Full Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter
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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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Thursday, 29 September 2011
M
MickO10:57 PM
Milton Keynes
Thanks for the power change info. Could not the change date and some details be inserted onto the graphics showing the mux's. i.e. the "sandy coloured" horizontal fingers, for want of a better description. .............................. 23Nov12, 8K, CH52, 180kW ) ............................../ long time since I did ascii graphics!!
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MickO's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 30 September 2011
N
Neil12:26 PM
Saffron Walden
Over the past 3 weeks or so we have been seeing loss of signal on the BBC SD channels- mainly BBC 1 and 2 from Sandy at CB10 2TL. Nothing ahs changed in our box or aeriel setup. HD signal is good.
Have tried full reset and retune and the problem improves then deteriorates again. Looking at signal strength, we see 85% on most channels but only 43% on the affected ones. Today, the picture is much better and the SS is back to 85% on the BBC channels- was there a temporary power reduction recently?
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Neil's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Neil: No, there is no power reduction, please can you see Single frequency interference | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice for help.
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Saturday, 1 October 2011
L
Louise8:20 PM
Ely
I think i may have figured out why i'm getting no reception on some channels. Last year the coax plug on the end of our tv aerial was removed after rusting away. It was never replaced but the end of the aerial cable was placed into some sort of plastic plate that has another cable attached which went into the freeview box. Now the end of the cable that leads from the plate into freeview box is very dodgy and everytime i move the cable the picture goes off. How easy is it to put a coax plug onto the end of an aerial? We live in rented accommodation so i'm slightly worried about doing it myself and getting into trouble with the landlady and i'm not sure how much it is to get someone out to do it, being on a very limited budget? Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks :-)
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Louise's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Steve P11:53 PM
Louise - It is very easy, so long as you have a reasonable length of coax cable to work on. Just cut back to clean unrusted cable, and connect the wire in the middle to the middle prong and the mesh on the outside to the outside, MAKING SURE THEY DO NOT TOUCH; NOT EVEN ONE STRAND
These nice people have pix
How To Attach / Wire Up Plugs, Wall Plates & Aerials
But
1) This may well be landlord's responsibility
2) Don't you know anyone used to this stuff?
Best of luck.
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Sunday, 2 October 2011
Doug B
10:10 AM
10:10 AM
I live in Harlow CM18, a fringe area for Sandy, and had the same problem with SDN-CH31. However since 29th September I can now get SDN-CH31, signal strength & quality about 50% each. Have made no changes to my system, will have to wait 'til the weather turns cooler to see whether it is down to atmospherics or changes that have been made that have not been publicised. May try Steve's "magic shield" if problem recurs.
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M
Maurice1:56 PM
Hi Folks
Can anyone explain why I keep losing reception of channels fromSandy heath? I might lose BBC channels, the independent channels, then both, then none. Over the last couple of days I've reset maybe ten times with differing results. This morning, I appear to have regained a full complement but, for how long?
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S
Steve P4:36 PM
Wrexham
could be the weather - there's a page somewhere here about the Inversion effect.
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Steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 3 October 2011
Steve P: It's here, but you found it automatically by typing in "Inversion Effect".
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R
RobWhitwell9:37 AM
Living in Whitwell. just outside Hitchin we hve always received digital)and previously analogue) from Sandy H. The other sid eof the viullage recieves from Crystal P.
Since the awitchover we have had notifications to re-tune and have duly doen these. Now ESPN (Channel 4) has disappeared. Signal strength shows as 29&, and quality ZERO. using a Humax 9200T which has always served us well.
Has anyone else lost this channel?
If it has gone then it is time to stop the subscription.
Freeview really is getting worse day by day.
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