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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.

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 25/03/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


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),

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 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -0.2dB
C36 (594.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 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, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -0.2dB
C48 (690.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 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
Wednesday, 22 December 2021
P
paul j
8:58 PM

paul j :

there don't seem to be any troposphere problems Tropospheric Ducting Forecast for VHF & UHF Radio & TV
explaining poor reception

Have reverted to using ITV hub and other internet based 'apps'

(ukfree.tv comment section itself seem to generate errors from multiple browesers - hence my earlier duplicate postings)







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paul j's 5 posts GB flag
P
paul j
9:29 PM

paul j:

A suggestion high pressure is to blame V
Updates and alerts | Freeview

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paul j's 5 posts GB flag
Thursday, 23 December 2021
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:41 AM

paul j:
Alan Browning 5 yuba:
Hazel Rogers:
Rita Norman:

On the contrary paul, there has been moderate Temperature Inversion/Tropospheric Ducting affecting large parts of the UK for several days, it sometimes accompanies high pressure.
Do NOT retune, it will more likely remove your correct tuning.

These conditions are predicted to ease late on Wednesday by the end of the night
Despite the incorrect spelling, this link does work - simple technical explanation
https://www.bbc.co.uk/rec….jpg

Essentially it results in interfering signals from other transmitters in the UK or Europe reaching you and so your wanted signals are disrupted. It won't necessarily affect all multiplexes or necessarily at the same time if more than one. It can last for seconds, minutes, sometimes hours or longer.

The BBC have had a warning on their Works and Warnings page for a few days, and Freeview had added one on Wednesday (better late than never!) but at the time it was then mainly affecting the S & SE.


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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
P
paul j
11:12 AM

Chris.SE:

OK is there a better web-site than the one I linked , which will show ducting forecast ?

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paul j's 5 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:55 PM

paul j:

Hi paul. Do remember they are all general propagation predictions and it doesn't mean that one WILL be affected, sometimes just bands II & III may be affected and not IV & V, sometimes the other way around, sometime all or none!

dxinfocentre is one of the ones I refer to, also Europe | Tropospheric Propagation Forecast
It's worth keeping an eye on Problems with Freeview reception? | Help receiving TV and radio as the BBC sometimes put a Works and Warnings note up (there's been one but it will usually disappear when conditions change).
I do look at Updates and alerts | Freeview for other things but they're often unreliable for this sort of thing (always after the event, so to speak, as with some other things they put there!).

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Friday, 31 December 2021
G
Gary
9:41 PM
St. Neots

Experiencing intermittent pixelation on channels this evening. Not as as bad as the problem we had on the 23rd December.


PE19 5UE

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Gary's 1 post GB flag
Gary's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:34 PM

Gary:

It's Temperature Inversion/Tropospheric Ducting again I'm afraid. See my previous posts before yours if you want more detail. It's unlikely to clear completely until some time tomorrow and then it could still be a bit intermittent for a few days.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Monday, 17 January 2022
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:52 PM

Kim Rahbek:

It's likely to a combination of factors. Unfortunately weather conditions again - see the post before yours, applicable again and it's reference to an earlier post if you'd like more detail of this type of problem.
Sandy Heath has also been listed for Planned Engineering this week, so some of that may disrupt reception.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 19 January 2022
K
Kim Rahbek
1:33 PM

Do you ,know when the planned engineering work on or near the transmitter Sandy Heath,Milton Keynes is complete? Channels keep coming and going for us, and have done for weeks! Thank you.

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Kim Rahbek's 1 post US flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:14 PM

Kim Rahbek:

As mentioned in my previous reply to you, weather conditions (the Temperature Inversion/Tropospheric Ducting) will have been having an impact. It can cause channels to come and go due to the interference from the distant transmitters. Did you read those previous posts I mentioned? There were sustained conditions like that in December as well as recently.

Those conditions have currently cleared (though some predictions suggest they may return on Friday!) so you reception should be stable right now. The transmitter work which could affect you might cause you to have reduced reception for a period whilst work takes place, but it should not be a case of "coming and going".

There may be work on different days of the week that affects reception, it may only happen on one day.
Arqiva who do the transmitter engineering never say what work is being done or how long it will take, some of which can be weather dependent - especially if engineers have to climb masts!

If the transmitter is not listed next week, then we'll assume the current work has been completed.
If you continue to have problems, then post back with details of precisely which channels you have problems with and also with a full postcode so we can check your predicted reception

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
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