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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Sunday, 29 May 2011
B
Bob M11:10 AM
Gloucester
Sandy heath channel 67 mux (Yesterday, film4 etc) has vanished completly here in Brandon - it was there most of the time a few days ago - anyone else lost it? All the rest, inc HD no problem at all.
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Bob's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 30 May 2011
S
steve willis12:18 PM
Help please. My mum has a new panasonic viera with built in freeview. There were no problems before the switchover but now she is getting random 'no signal'. tv can be fine for hours then just loses signal. Her seperate box upstairs also cuts out at the same time. This made me think aerial but have checked and all seems ok. Local company that installed it have also said it's ok. TV has been returned - no faults found. There is an amplifier in the loft feeding 3 outlets. all cables and connectors have been replaced. Any ideas gratefully recieved as this is causing my OAP mum real frustration.. thanks in advance - oh software / retunes all completed.
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steve willis: I would suspect the signal is being damaged by the amplifier. If it has a "level", try turning it right down.
You would probably be best removing the amplifier from the system altogether.
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Saturday, 4 June 2011
I live in the PE8 5QU area which is Luddington in the Brook. Since the change over to complete digital we have suffered from more "NO SIGNAL" episodes than we had on analogue with some digital channels. We are at a loss as to why this is happening becuase we were told the signal strength would be about ten times stronger. Could you please advise us on how to alleviate this upsetting problem in 2011. My name is John Arman, I am 70 years young but am up to sped with a lot of modern technology. We have had our aeirial and leads checked before the change over. Tonight 4 June we have missed the final of BGT not only that but but we are findig out that we are losing important sections of some programs.
Kind regards John Arman
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John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Steve11:40 PM
John - what you had on analogue is gone so the better comparison is then and now digital.
See the page for Sandy Heath - bit east of south, where your ae should point.
Freeview on Sandy Heath TV transmitter | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
NOTE: The commercial multiplexes at Sandy Heath will remain on their pre-switchover channels and powers for a period after digital switchover. SDN will then temporarily move to channel 31 (at 20kW ERP) on 31 Aug 2011, before adopting its final allocation of channel 51 on 18th April 2012. Arqiva A will adopt its final allocation of channel 52 on 23 Nov 2011. Arqiva B will temporarily move to channel 67 (at 20kW ERP) at switchover and then it will adopt its final allocation of channel 48 on 14 Sept 2011. NOTE: D3&4 and HD use transitional S1 antenna until 27 June 2012.
(PE85QU)
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Monday, 6 June 2011
R
Rob11:09 AM
Cambridge
I got an "Ex-Pro Digital Freeview Receiver" from amazon to plug directly into the scart of the kitchen telly.
I put a pound shop set-top antenna on the end of the satellite cable in the loft as a throwaway test but amazingly got 60+ channels clearly for a few weeks (including local BBC1 etc). But a couple of weekends ago "lost" all except MUX A and C, i.e. got "No Signal".
I have been through factory reset countless times & eliminated possbility of interference.
I subsequently got a commtel 32 element wideband aerial (£12 homebase) and same results (tried various places in the loft and around the house).
I looked into what I should expect. Sandy Heath is 10 miles away with near enough line of sight. I am at CB23 3LQ.
Using manual scanning of PSB1 and PSB2 I see 80-90% signal strength but 0% quality.
The weaker MUX A & C have 60% strength and 60-70% quality so I can view them fine.
If I swing around and point north to Waltham (almost 50 miles) I can get MUX 1 and A fairly easily but obviously wrong regional channels.
I'm about to give up! Is this maybe a case of "too strong" a signal requiring an attenuator? I may pop to maplin later today...
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Rob's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
Jason3:39 PM
Hi, why is digital switchover such a long and drawn out process with some MUX's still at much reduced power levels? It's so frustrating! I have the stronger PSB1, 2 and 3 with no problems at all while the weaker MUX's remain unrelaiable. Originally I thought all the MUX's were goint to have a power increase last April but no - more waiting and more money to be spent in the knowledge that at some point the remaining MUX's will have power increased meaning that my current wideband aerial would be perfectly adequate. Just a bit fed up with the amount of time it's taking! I'm in North Stevenage by the way.
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Jason: The frequencies used for the commercial multiplexes cannot be taken to full power until the same frequencies are cleared in neighbouring regions.
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Rob: You need to use a ROOFTOP aerial for reliable Freeview reception, you will get all six multiplexes from Sandy Heath with 100% reliability.
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