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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Thursday, 14 February 2019
BBC1 and 4 unwatchable in Haddenham and Witchford. Have to stream them.
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I have done endless manual resets and still have terrible reliability issues on Frequency 27, in other words all the BBC channels. There is nothing wrong with my aerial, nor with my television a Panasonic Viera. I live at SG8 8SP and can actually see the transmitter from my house. Why am I paying a licensing fee if I'm getting such poor reception and how can I improve it?
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Dr's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln110:19 AM
Dr C A Fox: If you can see the transmitter then there's a good chance that your TV is being overloaded with too much signal (try fitting an attenuator to reduce the signal strength). What signal strength and quality readings on other channels such as ITV?
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Wednesday, 20 February 2019
C
Chris.SE4:16 PM
Dr C A Fox: & Roger Fentiman: & Peter Reynolds:
There is Planned Engineering work at Sandy Heath at present with "Possible Weak Signal" so this is the most likely cause of the intermittent/temporary loss of reception. With the current weather High Pressure system this won't help matters either.
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Thursday, 21 February 2019
E
Earl Thomson11:11 PM
Hello I have a very good quality aerial which was fitted 4 months ago for Freeview in the kitchen we have sky in all other rooms .
On my Freeview TV we are having constant pixelation and drop out of signal I have checked with local residents around the area who are also experiencing serious reception issues with there Freeview HD TV .
I have returned and checked cables.
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E
Earl Thomson11:15 PM
Daventry
My postcode area is NN11 3SZ
Manor house with outside worker buildings.
Kind regards Earl Thomson.
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Earl's: mapE's Freeview map terrainE's terrain plot wavesE's frequency data E's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 22 February 2019
MikeP
11:21 AM
11:21 AM
Earl Thomson:
Those sort of problems are not due to any faults anywhere, but are mainly due to weather conditions. Patience is called for.
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Sunday, 24 February 2019
C
Chris.SE1:44 AM
Daventry
Earl Thomson:
It looks as though you are in a borderline reception area. DigitalUK doesn't have any predicted Freeview reception for your postcode. This site seems to think your transmitter should be Oxford which is stupid because a terrain plot clearly shows two hills in the line of sight, the first being about 1-2km away, the other around 7km IIRC. I can't easily get a terrain plot for Sandy Heath but looking at the coverage map and street view I'd guess it has a better chance, so a good aerial installation would be a must.
BUT as it's going to be borderline reception it's going to be very vulnerable to interference from long distance DX interference when weather conditions (usually large high pressure systems) allow as we have at the moment.
If you find your Freeview reception is too unreliable then I'd resort to Satellite. I don't know what sort of LNB you have on your Sky dish, but if there's a spare output you ought to be able to get Freesat with a Freesat box, or your TV may even have an in-built Satellite receiver.
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Chris.SE's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 25 February 2019
H
hardy8:28 PM
Earl Thompson . I agree with Chris . You will definitely need a good aerial amplifier near the aerial . Even then you will l be susceptible to some continental interference . I would recommend going to freesat for a reliable signal. You could have the SKY dish LNB changed to have an output to connect the freesat receiver too or install a separate dish just for freesat.
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Tuesday, 26 February 2019
MikeP
9:21 AM
9:21 AM
hardy:
Installing a separate dish would require planning permission. Only one dish is allowed on any property without planning permission, adding a second needs an appropriate application to be submitted.
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