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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 15/04/2024 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, 2 September 2012
C
Claire
8:30 PM
Peterborough

I live in Stilton and for the last 2 days have experienced signal loss or signal delays( picture freezes for a second) constantly on ITV, channel 4 & 5. Have tried retuning etc but still the same. Have checked with someone else in my village who I know is on freeview and they're experiencing the same problems. It's starting to make these channels unwatchable with all the jumping etc.

link to this comment
Claire's 2 posts GB flag
Claire's: ...
Monday, 3 September 2012
M
Mrs PD Arendse
8:41 AM

Claire: I live in the Stevenage area and receive Anglia TV. Since Saturday evening September 1st at about 7pm the signal started breaking up and the picture was blocking. This lasted until about 10pm. This problem only affected ITV1. I did a reboot on the TV and Freeview box but this made no difference. Again last night at about 7.50pm the sanme thing again. I know it is not my box of TV as my second TV was the same. I live in a block of flats which has a communual aerial. What can I do as my reception on this channel is unwatchable.

link to this comment
Mrs PD Arendse's 1 post GB flag
R
Russ Dring
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:13 AM
Spalding

I have had similar problems on Sunday evening,with Sandy Heath on ITV1 Ch4 and 5.

Signal strength very good 84%(as normal) quality 100%(as normal) Humax Fox T2, Loewe TV and Panasonic TV.

Could well be a transmission issue on this multiplex as there is no indication that the signal is poor.

link to this comment
Russ Dring's 48 posts GB flag
Russ's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
L
LARRY
1:20 PM
Saffron Walden

I've been experiancing exactly the same problems over the last couple of days BBC 1 is fine, but ITV 1 and channel 4 breaking up. Again signal is 9o% and another tv on a different aerial gives the same prob.

link to this comment
LARRY's 1 post GB flag
LARRY's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
T
Tim
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

6:57 PM
Radlett

Claire, Mrs Arendse, Russ, Larry
I suspect you are all getting reception problems due to high pressure (Inversion effect), I live on the fringe of Sandy Heath and as soon as there is high pressure I lose channels, I notice as the evening progressed on Saturday evening blocks of channels dropped out, There maybe other factors involved in all your reception problems but this is a possible problem you are all having, Others on here maybe able to advise further.


link to this comment
Tim's 32 posts GB flag
Tim's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mark Fletcher
sentiment_satisfiedGold

11:17 PM
Halifax

As Tim from Radlett rightfully stated above inversion effect was the cause as i last night between 9pm-11.45pm was briefly receiving transmissions from BBCA mux on frequency 23 and D3+4 mux on frequency 26 both from Crystal Palace,plus BBCA mux on frequency 27 and D3+4 mux on frequency 24 both from Sandy Heath ironically enough,as well as BBCA mux on frequency 61 and D3+4 mux on frequency 54 both from Waltham,yet losing both the BBCA mux on frequency 22 and D3+4 mux from frequency 25 for a time both from Belmont (now in my 800's list) at my location.

link to this comment
Mark Fletcher's 673 posts GB flag
Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
M
Matt
12:17 PM

The last 2 nights ive been losing channels. Monday night ALL stations went to 'no signal' and were down for hours. Then Tuesday night they were dropping in and out and pixelating.

link to this comment
Matt's 17 posts GB flag
Thursday, 6 September 2012
T
the realist
12:34 PM

Tim: Cd's wont jump or skip, Stains can be removed at 40 degree wash or less, Digital TV will be better than the old UHF/VHF and less liable to atmospherics - all misconceptions designed to facilitate the sale of new products - The transmission footprints are too big we needed Morborne to be set up for peterborough/stamford digital transmissions - Pixilation and signal dropout on the lower arrays will continue as long as the earth refuses to be flat and air pressure/weather systems exist....

link to this comment
the realist's 9 posts GB flag
Saturday, 8 September 2012
T
Tim
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

3:33 AM
Radlett

to the realist,
I really don't need advice on how to do my washing ta,

link to this comment
Tim's 32 posts GB flag
Tim's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
N
NJ
7:09 AM

It is not so much that the frequencies are dropping out because they are too weak, it's more a case of receiving several transmitters on the same frequency. You only need to look at the signal strength to understand that.

It is unfortunate that the best content, namely the BBC channels, is on the frequency with the highest level of interference. I would not miss some of the rubbish on the other MUX frequencies.

link to this comment
NJ's 19 posts GB flag
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