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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter._______
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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Sunday, 29 March 2020
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Chris.SE9:40 PM
margaret swannack:
I expect you mean 60 &61, 50 & 51 are NI channels. It was explained to you back in September in response to your post then, that unless you lived near the Manchester area and could receive the Manchester multiplexes then you wouldn't be able to get those channels.
Sony renamed and reorganised most of their channels last September and moved many to different multiplexes, that was/is the broadcaster's choice (this is an independent help site). To see which channels are on which multiplexes, see Channel listings | Freeview
StevensOnln1 has explained the commercial implications. To pursue this you are best trying to contact Sony, see Sony Movies UK | and towards the bottom of the page you'll find many ways of reaching them.
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Chris.SE9:47 PM
margaret swannack:
Apologies for the typo in my previous post, I meant 61 & 62, and 51 &52.
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Monday, 6 April 2020
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Chelsea 6:46 AM
Hi
I am trying to pick up the sandy health transmitter as I'm currently in Northampton one which has no channels! The sandy one says it picks up in Northampton, I have tried to do a manual re tune but no luck is there anyway I can move my Ariel in the loft so that it may catch the Ariel and the a pick up? If so what way would it need to face? Thanks
Chelsea
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StevensOnln19:55 AM
Chelsea : We need a full postcode in order to see the predicted reception at your location (Northampton isn't accurate enough) to determine whether Sandy Heath is likely to be receivable and the compass bearing to point your aerial.
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Tuesday, 21 April 2020
J
James Benneyworth10:39 AM
Which Freeview Radio stations should I be able to get from Sandy Heath transmitter. I used to get LBC and Smooth radio until a few days ago, and now when I do a retune my TV is not is not picking them up?
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Chris.SE1:34 PM
James Benneyworth:
Those two stations are on the ArqA/COM5 & ArqB/COM6 multiplexes respectively.
Sandy Heath is currently listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible weak signal" so it's probable that you weren't getting those two when you retuned, but then you should also be missing other channels on those multiplexes, see Channel listings | Freeview
But this may have depended on exactly what they were doing at the transmitter.
Sandy Heath's channels are C27, C24, C21, C33, C36, C48, C55, C56 in the order PSBs1-3, COMs4-8.
If you can carry out a manual retune, you can just try C36 & C48 for those two multiplexes, otherwise you may only be able to do an automatic full retune. You may need several attempts if there is still "weak signal", but once you have everything back, it's best not to retune when you lose signals due to weak signals or no signal, it usually just clears the correct tuning.
Also note C35 is a Local multiplex for Cambridge from the Madingley Light transmitter, which you may or may not receive depending on your location.
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Tuesday, 5 May 2020
S
Stu P1:46 PM
I currently can't pick up any of the HD channels on PSB3/BBCB in Harlow from the Sandy Heath Xmitter. Both an onboard TV tuner and an external TV box has the same problem on this mux. Both tuners recognise the channels but it seems to be a particularly weak signal as I only get a few odd pixels showing occasionally. I even added a booster which didn't help.
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Chris.SE3:33 PM
Stu P:
Whilst Sandy Heath is one of the main transmitters not currently listed for Planned Engineering, there is no guarantee that the Freeview/DUK list is 100% ! Many others are currently listed with "Possible weak signal".
I can't find any current reports from Freeview or the BBC (in particular) regarding any problems with PSB3 at Sandy Heath, but in the current situation there could be delays in updating the information.
I assume you have checked you are tuning to UHF C21 (see the post before yours) and you have a Group T (or Wideband) aerial (or Group K if COMs 7&8 are not receivable at your location). Parts of Harlow do not necessarily get good reception from Sandy Heath. We'd need a full postcode to check the predicted reception.
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Stu P5:59 PM
Chris.SE: Thanks for your reply. I have a wideband aerial, I did a manual scan on 474MHz DVB-T2 but no luck. Only recently begun having this problem which is only on that mux funnily enough. Maybe Southern Harlow can be patchy.
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Tuesday, 23 June 2020
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Christopher peachey11:17 PM
Just lost most of my channels. I am still picking up that's tv and associated channels, the rest are registering no signal. It happened all of a sudden so is not my end. There is something wrong at sandy Heath.
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