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

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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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 20/01/2025 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C27 (522.0MHz)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	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)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	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 TV 3,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C21+ (474.2MHz)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	46 5SELECT, 57 U&Eden, 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, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H -0.2dB	C33 (570.0MHz)	291m	DTG-8	170,000W
	20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 61 GREAT! mystery, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTR, 74 U&DaveJaVu, 81 Blaze +1, 83 That's TV , 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 208 POP MAX, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 28 others
COM5 ArqA	H -0.2dB	C36 (594.0MHz)	289m	DTG-8	170,000W
	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 Drama 1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 76 That's Dance, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others
COM6 ArqB	H -0.2dB	C48 (690.0MHz)	289m	DTG-8	170,000W
	Al Jazeera Eng, 12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! player, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's Melody, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 207 Tiny Pop, 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?

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	ITV_waves
C21		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C24		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C27		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C31		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves
C32						com7
C33						SDN
C34						com8
C35						_local
C36						ArqA
C39			C5_waves	C5_waves
C43					_local
C48					ArqB	ArqB
C51_{tv_off}					SDN
C52_{tv_off}					ArqA
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						COM8_{tv_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

Local transmitter maps

Sandy Heath Freeview Sandy Heath DAB Sandy Heath TV region BBC Cambridge Anglia (West micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sandy Heath transmitter area

Oct 1959-Feb 2004	Anglia Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

S

Steve Donaldson

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

4:07 PM

John: The band of now in use and available for TV, without from 4G or mobile base stations, is 21 to 48. 49 and upwards were previously used for TV, and have now been given over to the mobile operators.

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Steve Donaldson's 271 posts GB flag

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DARREN AMOS
8:43 PM

Do you know why we don't receive Anglia ITV1 SD anymore via , but can receive its Plus 1 version an hour later?
We have had to switch to ITV1 HD but this is Meridian, not Anglia, even though we live in Northamptonshire. Do you know why that is the case?
We are tuned to and have a strong signal.
Note I have seen many posts with the same issue, so it isn't our equipment.
We have reset & retuned but still no change
This suddenly happened whilst we were watching the around 1:00 am on the 27th August.
It did come back for an hour or so a few days later then disappeared again

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DARREN AMOS's 1 post GB flag

S

Steve Donaldson

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

9:02 PM

DARREN AMOS:

This is the first I've heard about this. I found this thread on a forum about Humax devices (not affiliated with Humax):

https://myhumax.org/forum/topic/itv-sd-has-disappeared/page/4

Is yours a Humax?

That said, if it's a Humax box then what about the TV?

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Steve Donaldson's 271 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:13 AM

DARREN AMOS:

Just FYI, the reason you see Meridian on HD is because ITV currently only distribute 4 major regions in HD. Down in the SW they get Central!
We are still waiting for ITV to roll out the individual regions in HD as the BBC did last year!

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Chris.SE's 4,234 posts GB flag

A

Anne Moorley
8:48 AM

Cannot receive any apart from BBC ones today from 6.30 am ( not sure if happed before this time as TV not on

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Anne Moorley's 1 post GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:22 PM

Anne Moorley: There is planned engineering work affecting the this week. Do not attempt to retune whilst you have as you risk deleting all of your correctly tuned .

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StevensOnln1's 3,682 posts GB flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:09 AM

- Sandy Heath transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 30/09/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 3,925 posts GB flag

G

gerald ramsay
5:51 PM

I cannot get a picture on my tv. Tv saying weeksignal

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gerald ramsay's 1 post GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:59 AM

gerald ramsay:

As per the post before yours, the is subject to Planned Engineering.
Do NOT retune whilst you have weak or or badly pixelated pictures. The usual result is to just clear you correct tuning.

As you haven't given a full postcode we can't check your predicted reception or whether you could be vulnerable to from new/upgraded phone masts using .

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Chris.SE's 4,234 posts GB flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:09 AM

- Sandy Heath transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 07/10/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 3,925 posts GB flag

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Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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