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 15/04/2024 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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Thursday, 14 April 2011
Gav/Michael Stanley: Same comment: the mode change may have effected your marginal signal. You may have to wait until it goes to full power on C48 on 14 Sept 2011.
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P
Phil Taylor7:56 AM
Hi
I have lost a few channels such as Dave, Film 4, and the selling channels.Will they eventualy return or will I have to upgrade my equipment.
Many Thanks
Phil Taylor
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Phil Taylor: No changes were made to the output of multiplex C, so you should still have Dave.
Multiplex D, moved to C67 as ArqB and has changed mode. For people on the edges of coverage, the mode change will mean you have to wait until 14 Sept 2011 when the multiplex moves to C48 at full power, to watch those channels again.
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R
Roydonian11:01 AM
Since the latest retune a couple of days ago, my receiver's automatic service search can no longer find ITV4, Film4 and Al Jazeera.
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A
A Decore12:37 PM
Hi
Before 13/4/11 I was able to get progams 12,15.24 perfectly.However after the 13/4/11 I have problems getting these programs I understand they are on MUX D. On checking your web site you state the the power on these programs are VERY LOW. Can you please tell me if this power will be increased in the future
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K
KMJ,Derby12:45 PM
John: The switch over help scheme only covers ability to receive the public service channels which are the BBC channels plus ITV1, Channel 4 and channel FIVE. In reality this means whatever channels are included on the PSB muxes when using Freeview. Switchover is due to complete in 2012 with some further adjustment to frequency assignments in some areas to withdraw C61 and C62 from use for inclusion in the "digital dividend" In most cases an aerial which gave good reception on analogue channels will be suitable for reception of the digital PSB muxes. In some areas viewers who wish to receive the COM muxes will need to change to a different group of aerial to receive the frequencies used by these muxes in their area. This is the case at Sandy Heath. Viewers to relay transmitters which only carry the 3 PSB muxes might need a second aerial aimed at an out of area main station in order to receive the COM muxes, or would have to consider satellite reception for additional channels. It is correct that there is no such thing as a "digital aerial". The term is used as a marketing tool to encourage viewers to change their aerials. New installations would be expected to inlude an aerial fitted with a PCB balun and double screened cable to minimise interference pick-up which is the main enemy of digital reception, but any aerial that works properly in a given location is considered suitable.
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M
Mike Dimmick2:07 PM
Roydonian, A Decore: These channels are carried on the ArqB multiplex. This is using the channel that Multiplex B used before switchover, so if you had problems with that (BBC Four, CBeebies, BBC radio stations, Sky Sports 1 & 2) last month, it's not surprising you're having trouble with ArqB now. In addition, ArqB requires about twice as much power to work as Mux B used to, so if Mux B was marginal, ArqB is likely to not work.
If you provide a full postcode we can see if this temporary location is expected to work for you, and therefore you have a problem with your installation, or if it's just not practical to receive it at the moment.
The multiplex can't move to its final location, C48, as that's being used by low-power digital services at Sudbury until mid-July, Belmont until mid-August and a number of Sutton Coldfield's relays for BBC Two until 7 September.
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A
adrienne4:41 PM
Olney
Postcode mk46 5es, we have a Sagem PVR 7280 T digibox.
We lost BBC for 10 days initally, as of the 10th it returned with pixellation on all of the BBC channels all of the time: very bad in the evening with the sound and picture really distorted.
We are regulary retuning but often only pick up 40 channels, max we have achieved is 102. The signal power values are way down when we check those. All of our neighbours are on Sky or Virgin so we have nobody else to compare to.
We are on a hill at one of the higher points in the town; we have checked the leads on the tv etc. and our aerial.
Is there something wrong with the signal strength from Sandy Heath, or could we be getting interference from a relay station? Is there something we may not have considered? We were about to buy a Humax digibox - maybe a more up-to date system would be a solution?
Thank you!
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adrienne's: ...
D
Dick Rudd4:49 PM
Just Fabulous Freeview from sandy heath today!!. My sister lives near the football ground Kings Lynn. Just installed for her a new Samsung 32inch freeview HD plug & play TV & O.M.G. 37 channles inc 4 HD @ 85-90 signal strenth !! Absolutely Amazing HD, with no aerial change or adjustment. And to think shes suffered very poor analogue with no Ch5 for 20+ years !!
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D
Dave4:50 PM
Wisbech
Please can you tell me the direction to aim my arial so we can recieve LOOK EAST news programs my post code is PE13 4QQ
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Dave's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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