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 04/11/2024 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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Saturday, 8 October 2011
R
RobWhitwell6:25 PM
Steve, That is exactly what has happened with my reception.
Apparently the official line is the SH transmiter has not reduced power. However I think you and I are both developing our own ideas.
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J
jb387:27 PM
RobWhitwell: Only the gullible believes without question what might be published, as the only people that really do know the situation being the backroom engineers that might happen to be working at the station.
It would have been of interest to have an idea of your own location though, considering you are reporting a similar situation to that of reception in Milton Keynes.
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R
RobWhitwell7:32 PM
Hi jb38,
Location is just north west of the village of Whitwell, near Hitchin.
Approx 500m from the village, which because of a hill between us and them, recieves their signals from Crystal Palace. Hope this helps.
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Friday, 14 October 2011
M
Mark8:28 AM
Northampton
Location: just outside Northampton
Aerial in loft (antiference amplified log periodic 28db)
We are almost 30 miles from Sandy Heath and have had no problems receiving all muxes since ondigital days. So it is possible.
As an example, right now on on C67 signal strength 76% and quality 100%.
Biggest issue is aerial occasionally picking up signals from crystal palace, Waltham, Oxford and Sutton Coldfield and adding numerous duplicate BBC and itv channels in the 800+ range.
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Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
C
chrism4212:50 PM
Cambridge
Hi, any good ideas on the following?
Since switchover started in April, my reception of BBCA C27 has got progressively worse and worse. On day 1 (30th March) it was rock solid 80% strength, 100% quality. On 13th April, when the ITV channels (Mux D3+4, Channel 24) changed over, it dropped to 70% strength / 100% quality but with the occasional freeze. I wondered if it was suffering from too much signal, so removed the masthead booster. These days the strength and quality fluctuate wildly and the BBC channels freeze and pixellate and are too irritating to watch.
But... C24/MuxD3+4 has been rock solid 80% strength / 100% quality all the way since 13th April and still is. (So I don't think I'm suffering from having a loft aerial).
C31 is also 80% strength / 100% quality, despite still being on low power? C67 is not usable, as usual, and C48 is the worst of the lot.
What do we think could be the problem with BBCA/C27? Interference? - but are there any other transmitters using C27?
(I'm in Cambridge E, loft aerial, no booster).
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chrism42's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
S
Steve11:10 AM
Freeview channels are 8 or 9 for reception except channel 31 which is 1.
Some of the freeview boxes work whereas the freeview tv on its own does not get, say channel 82 Sky.
Probably using sandy heath. Postal Area cb10
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K
KMJ,Derby2:27 PM
Steve: The CB10 postcode area covers quite a large area with regard to predicting reception, however it does lie in an overlap area between Sandy Heath and Crystal Palace which causes problems for reception of C31 in some locations. You did say that you were missing Sky News. This is carried on MuxC which is currently transmitted on C67. If there is no signal on C67 it is usually either a single frequency interference problem from an RF modulator set to C67/C68, or simply that being the highest frequency the losses in the cable and/or lower aerial gain at that frequency result in "no signal" at the receiver. Note that on 23rd November 2011 a retune will be required as from that date MuxC/ArqA will be transmitted on C52 at higher power and use 8k mode, so reception should improve on this mux.
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S
Steve J3:36 PM
Cambridge
Hi, can someone tell me when MUX a,c and com6 power will be increased? I'm CB21 6AU and I've had loss of signal. I've just chaged aerial to a Log Peridic and replaced the cables and this has increased the strength but I still get occational loss of sound and pixelation on those chanels. I'm assuming power increase will fix the problems as I'm getting 95% strength on the others and no issues. Thanks
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Steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Steve J: From above "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."
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Saturday, 29 October 2011
S
Simon9:23 AM
Something changed in Northampton around middle of last week. Suddenly no DAB signal, where has been quite useable last few years. A full scan brings back no stations. Just bought a new radio thinking it might have died, same result. Anyone know whats changed?
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