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 22/04/2024 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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Monday, 6 June 2011
Steve R: ITV1+1 is only provided for the "advertising regions", not for the "news regions". So, Anglia gets Meridian South for ITV1+1. Wales, gets ITV West on ITV1+1.
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R
Rob10:23 PM
Thanks for the input guys. Steve: no neighbours I know are freeview. But what is this signalling mode list? Something I clearly haven't seen.
Interestingly testing my main TV (Bravia in living room) simply still connected to sky dish I get ALL channels from SH! Connected to 32 element aerial, handheld, waving all over I still get ALL channels! So reception isn't the problem.
With the problem freeview scart box I've held it out of the top floor dormer window (top floor occupies roof space & loft is a crawl space so this is similar height and aspect I would have if mounted on rooftop). The problems persist. I am about to return the freeview box as I'm thinking it is at fault.....
I could go freesat with the existing dish but this scart mounted freeview box was so compact it was ideal for the wall mounted kitchen tv - it all stayed hidden behind the telly with no extra cables/brackets etc. Sigh!
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Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Rob: If you TV is connected to a dish then then no signal whatsoever comes from a terrestrial transmitter, but from a satellite over Africa.
As I said, you need a ROOFTOP aerial for Freeview reception, and if you are "waving" your aerial around, you clearly don't have one.
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Rob10:08 AM
Briantist, Sky Freesat I understand, but my Sony is most definitely 100% a Freeview TV. I went up and physically disconnected the sky dish from the cable and still got excellent Freeview just via the run of the satellite cable! Yes, odd, but I swear it is the truth!
Disconnect the TV from the cable and I lose signal. When I connect the handheld terrestrial antenna I am getting all Freeview channels again (same EPG, same channels).
As for ROOFTOP, to elaborate on my out-of-window experience, I supported the aerial on a broomstick, out of the top (3rd)floor dormer window (a couple of metres below the roof apex) on the side of the house that faces SH. I got my compass out, calculated magnetic declination, and aligned the aerial. The aerial connects direct to the "kitchen" TV which I have moved to the top floor for testing. I only get MUX A & C.
No, Brian, it isn't ROOFTOP but as close as dammit for testing purposes. If you still feel it isn't adequate and I need a genuine rooftop aerial I'll drop it there. I'm not trying to be argumentative:)
My point about aerial waving was that if the handheld aerial (not deliberately waving) in the living room on the Sony TV can give great Freeview reception then my almost-rooftop arrangement with the same aerial out the top floor window should be more than adequate to at least test the scart freeview box on the "kitchen" TV.
I suppose this is getting a bit complicated so I'll drop it for now und give an update if I solve it.
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Mike Dimmick2:44 PM
Rob: The reason we generally suggest a rooftop aerial is that it will be free of surrounding metal and hard surfaces, so will pick up fewer reflections, and is generally higher up and more likely to have clear line-of-sight to the transmitter, which produces the strongest signals.
However, at only 16km away the signals are likely to be more than strong enough for reliable reception, and indeed probably strong enough to overload the amplifier and cause intermodulation. I'd try out the attenuator.
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S
Steve4:21 PM
- TVs and boxes that do not support the 8k-mode | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice -
Rob - it's not one of the above is it?
If it used to work, but now does not, but other freeview does work from same aerial, maybe broken. How old? Return to seller for new one?
Have you tried a factory reset?
And/or a scan with no aerial, to clear out?
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Mike Dimmick7:56 PM
Steve, Rob: I'd assumed that since Rob said the problem started 'a few' weeks ago, it was more likely to be a reception issue.
It's now 8 weeks since the second step and 10 since the BBC multiplex changed modes. If the problem started that long ago then yes, it could be a TV that does not support 8K mode - Mux 1/BBC A, 2/D3&4, B/BBC B/HD and D/ArqB have all switched into the 8K mode but Mux A/SDN and C/ArqA have not yet done so.
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Mike Dimmick: Sorry to be picky, but BBCB uses 32k, not 8k...
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Wednesday, 8 June 2011
S
Steve12:27 AM
Brian - According to the data above, BBCB uses "HD" where others use "2k" or "8k"
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Steve: I have changed the descriptions to make it all clear.
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