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, 13 August 2023
S
Steve Donaldson1:15 PM
paul : The above posting of 7th August from "Transmitter engineering" is that taken from the Freeview page "Planned engineering works":
Planned engineering works | Freeview
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C
Chris.SE1:55 PM
paul :
Just to add, Arqiva & Freeview never provide details of what the work entails or how long it will last (some of which may be weather dependant).
It looks as though Sandy heath will still be listed next week as well.
(PS. I tend to agree with about the lack of some further detail).
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P
paul 9:54 PM
Steve D,
yes I'd seen the other site, and the sheer number of transmitters being maintained,
suggested either there is a common summer/outdoor maintenance aspect, or, that a shared backbone link between transmitters - microwave ? fibre-optic ? is being worked on.
( guess that the companies paying for advertising on the impacted channels get reduced rates if no one can watch them. )
Thanks
Paul
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C
Chris.SE10:39 PM
paul:
The list of transmitters having Planned Engineering is not untypical. There are obviously fewer in the winter because mast and antenna work are frequently impractical in adverse weather conditions.
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Saturday, 7 October 2023
Saturday 7th October 2023
Channel 27 - ITV losing signal
Annoying as Rugby is on?
Report says engineering works 2/10/23 for the week.
Am aware living in Newton Longville MK17 0DJ we are in a semi yellow area, but we have a signal booster to help with that.
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barry's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Steve Donaldson4:59 PM
barry hardwick: It may be worth looking on channel numbers 800 upwards. This is where duplicate channels are put. They may appear to be in no particular and there could be none, some or a lot, depending on what can be received.
In particular, the Oxford transmitter is the opposite direction to Sandy Heath and you might be lucky and be able to pick it up off the back of your aerial. ITV from Oxford is on UHF channel 44 and it may be worth doing a manual scan of that channel to see if it can be picked up. If your TV has already tuned it in then it will be in the 800s, as described above.
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Sunday, 8 October 2023
J
jpaul11:16 PM
Agree with earlier comments - Ely/Cambs C21+, C27 so, ITV&Three for example,
have been dropping out for 10 minute periods 7/8th Oct after ~9pm.
Switching to freeview play devices, with channels streamed via internet seems only option.
Cheers, Paul
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Monday, 9 October 2023
C
Chris.SE12:29 AM
barry hardwick: jpaul:
It could well be current weather conditions affecting you, they have been causing Tropospheric Ducting affecting much of the south coast and southern parts of the country on Saturday and more of the south of the country through Sunday including East Anglia. This causes interfering signals from distant transmitters in Europe or the UK to affect reception of your wanted signals. This can periodically last, seconds, minutes and sometimes much longer - Do NOT Retune.
There is nothing you can do about this apart from wait for conditions to change, or use online streaming if available.
IF you did retune, you be best manually retuning the UHF channels for your transmitter.
The BBC have issued warnings -
High pressure weather conditions impacting TV & Radio services - 6th October | Help receiving TV and radio
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Monday, 13 November 2023
I
Ian Leslie Jackson5:37 AM
When is work on the Sandy Heath transmitter going to end?
I have no BBC HD channels at the moment
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C
Chris.SE6:07 AM
Ian Leslie Jackson:
Did you read my reply to you here Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) DAB transmitter | free and easy for 21 years
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