Full Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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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 04/12/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C27 (522.0MHz)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	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)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	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)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H -0.2dB	C33 (570.0MHz)	291m	DTG-8	170,000W
	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, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 35 others
COM5 ArqA	H -0.2dB	C36 (594.0MHz)	289m	DTG-8	170,000W
	Smithsonian Channel, 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 Christmas, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others
COM6 ArqB	H -0.2dB	C48 (690.0MHz)	289m	DTG-8	170,000W
	Quest Red +1, Classic Hits, 12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! christmas mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 83 Together TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 20 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?

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	ITV_waves
C21		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C24		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C27		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C31		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves
C32						com7
C33						SDN
C34						com8
C35						_local
C36						ArqA
C39			C5_waves	C5_waves
C43					_local
C48					ArqB	ArqB
C51_{tv_off}					SDN
C52_{tv_off}					ArqA
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						COM8_{tv_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

Local transmitter maps

Sandy Heath Freeview Sandy Heath DAB Sandy Heath AM/FM Sandy Heath TV region BBC Cambridge Anglia (West micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sandy Heath transmitter area

Oct 1959-Feb 2004	Anglia Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

M

MikeG

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

2:53 PM

Hi Ian,

According to the map you should be beaming SSW to and receiving your signals on 53, 60, 57 (HD if required), 62, 59, 55. No reports of problems with this .

There's a chance that when you Auto retuned you picked up a different transmitter which may account for your weak on some channels.

Do a 'factory reset' on the unit and a Manual Retune to just those channels and all should be well. You may need to refer to your User Guide to do that.

that helps,

Mike, retired Radio & Electronics Eng.

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MikeG's 31 posts GB flag

I

Ian Peel
5:58 PM
Buckingham

Hi MikeG (in the you are picking up)...
Many thanks for your reply. However, all the aerials on my estate in Buckingham point to , more or less the opposite direction. I think is 3 or 4 miles nearer but, because of land mass and buildings, we've all found Sandy Heath to be the stronger . In my case, an engineer measured the signal strength on a couple of occasions. Any other thoughts? Again, many thanks.

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Ian Peel's 5 posts GB flag

Ian's: I's Freeview map I's terrain plot I's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage

M

MikeG

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

10:19 PM

Hi Ian, if you are on you need to do a Manual Tune on 27, 24, 21 (HD if needed), 51, 52, 48.
I'm on Sandy too and there have been no problems that I've noticed, so chances are you've grabbed a few extra wrong channels instead; maybe from off the back of your ; not unusual. that sorts it out.
Mike

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MikeG's 31 posts GB flag

P

phil
8:13 AM
Kettering

MikeG:I have noticed today 25th september real problems on all arials with the yesterdaychannel is there a reason for this.Phil Kettering.

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phil's 3 posts GB flag

phil's: P's Freeview map P's terrain plot P's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage

M

MikeG

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

8:48 AM

Getting Ch19 'Yesterday' OK here Phil, can't think of any reason as they are all high now, unless they're doing maintenance on that mux?

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MikeG's 31 posts GB flag

S

Steve
1:23 PM
Cambridge

Retuned several times yesterday (24th) but my BBC stations are going to 800s and sometimes the ITV/C4 ones are going there too but sometimes to the correct place. Tried a manual retune but that still plonks them in the wrong order... 19LG3000 DTV. I get all the stations just not in the correct place. I never had this problem with retuing before... Any ideas? Oh I tried a full factory reset which also didn't make any difference. Am in CB25.

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Steve's 4 posts GB flag

Steve's: S's Freeview map S's terrain plot S's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage

M

Mick S
2:59 PM

For MikeG: from Mick S.
Thank you for your advice .. it worked!
TA!

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Mick S's 2 posts GB flag

M

MikeG

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

3:18 PM

Steve, can't imagine what's happening. If you do a factory reset and then a Manual tune on those from it should clear out all the old channels and put the correct ones in the correct order.
What TV or PVR are you trying to tune?

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MikeG's 31 posts GB flag

S

Steve
5:33 PM
Cambridge

Hi MikeG

It's an LG model number 19LG3000 which is a 19 inch flat screen TV. Previously everything has been fine at the periodic retunes required but not this time!

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Steve's 4 posts GB flag

Steve's: S's Freeview map S's terrain plot S's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage

S

Sean Fitzgerald
7:37 PM

I have connected a magic eye to a second television to get from my hd box to that tele.its all connected but the is very poor.i believe I have to change the channel but I don't know which channel is best to use in this area.any idea? Mk62py

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Sean Fitzgerald's 1 post GB flag

Page 109

Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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