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 25/11/2024 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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Friday, 23 February 2024
I
Iain Martin 10:35 PM
Dylan green: This is obviously not related to Sandy Heath but I used to have a 1 metre dish and lost the signal a few times when huge black clouds were overhead.
Water droplets, especially in clouds hundred, probably thousands of feet thick can completely block satellite signals. If you are confident working at the height of your dish you can check whether the cable connection is well protected from moisture. Also slacken the bolts and make tiny adjustments to the dish position to see if you can improve the signal. Hopefully your receiver has some kind of strength and quality meter display. Failing all that a new LNB may be required as they do get damaged by the Sun especially around the time of the equinoxes. The spring equinox is in a few weeks time!
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Monday, 26 February 2024
D
Dylan green2:36 PM
Unfortunately due to medical issues I can't access my dish, not really in the financial position to pay anyone either, the signal quality is 75% on the worst channels breaking up but on most of them it's 100% yet still get break up.
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C
Chris.SE10:41 PM
Dylan green:
But it does sound like the signal strength could be marginal for one of the reasons mentioned by Iain Martin. Do you not have a knowledgeable friend who could access your dish?
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Monday, 8 April 2024
D
Damien1:35 AM
Is having a Freesat signal on some channels of 62% signal strength with 100% quality an issue ?, some channels especially BBC and itv are showing 72% signal strength with q005% quality and the others like CNN HD, show the 62signal-100quality.
In rain especially moderate to heavy rain the signal strength and quality lower, in severe rain it will loose signal on some channels completely. Any professional opinion would be appreciated. I have a Freesat receiver which also gets non Freesat channels and a sky mini dish, zone 1 I believe, in Northampton.
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D
Damien3:22 PM
It's a Manhattan S2 box, brought In 2017 but when I use built in TV Freesat which is an LG TV the picture pixilates on many channels even in good weather however I find that the Manhattan box set at 1080i works fine majority of the time. Today with the heavy cloud signal is jumping from 62% to 48% but quality is remaining at 100% no pixilated picture on the Manhattan box unless it's raining heavy.
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Friday, 26 April 2024
N
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Monday, 29 April 2024
K
K. Smith5:21 PM
My mother has not had anything on the main channels since the beginning of last week. I see that Sandy Heath is having engineering work at the moment. Would you have any idea when it is likely to be finished please?
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Chris.SE10:41 PM
K. Smith:
Unfortunately Arqiva never provide detail of the work or how long it may take, as much of it could well be weather dependant!
However your mother shouldn't have been without the "main channels" all this time.
Which specific channels is she missing, are they HD or SD?
Are you able to check her aerial is still looking intact and pointing correctly?
If you provide a full postcode we can check the predicted reception and whether there's the possibility of interference.
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Saturday, 1 June 2024
M
Mark11:33 AM
I live in NN12 slightly NW of Towcester, the reception since Com 2 went has been utterly appalling and shows NO signs of any improvement whatsoever, I'm sure the advice would be to stream instead, HOW??? Due to my location my internet speed is 1.5 mps this will NEVER be improved either, why oh why is there no booster for areas on the extreme edge of range. We all pay a license fee to why are some treated as second class citizens, DO SOMETHING!
Another thing I've noticed is that EVERY weekend starting Friday evening reception is almost lost until the Monday. What on earth is going on
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Chris.SE5:35 PM
Mark:
This isn't the broadcaster's website so we can't do "anything", but neither can the broadcasters.
(Note - your reception might be affected by the Planned Engineering, see the post before yours).
This is an independent technical help-site and we may be able to help check if your reception could be improved, whether you may be subject to any interference, or even possibly give some comment about broadband.
HOWEVER, we need a full postcode. Reception predictors do not work on partial postcodes, and in your part of NN12 there can be an odd patch where reception might be poorer due to the terrain, but many parts should be good reception from Sandy Heath despite your distance from it.
Apart from the full postcode, the following information would be helpful -
Where is your aerial located, on a roof/chimney, in a loft etc.?
Considering your general location, is it pointing roughly due E with its rods (or squashed Xs) horizontal and does it look intact?
How old is it roughly? Do you know what type it is?
Do you have a masthead amp, or any other pre-amp/splitter to feed more than one TV/box?
Are there any tall trees on the line-of-sight to the transmitter?
Not sure what you mean by "since Com 2 went". All 6 main multiplexes are still being transmitted from all main transmitters. There isn't a COM2, there's a PSB2/D3&4 carrying ITV, Ch4 & Ch5 and some of their sister channels.
Which specific TV channels are you especially having problems with?
Can you check in your TV Tuning section for Signal Strength and Quality figures for each of the multiplexes and post those.
Sandy Heath's UHF channels are C27, C24, C21, C33, C36, & C48 that's in multiplex order -
BBCA/PSB1, D3&4/PSB2, BBCB HD/PSB3, SDN/COM4, ArqA/COM5, ArqB/COM6
If you can normally get the Local multiplex from Madingley, it's on C35 but I would think that highly unlikely.
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