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 04/12/2023 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, 14 January 2011
Leanne: There are no transmitter problems. I would suggest you get back whoever provided your aerial installation and ask them to make it work.
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aaron: No problems with this transmitter are reported. Bit hard to say without your postcode.
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P
Peter5:17 PM
I am sorry Brian, but these reports would indicate a widespread problem, the fact is that people from all over the region are suffering the same problems which in many cases commenced at the same time, how can that be attributed to anything but a transmitter fault?
Why are some channels okay, and others not, surely this would rule out local equipment problems?
I have looked at the links you posted but that still did not address the issue.
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L
Leanne5:21 PM
Brian, could you explain why I have a perfectly clear picture now but have not over the past few weeks including this morning, last night etc? The aeriel has not been touched. Here it will just say no signal regardless of channel.
Completely echo what Peter has said, can't be all our aeriels surely?
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F
Frustratred Ketterin9:19 PM
Since approximately the same date, all of our aerials have broken that have been pointed towards Sandy Heath. Is everyone out of step except Sandy Heath?
If the transmitter is fine and all out kit is fine, then the system is wrong!?
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P
Peter10:23 PM
I have a Topfield PVR in the bedroom, a Pansonic PVR and new LG TV in the living room and a Hauppage freeview card in the PC, they are all suffering channel loss/quality issues.
They run off a Televes high gain antenna on a big pole with a SLX 4 amp in the loft.
They all used to work fine.
By putting a netbook with a USB tuner right at the antenna, the signal strength I am getting is down on past performance. My stubby aerial with the USB tuner now gets nothing at all.
Ireally do not think the problem is at my end.
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Saturday, 15 January 2011
J
JJ10:30 PM
I've had really bad performance on freeview since just before Christmas. Before the performance dropped, I could get all the channels. Now I have lost all the BBC channels, and cannot get ITV1 or 2. Autotune on my tv is not able to pick up these lost channels. The comments on this forum suggest there might be a widespread problem in the area served by Sandy Heath. It is a bit worrying, as we are due to begin the switchover in March.
I live in Soham, just outside Ely.
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M
Mark10:40 PM
Similar Sandy Heath reception issues here in Cambridge.
Signal levels have dropped a little and pictures from the lower power muxes are breaking up on the TV.
My Topfield PVR and Bravia DTV both report same lower signal strength than normal when looped through on same antenna, and when plugged into it individually.
No changes in loft antenna, and no environmental changes on the wall that it points through.
This effect has been happening sporadically over the past 4 weeks. So far I assumed it related to power adjustment tests prior to analogue switch-off.
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Sunday, 16 January 2011
I
Ian11:54 PM
I concur with Mark (and many others) above. I live close to Bar Hill on the A45 in Cambridgeshire and have suffered exactly the same problems as those in the past few posts. Having consulted many relatives who live in the same area, they're all experiencing the same problems too.
How can it be all of our equipment suddenly becoming inadequate to receive Freeview from Sandy Heath when we're all experiencing the same problems? It makes no sense. :s
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Monday, 17 January 2011
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