oxford suggests is possible when conditions are such, the channels will probably give unreliable reception if stored.
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K
KMJ,Derby8:39 AM
jb38: Sorry, I didn't realise you had already replied until after I had sent my post.
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J
jb3811:29 AM
KMJ,Derby: No problem whatsoever KMJ, as if my memory serves me well I think that I might actually have made that same mistake twice myself involving you having already replied to some ones query, basically caused by me typing out a reply and then going into another screen to double check something, then returning to the previous and posting the reply without checking if the screen had been refreshed in the time away from it.
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