Full Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter
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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 02/12/2024 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, 8 January 2024
P
paul 11:28 PM
Ely
I concur with Giovanni, SDN was bad last week and this evening 8th - film4+1 /ARQA is unwatchable/breaking up at 23:00.
CB7 4QN proximity.
I guess the 8th engineering notice is the excuse; problems seem interminable
Cheers, Paul
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paul's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 9 January 2024
C
Chris.SE1:14 AM
paul :
Hi paul.
Obviously ongoing engineering work when they are likely to be either on reduced power or the Reserve Antenna has got to be annoying when your reception gets affected.
A lot of main transmitters have had extensive periods of maintenance last year and I can be fairly sure that the works are weather dependant as well, which means with some of the weather we've had of late, things won't have happened as quickly as would have been liked.
I would assume that, as with the Wenvoe transmitter where I know for certain that the works have involved the greasing of all the mast stays/guy cables, similar work has to be done on all masts, and they can't work close to the mast and antenna when on full power etc.
But also to advise that you aren't predicted to get the best reliable reception for the SDN and ArqA multiplexes, in addition to which you do have at least one mobile cell within 200m of you and it's right on the line-of-sight to Sandy Heath!
I find it rather surprising that you haven't received a postcard from Restore TV according to a check on their website https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/
I can't comment on Giovanni's predicted reception as he hasn't given a full postcode!
Can you look in your TV Tuning Section for Signal Strength and Quality % figures for each multiplex's UHF channel and post them?
Do you get the Local multiplex on C35?
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Monday, 15 January 2024
P
paul 10:28 PM
Chris
Arqa continues to be bad/unwatchable, post 10pm or so, and, noting quality/strength from a Panasonic tv, for the muxes (in order listed above) observed
bbc1 10/9
itv 10/9
bbc1 hd 10/9
drama 10/8 < sdn
sky mix 7/8 < arqa
quest 10/8
since the issue discretely occurs comparatively late at night, seems unlikely it is any mobile interference, and rather that that arqa mux has reduced power, for some reason.
If they published more details on specific impact expected from engineering, customers could immediately see if their experience is correlated.
I haven't tried to tune c35 yet
Regards, Paul
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paul 10:29 PM
*repost - forgot to tick reCAPTCHA box*
Chris
Arqa continues to be bad/unwatchable, post 10pm or so, and, noting quality/strength from a Panasonic tv, for the muxes (in order listed above) observed
bbc1 10/9
itv 10/9
bbc1 hd 10/9
drama 10/8 < sdn
sky mix 7/8 < arqa
quest 10/8
since the issue discretely occurs comparatively late at night, seems unlikely it is any mobile interference, and rather that that arqa mux has reduced power, for some reason.
If they published more details on specific impact expected from engineering, customers could immediately see if their experience is correlated.
I haven't tried to tune c35 yet
Regards, Paul
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Tuesday, 16 January 2024
C
Chris.SE5:15 AM
paul :
The box ticking wasn't the issue, at certain times of day, it takes a while for posts to appear!!
I agree it would be more helpful is they published more detail, believe you me I've tried in the past to get more information pointing out that engineers also try and use the data, but it seems they think that we are too simple to have such complex information!! It's moderately obvious that "pixellation or flickering" means there'll be reduced power or use of the Reserve antenna but it would be handy to know which multiplexes might be affected! Hey ho, we have to make do.
Have you been in touch with https://restoretv.uk/cont…-us/
I think you need to hassle them for a filter as that mobile cell nearest you has EE operating 5G according to EE, so mobile interference is a strong possibility and your figures suggest that to me as well.
If you have an external masthead pre-amp, you need to tell them that as you'll need a proper waterproof external filter to be fitted prior to the amp, they'd send an engineer (free of charge) (if you can't do the job yourself).
If any amp/splitter for more than one TV is internal then the standard filter fitted on the input to the amp/splitter is what's needed. (Mind you, if that uses F-connectors instead of Coax, tell them that as well).
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I
Ian Leslie Jackson9:22 PM
paul : I noted that you own a Panasonic TV so, have I and have had endless trouble with transmission signals. My TV was trying to pick up signals from 3 transmitters, Sandy Heath, Crystal Palace and Oxford. I was advised to get the Restore TV Filter, I did and it made no difference. Panasonic said the problem is with the automatic tuning and to switch it off but, you can't. This was causing all manner of problems as the TV was constantly retuning particularly with the BBC channels. Since the BBC analogue channels have been removed the TV is fine. The TV has had 2 new motherboard's in 18 months. That's before we had found out what was causing the problems. The other problem is Lip
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Wednesday, 17 January 2024
C
Chris.SE12:24 AM
Ian Leslie Jackson:
Paul has a different problem.
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I
Ian Leslie Jackson8:16 AM
Chris.SE:
But, Paul has a Panasonic TV and I wanted him to know of the problems that my TV has been doing. He may have some of the problems on his TV. Panasonic won't tell you. I have been trying to resolve the problems for nearly 18 months.
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C
Chris.SE1:27 PM
Ian Leslie Jackson:
His TV is probably not as recent as yours, and your problems may be specific to your model which you haven't stated (only that it's 6 months old which doesn't tell us which model). Not all Panasonics have the problem you have experienced!
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Friday, 23 February 2024
D
Dylan green3:12 PM
Hello. I'd appreciate some advice, I have a Freesat system this has been an issue for many years now, I have a zone 1 sky mini dish. I get pixilated picture on majority of hd channels apart from BBC 1 and 2. And BBC news. S4c hd pixilated all the time and sky mini mix hd. Quest hd. In the rain or heavy cloud it gets worse and lots of channels have issues. I was wondering if this is a widespread issue or my dish at fault. Kind regards
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