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 04/12/2023 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, 19 July 2016
M
MikeB11:57 PM
John rye: Your missing some muxes, so check that TV is actually locking on to that transmitter. And check signal strength - could be that the aerial lead to it has a problem - try swapping them over.
BBC4 HD if often at lower strength than ITV, but if your missing both, it cant be the transmitter - it either works, or it doesn't.
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Tuesday, 26 July 2016
Transmitter engineering
12:09 AM
12:09 AM
SANDY HEATH transmitter - Possible weak signal [DUK]
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Saturday, 30 July 2016
J
John King5:22 PM
a quick thanks to jb38 as I was indeed having some problems from my digibox retuning to the wrong transmitter. when my reception of ch51 and ch52 is poor it sometimes retunes com4 and com5 to ch42 and ch45 (Tacolneston, perhaps).
I've retuned now (2 or 3 weeks ago) and keeping an eye in case it retunes again - but of course if the signal was good I wouldn't have the problem.
Quick update, I am in Peterborough (PE3), since early June my Com5 reception has been a couple of seconds of picture followed by longer gaps of no picture. Sometimes Com4 is affected too but the other muxes are fine.
But last week things changed ...and went on changing
Sunday was the same as it had been.
Monday, it was fine (except for occasional very small glitches)
Tuesday, the problem returned to com5.
Wednesday, occasional brief picture loss on com5 but the quiz shows on Challenge were watchable
after that ... virtually nothing on any of the com5 channels (so worse than before)
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M
MikeB8:44 PM
John King: I'm in Peterborough as well, but on Waltham. Check the signal levels on all the muxes - Com 5 should be about the same as most of the others (Com7 is certainly weak).
The most likely problem is somewhere in your system - perhaps a frayed cable, loose join, etc. Cables can be odd, and a problem might mean a really strong mux is wiped out, but a much weaker one is OK. Simply changing the aerial lead isn't a bad idea - they are cheap, easy to change, and if there is no difference, then at least you know its not that.
If there is still a problem, then you'll have to check up the signal path - good luck!
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Tuesday, 6 September 2016
S
Stephen Kightley6:25 PM
Hello and please help! I live in the NN3 area and our freeview signal (assume from Sandy Heath) has gone from excellent (with no problems) to completely pixelated in the last couple of weeks. Several re-tuning attempts haven't worked - in fact, signal strength is excellent, whilst signal quality is poor - which I thought was odd. Another website mentioned about removing booster boxes so am going to try that next.
I really don't want to have to call an aerial company so would appreciate any thoughts on what to do...
Thanks
Stephen
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M
MikeB7:29 PM
Stephen Kightley: See the page 'too much of a good thing' - the fact that you have a booster sounds about right for too high a signal.
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Friday, 21 October 2016
A
Andy7:17 PM
Since the power cut in the Ely Cambs area on wensday we have lost every thing but BBC 1 & 2, bbc4 and the radio channels and children's channels.
I have retuned and we would appricate any help.
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J
jb3811:41 PM
Andy: Provided that your TV or box was not in the process of updating when the power dropped out? then you shouldn't really have lost anything, however as you partially have done and with retuning not having rectified the problem, try carrying out a full reset on your receiver, this on some models called "first time installation" / "default setting" etc.
That said is on the assumption that your Freeview reception is from the Sandy Heath transmitter via normal aerial system (not communal), if it isnt? then a post code will be required for signal strength assessment purposes.
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Tuesday, 1 November 2016
J
J Knights8:53 AM
Wisbech
Really bad reception over the last three days. Picture breaking up or no picture because 'no signal or weak signal'. Atmospherics may be partly at fault but can anything be done about the strength of the signal. We are in North Cambs PE13 5LB and prefer East Anglia to other transmitters.
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J's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
MikeP
11:18 AM
11:18 AM
J Knights:
It is not an issue with signal strength or quality from the transmitter but a perfectly natural and well known atmospheric phenomenon that no one can change. Your best solution is patience. The high pressure that gives rise to this tropospheric disturbance is predicted to move away from around Thursday so everything should come back to normal after then - unless you have tried to retune your equipment. If you have done that, wait until at least Thursday before retuning again to recover the lost channels.
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