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 
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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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Tuesday, 5 November 2013
D
daryel anthony12:08 AM
Sunday woke to no tv channels on 1-9 did a retune and totally gone not even being picked up, see that work is being done on sandy heath transmitter but that was a week ago and no problems have been reported, any ideas? (52.0298,-0.7508)
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Wednesday, 6 November 2013
P
Pete Newton8:28 PM
We've had no BBC channels at all, and numerous others are missing. This has been the situation for nearly 2 weeks. Prior to that, we had all channels for a week, prior to that - the same problem for a week or so.
We have retuned a few times, and always seem to end up with to end up with even less!
Constant problems with reception from this transmitter, but always the BBC channels that are worst affected.
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Saturday, 9 November 2013
T
Termiteman10:29 AM
Cambridge
Live near Cambridge and use Sandy Heath. We have been suffering reception issues for the last two weeks. Anybody know if the engineering works are still ongoing or should I check my aerial following the high winds?
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Termiteman's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
C
Chris Rumsey8:14 PM
Milton Keynes
Sirs,
We live in a notorious part of Bletchley (MK2) I recently changed our aerial and got most if not all channels. Within the last two weeks We have got a breaking up picture for ITV1 and other ITV channels yet the BBC channels are fine and clear. Is the ITV band running at reduced power?
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Chris's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 24 November 2013
M
Margaret Paterson4:39 PM
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes tv cable has been abandoned by Virgin Media which I have always used. I get No channels from my freeview TV.
Can I use an indoor aerial (up to 20db signal gain) and will it be strong enough to pick up a signal from Sandy Heath?
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Margaret's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
MikeB10:35 PM
Margaret Paterson: Your not the first the person to have mentioned this - Can I stop paying Sky and use my satellite receiver to get Freeview ? | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice
The whole history of the thing is slighty bizarre, but there you are. Obviously there is Sky/Freesat, and I assume there is Virgin (!), but Sandy Heath is 35km from you, with a clear signal path. If you click the links by your question, you can see what sort of signal you might get.
On the other hand, indoor aerials are fairly rubbish, and even an amplifier, they are still not that great. They are pretty small, and generally not hign up. However, give its a go. They are not expensive (dont spend more than about £20), and you might get an old aerial from someone.
Ifr it does not work, then you could go the satellite route (Freesat dish to watch/record is about £100, and the cost of a PVR/Sky), or see if you can get a proper aerial.
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Monday, 25 November 2013
J
jb389:16 AM
Margaret Paterson: Considering the fact of you being located at just under 22 miles away from the Sandy transmitter and with the signal path from same being via a mini forest of trees, then I think it very unlikely that any form of "same room" aerial would give satisfactory reception, that is should anything be received in the first place!
However, you can get a rough idea of whether or not anything can be received by connecting a short length of wire (about 6 feet or so) into the aerial socket of whatever you are using then carrying out an auto-tune, the wire aerial referred to preferably being placed near to either a back or front window, as (post code accuracy dependant) the signal would appear to arrive from the right hand side of your property parallel to the front / rear walls.
Should the outcome of the test be negative then you could possibly consider the various options suggested by MikeB.
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Tuesday, 26 November 2013
G
george8:38 AM
My freeview is disappearing on all but BBC channels every evening until about 10.00pm. Otherwise ok. This started after sandyheath maintenance on 16 November. I am in mk 14
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M
MikeB2:32 PM
george: If the signal is problematic at the same time each day, its likely you've got 'single source interference' (there is a page about it on this site). Its likely to be your heating thermostat, etc (or someones nearby). Also check your cables - shielded are better at dealing with this problem.
Also check your signal strength - if its too high, then its the BBC that are often the first to go.
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G
George4:07 PM
MikeB: Since it's BBC that is OK I can take the too high signal out of the equation then.
It's nothing obvious in my home environment as nothing changes at these particular times. That leaves me with neighbours. How on earth do I find out about that/!
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