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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Monday, 4 August 2014
J
Jodie6:46 PM
My TV signal is a lot poorer than it used to be . I used to get 100% signal . now its only 40 to 50% its been like this for about a week now and it keeps breaking up on my HD channels . CH 32 is 10 % signal . so can you please do something about it . and I'm not the only one in my area experienceing problems . my freind over the road Is having the same problem .
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M
MikeB7:45 PM
Jodie: We need a postcode...(same goes for Tom & L Fossey).
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Tuesday, 5 August 2014
M
MikeB8:04 PM
Jodie: If you put your postcode into the site, you can click on the Digital UK link Coverage Checker - Detailed View Your 45km from Sandy Heath, and apparently with a decent signal. Check that your actually tuned to Sandy Heath - your TV might have picked up Crystal Palace during a retune and obviously thats a less powerful signal. If not, then it looks like your system - perhaps a corroded connection, frayed cable, etc. Always check your aerial lead - it might be loose or broken.
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J
jb388:37 PM
Jodie: Northamptonshire, including areas to the South of stretching right across to the East of England are notorious for suffering from reception problems at around this time of the year, basically because most (but not all) of them do "not" (including yourself) have a line-of-sight to the Sandy transmitter, the result of this being that the signal from Sandy is prone to reacting to interference from distant stations, including in some instances ones from outside of the UK.
In most cases nothing can really be done about the problem, that is except to wait until conditions turn more favourable.
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Wednesday, 6 August 2014
J
jb388:57 PM
Jodie: The fact of you having said that others around you are also experiencing problems, plus reports of poor, or no reception from other viewers located around the areas referred to in my previous posting and yet signals from the Sandy transmitter are being received perfectly OK further afield, is a positive indication that reception in the areas of complaint "are" being affected by conditions relating to high pressure, something no one can do anything about except to wait until it clears.
This being one of the pitfalls of terrestrial digital reception, as in analogue days the effects of interference from distant stations generally resulted in a range of visual disturbances, for example, ghostly negative images sweeping across the picture from left to right, wavy lines etc across same, and only in cases of severe interference would the picture become non-viewable, whereas in the case of digital reception interference from distant stations, even if only of a relatively mild / low level nature usually results in picture glitching problems, the quality of the signal frequently being observed to dive down to near zero, any increase in the strength of the interference completely corrupting the digital signal entering the decoder thereby killing reception, this being the type of thing that can give some viewers the impression that the transmitter must be faulty, which in Sandy's case it isn't!
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Saturday, 9 August 2014
D
Daniel6:49 PM
Hello I'm sick of poor signal . I used to get very good signal but now its down to 40% and the HD channels are 10 or nothing at all . I'm new here but my mate next door has had the same problems . i live in rushden
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MikeP
8:54 PM
8:54 PM
Daniel
Rushden is one of the areas served by Sandy Heath transmitter that has a history pof poor or intermittent reception when the weather is good or warm/hot - as we have mostly experienced in the last few weeks. So I would suspect that your reception problems may well be due to a known weather-related phenomemn about which no one can do anything (unless you believe in a helpful deity that is).
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K
KMJ,Derby10:14 PM
Daniel: Use of Waltham, or in some places, Sutton Coldfield on a second TV or Freeview box might give a more reliable signal for the PSB channels in some parts of Northamptonshire.
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