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
|
|
Monday, 22 July 2013
J
jb389:22 PM
suzy,saxon@yahoo.com: High signal strength but accompanied with erratic quality is in most cases caused by factors outwith a persons household, although a bad joint (corroded) where the coax is terminated into the aerial box can also result in these symptoms being displayed, and so to eliminate any possibility of this being responsible for your problem if at all possible (as I realise sometimes it isnt!) I would try and check with a neighbour to find out if they are also being similarly affected "on the same channels".
I would though check that COM4 and COM5 (the transmitters associated with the programme channels mentioned) are being received from Sandy and not Crystal Palace, Sandy's COM4 being on mux Ch51 and COM5 being on Ch52, checking being relatively easy to do if you are still using the Humax 9150T.
Should though you discover that your neighbours are also experiencing similar problems to yourself (which I suspect will apply) then unfortunately there really isn't anything you can do, as its just one of the pitfalls of digital reception when located in a less than ideal area for reception.
| link to this comment |
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
M
Michael Devine2:12 PM
Milton Keynes
I live in Milton Keynes and have a roof aerial pointing to the Sandy Heath transmitter. Multiplexer channels 24 and 27 are fine; however, about 6 days ago we lost the stations on multiplexer channels 48, 50 and 51.
Can you help with this problem?
| link to this comment |
Michael's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
suzy.saxon@yahoo.com7:43 PM
jb38: Hi Jb yes my neighbour's are also having the same problem :( yes am still using the humax and yes its all from Sandy transmitter, guess i should give up watching tv lol, as its always the stations i watch the most that are effected, am not into soaps etc so very seldon watch ch1 to ch5 which seem fine, humax says its the aerial ( ofcourse they would ) but ive had it all checked out its fine but doesnt solve my problem
| link to this comment |
S
suzy7:47 PM
oh and ive checked the ch it says 59 ??? freq 778000 if thats a help
| link to this comment |
J
jb3811:14 PM
suzy: If your Humax has stored C59 then that's COM5 from Oxford, programmes on this mux being Pick TV / Dave / Sky news etc.
This has likely happened during the last auto-tune you carried out, Sandy's C52 having been by-passed because it was being received at a very low level and where the next channel in line was stored which was Oxfords C59, Oxfords HD channel on C57 being ignored by your non HD box.
Even although the programmes on C59 are basically the same as C52 you should really be using C52, and so go into the channel edit facility and delete (11) Pick TV (also Dave 12) and follow this buy going into the tuning menu / manual tune and selecting C52, but "before" pressing search make a note of the strength / quality being indicated just in case its still very low, because if it is searching for the channel could well result in Pick TV & Dave not being seen in the programme guide.
The above method is really a short cut that sometimes works on Humax boxes, as by rights you should really scrub everything stored then manually tune in each of Sandy's mux channels one at a time.
Channels concerned being : 27 - 24 - 51 - 52 - 48.
As far as reception is concerned, as you have now managed to confirm that your neighbours are also being similarly affected then needless to say your problems are being caused by factors that are totally outwith your control, and so you have no real option but to wait and hope the situation does not take too long to settle down again.
| link to this comment |
Wednesday, 24 July 2013
S
suzy6:35 PM
jb38: i scrubbed the stations, did a retune with out the aerial in and cleared everything, ch52 wont pick up anything at all, probably why it keeps going to ch59 :( signal quality on ch52 zero strength is 65% on ch 59 the quality jumps from zero to 60 to up to 100 the strength is anything from 66 /67 % picture still breaks up and says things like this station is scrambled/blocked or no or bad signal
| link to this comment |
J
jb388:21 PM
suzy: The reception of Ch52 is known to be problematic in certain since early last year, and indeed is only received by myself located in the Stamford area at a very low and erratic level to the extent of being non existent for much of the time, and yet Sandy's other muxes are indicating a stable signal of around 80% strength / 100% quality.
Needless to say there is nothing that can be done about the situation, which by me having carried out signal checks at various points to the East and West of my area suggesting that the problem is caused a notch in the masts radiation pattern.
| link to this comment |
Thursday, 25 July 2013
S
suzy5:59 PM
jb38: thanks Jb glad i know nothing can be done, i will give up trying lol
| link to this comment |
J
jb386:15 PM
suzy: Yes! as you would be flogging the proverbial dead horse by wasting time trying to find a solution to something that is outwith your control, and although in situations such as yours satellite (Freesat) would normally be the answer I think I recall you having mentioned in the past that this is mode is not an option for financial reasons.
| link to this comment |
Saturday, 27 July 2013
B
Barry10:54 PM
I have had no television signal today and when I retune I only get 8 channels and none of them are BBC help please',! It's been getting worse over the last 3 to 4 weeks. I even swapped my digibox thinking it may be that but it's still the same. I live in Earls Barton.
| link to this comment |
Select more comments
Your comment please