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Full Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.130,-0.242 or 52°7'47"N 0°14'33"Wsa_postcodeSG19 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.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C27 (522.0MHz)291mDTG-180,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) Cambridge, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 16 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C24 (498.0MHz)291mDTG-180,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Anglia (West micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) South ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 South ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Anglia east), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C21+ (474.2MHz)291mDTG-180,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Cambridge, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H -0.2dB
C33 (570.0MHz)291mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -0.2dB
C36 (594.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -0.2dB
C48 (690.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

DTG-8 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?

regional news image
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
regional news image
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?

1965-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-1312 Feb 2020
VHFA K TK TK TW TW T
C6ITVwaves
C21C4wavesC4wavesC4waves+BBCBBBCB
C24ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C27BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C31BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C32com7
C33SDN
C34com8
C35_local
C36ArqA
C39C5wavesC5waves
C43_local
C48ArqBArqB
C51tv_offSDN
C52tv_offArqA
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_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

Oct 1959-Feb 2004Anglia Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Comments
Sunday, 13 August 2023
S
Steve Donaldson
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

1:15 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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Steve Donaldson's 258 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:55 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).

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,364 posts GB flag
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


link to this comment
paul's 10 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:39 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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Chris.SE's 4,364 posts GB flag
Saturday, 7 October 2023
B
barry hardwick
4:51 PM
Milton Keynes

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.

link to this comment
barry hardwick's 1 post GB flag
barry's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Steve Donaldson
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

4:59 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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Steve Donaldson's 258 posts GB flag
Sunday, 8 October 2023
J
jpaul
11:16 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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jpaul's 10 posts GB flag
Monday, 9 October 2023
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:29 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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Chris.SE's 4,364 posts GB flag
Monday, 13 November 2023
I
Ian Leslie Jackson
5:37 AM

When is work on the Sandy Heath transmitter going to end?
I have no BBC HD channels at the moment

link to this comment
Ian Leslie Jackson's 12 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:07 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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Chris.SE's 4,364 posts GB flag
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