Full Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter
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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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Wednesday, 18 July 2018
B
Bob7:25 AM
Brandon
Com 7 & 8 have gone completely IP27 0EE, on C55 & C56 = they were fine on C32 & C34 before the change, which I thought was to remove channels on C50 - 59, not put more on them ?????
A Temporary move perhaps?
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Bob's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Colin12:26 PM
Mark: Sandy Heath Now has COM7/8 on low power and same frequencies as Oxford the adjacent TX. You may need a very directional aerial (LogPeriodic) to reject signals from Oxford or other sites. In Milton Keynes which is equidistant from Oxford and Sandy some people have lost 15 SD and 9 HD channels. Note also these SFN muxes are HD only so SD channels carried on these Muxes can only be received on a HD tuner TV. The LCNs affected are 55, 56, 67, 82, 84, 87, 97, 98, , 86, 88, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 205. Unprofessional planning but they are driving people to Satellite services.
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M
Mark2:07 PM
Thanks Colin,
I gathered as much from the loss of signal strength and the wattage comparisons of each mux in the info higher up this page. Despite this all the Com 7 & 8 channels are ok and not dropping out currently. Is it your understanding that they will boost the signal later or is that it? Shocking that people are losing channels because of this.
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M
Myrvin3:40 PM
I lost BBC4 HD, but that came back after the retune. Now I've lost everything on Com7. I can't get BBC News HD. No signal on channel 32 at TVall.
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M
Myrvin3:43 PM
I lost BBC4 HD, but that came back after the retune. Now I've lost BBC News HD and everything on com7. There's no signal on channel 32 at all.
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M
Mark4:54 PM
Myrvin: Check post from StevensOnln1 on previous page. COMs 7 & 8 have moved since yesterday to CH54/55.
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MikeP
5:28 PM
5:28 PM
jpaul:
Thew list shown on this website have not been updated by the site owner. The correct channels are 55 and 56, put your post code into the Digital UK Coverage Checker at Digital UK - Coverage checker
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I
Ian Woollard6:49 PM
I've had difficulty matching the "How will the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?" '30th June 2018' table entry above with the reality.
Here in Sharnbrook, there's been changes, but I'm finding that the table above is about half wrong. What I find is:
- BBCB is currently on C21, not C27 as listed. Whereas BBCA is on C27 not C21 (they didn't swap over during the shutdown).
- D3+4 is right, it is on C24
- SDN doesn't appear to be on C33 at all, I receive it on C51
- COM7 seems to be on C55, but I'm getting massive drop outs, I haven't managed to find COM8.
- ARQA is right, it is on C36
- ARQB is right, it is on C48
Does this match anyone else's experience?
I did wonder if my aerial was picking up a completely different transmitter or something, but it shutdown like clockwork during yesterday's maintenance window, so presumably it IS the Sandy Heath transmitter. I created the list because I've been battling some weird reception problems here (don't ask!), no criticism of anyone is implied. Hope this helps someone.
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Thursday, 19 July 2018
MikeP
4:30 PM
4:30 PM
Ian Woollard:
Put your post code into the Digital UK Coverage Checker at Digital UK - Coverage checker and scroll down to the entries for Sandy Heath. That will tell you what channels are currently being used for all the services.
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