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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 09/12/2024 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), 71 That’s 60s,

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 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -0.2dB
C36 (594.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -0.2dB
C48 (690.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 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, 25 December 2016
C
Coach
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:59 AM

Thanks for the feedback. Had this problem
before with these channels. Although high
normal strength is 95% and no problems.
Last time I purchased an attenuator which
only made matters worse. Signal at the moment
up and down like yo-yo however other station
like BBC 4 are fine and stable at 95%.
Samsung tv

link to this comment
Coach's 33 posts GB flag
M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:42 AM

Coach:
'Although high normal strength is 95% and no problems. Last time I purchased an attenuator which
only made matters worse.'

A high strength of 95% is not normal! Yes, no problems seemingly manifested itself, but I bet your were very close to the tuner being overloaded. In what way did the attenuator make things worse?

Now you could have a state where the very high power mux is suppressed, but this also kills the low power ones as well, so its swings and roundabouts. And the fact that a relatively weak mux (BBC4) is at 95% points to the others being too high. Your signal strength is all over the place - which sound exactly like too high signal strength.

link to this comment
MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 28 December 2016
C
Coach
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:07 PM

Thanks. Channels back to normal until
Today. Now no signal at all!

link to this comment
Coach's 33 posts GB flag
Thursday, 29 December 2016
N
NJ
2:08 PM

In the current weather conditions, fog and frost, there is strong co-channel interference with all the BBC channels on sandyheath. The other channels seem to have less of a problem.

link to this comment
NJ's 16 posts GB flag
L
Luis
10:11 PM

Hi, for the last 2 days I have intermittent reception on half my channels, they're all on the same multiplex and frequency. I've checked everything and all seems fine in my house. All my TVs are affected, I've checked the cables, retuned and I have at800 filter installed. My aerial seems fine but haven't had it checked by a professional.

link to this comment
Luis's 1 post GB flag
M
Michael Taylor
10:15 PM

Thanks Sandy Heath for another night of watching pixels and no service boxes. I wonder why we have all this with modern technology ?? It was much better with the old system. Poorer picture quality is better than all those little squares. My elderly parents now in their nineties rely heavily on tv for entertainment but on the plus side they get a free license to watch those flashing squares.
How long will it take to get this system right please??

link to this comment
Michael Taylor's 1 post GB flag
Friday, 30 December 2016
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:31 PM

Luis, Michael, et al:

DO NOT RETUNE. Waiting until then propagation conditions improve.



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
A
Adam
4:37 PM

Hi, I seem to have lost all the HD channels provided by PSB3/BBCB.
I've done an autotune which has previously picked up all the HD channels (including those provided by COM7) but now it only picks up the HD channels on COM7.

I've done a manual retune on Channel 21, Freq 474000, Modu DVB-T2. But it doesn't pick anything up at all..

Any ideas?

link to this comment
Adam's 1 post GB flag
D
Dariusz
4:52 PM

Adam: hi Adam today I lost all signal too
Days before was exactly what you describe
squares fly on screen than signal gone somethimes
for minutes
finaly today about 3pm completely gone

link to this comment
Dariusz's 1 post GB flag
Saturday, 31 December 2016
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:07 AM

Michael Taylor: The reception problems reported by viewers located in a number of Southern regions over the last few days is not being caused by technical faults connected with the transmission side of the equation, but the fact that many areas of the UK have been...and still are...experiencing the effects on reception of a series of high atmospheric pressure zones sweeping across the Mid to Southern areas of the country.

The effects referred to being to allow reception of transmissions from distant stations, which if one of happens to operate on the same frequency as one used by a local station will corrupt the quality of the signal, this being why some multiplexes can be affected and not others. This also happened on the previously used analogue system, but though it generally resulted in either ghosting or background images sweeping across the picture being viewed rather than wipe out the picture.

The unfortunate aspect of this situation being that said high pressure is not presently indicated on Hepburn's tropo forecast maps as clearing the UK until late Sunday evening around 6.00PM or so.

Anyone with Freeview equipment which has separate strength and quality indications can check if they are being affected by this sort of thing, done by simply carrying out a signal check on either a dead / or severely
pixelated channel, as the signal strength will usually indicate as being reasonably normal but accompanied by either erratic low / or zero quality.



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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
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