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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Monday, 20 May 2019
MikeP
9:59 PM
9:59 PM
Stephen Hopps:
Depending on what your current signal strength is, a booster could actually make matters worse!
The information given on the Digital UK Coverage Checker for your location (see Coverage Checker - Detailed View suggests thatBelmont is the better bet, with Waltham, Tacolnston and Sandy Heath either very poor to useless. The signals from Belmont will provide decent reception, but will include Yorkshire services rather than East Midlands or East Anglia.
Belmont needs a wideband aerial for full reception.
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Tuesday, 21 May 2019
C
Chris.SE7:00 AM
Strange how we interpret things differently MikeP.
Stephen hopps was complaining about the loss of reception of COMs 7&8 and Belmont will not be the best from that point of view after the end of this year !!
Waltham looks indeed as though it would be totally useless which is why I never mentioned it, whereas Tacolneston is predicted to give very similar reception to Sandy Heath for the other muxes BUT with more reliable reception of COMs 7&8 and it's still Anglia which I would guess is the preferred region.
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C
Chris.SE8:10 AM
Wisbech
Stephen Hopps:
This could be very much a case of suck it and see. A conversation with a local aerial contractor who knows your location well might be a good idea. The height of your aerial may also be critical. Depending on your local geography a shift along a road of a few 10's of metres can also make a difference!
You are supposedly easily within the coverage area for Sandy Heath and have line-of-sight to the transmitter, as indeed you do to the other transmitters EXCEPT Tacolneston despite the predicted coverage. There is a small hill in the sight path about 17km away.
It may depend on how much you use COMs 7&8, how unreliable the signal may be and which local news you want. Bear in mind that (at present) COMs 7&8 are due to close down at some point by 2022 by which time we are all expecting some of the other existing muxes will change to HD and so what is carried on them may well change as well.
One point that isn't clear is when you actually lost reception of COMs 7&8. If it's only recently, it may have been down to the recent high pressure weather system causing interference from other transmitters and at the end of the day if reception of them isn't too unreliable then it might be better to stick with what you have as you need to consider reliability of reception of the other muxes. Whilst predicted reception is a good guide it is not always absolute! Let us know how you get on.
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Chris.SE's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 28 May 2019
B
Barry Hardwick6:35 AM
Milton Keynes
28 / 5 /2019 7.30 am at MK17 0DJ . no signal on any channels.
27/5/2019 6.00 am at MK17 0DJ no signal all channels at 5.55am. All back on 6.00 a,
Why??
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Barry's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
MikeP
11:06 PM
11:06 PM
Barry Hardwick:
Either you have a problem with yiur aerial system of it is some form of local interference.
Check all your aerial cables and connections. Unplug all coiaxial connections and refit them. Then check what signal strengths you are getting but DO NOT RETUNE.
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Wednesday, 29 May 2019
C
Chris.SE1:15 PM
Barry Hardwick:
As MikeP says check/refit all your connections - a bit of oxidation on them can affect performance. After, if all your signal levels on each mux is what you normally get, I wouldn't worry too much unless it's happening on a regular basis and there is a clear pattern to when it's occurring.
Sometimes there are brief unexpected interruptions to signals which could be down to something local rather than at the transmitter, also important to distinguish between loss of the transmitted signal (no carrier) and just loss of the data feed to the multiplexes. With the former your set will normally tell you there is no signal.
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Sunday, 30 June 2019
B
Brad8:21 AM
28th June 2019 we lost signal at around 2315hrs. HD and SD were too weak.
I had a quick check of connection security and all was good. The next morning I had SD with some freezing, but not very often. By the evening of 29th at around 2100hrs I decided d to try my TV again and everything worked.
Was there a problem with the transmitter. I live in Wisbech and believe the aerial is pointing to Sandy Heath.
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MikeP
8:24 PM
8:24 PM
Brad:
There was no problemn reported. So it was likely to either be the hot weather or esle a poor connection in yoyur aerial system.
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Wednesday, 3 July 2019
D
David Gurr2:47 PM
The channel list for the Sandy Heath transmitter is not correct - it doesn't take account of recent lineup changes.
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C
Chris.SE9:05 PM
David Gurr:
As has been mentioned many times, unfortunately the site owner has not had the time to correct all the information on all the transmitter pages.
For the UHF channel allocations for each mux, you are best looking at Coverage Checker - Detailed View or by putting your postcode into Digital UK - Coverage checker you can get your predicted reception for your location Coverage Checker - Detailed View
For up-to-date channel listing for each multiplex, this is usually the best place Digital UK | Channel listings
All Using Sandy Heath:
Note that this week beginning 1st July, there is planned engineering with the possible effect of a weak signal.
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