menuMENU    UK Free TV logo Freeview

 

 

Click to see updates

Full Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.130,-0.242 or 52°7'47"N 0°14'33"Wsa_postcodeSG19 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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
_______

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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C27 (522.0MHz)291mDTG-180,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) Cambridge, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 16 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C24 (498.0MHz)291mDTG-180,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Anglia (West micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) South ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 South ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Anglia east), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C21+ (474.2MHz)291mDTG-180,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Cambridge, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H -0.2dB
C33 (570.0MHz)291mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -0.2dB
C36 (594.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -0.2dB
C48 (690.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

DTG-8 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?

regional news image
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
regional news image
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?

1965-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-1312 Feb 2020
VHFA K TK TK TW TW T
C6ITVwaves
C21C4wavesC4wavesC4waves+BBCBBBCB
C24ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C27BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C31BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C32com7
C33SDN
C34com8
C35_local
C36ArqA
C39C5wavesC5waves
C43_local
C48ArqBArqB
C51tv_offSDN
C52tv_offArqA
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_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

Oct 1959-Feb 2004Anglia Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Comments
Saturday, 21 January 2012
F
Frances Lawless
3:56 PM

Reception is very poor between 6.00pm and 8.00pm. Pictures freezes and breaks every few minutes. No problems at all at other times of the day. I have an aerial.I'm in Milton Keynes

link to this comment
Frances Lawless's 1 post GB flag
M
Mike
4:41 PM
Biggleswade

I am using a small Yagi aerial (7 bars, dipole and simple screen) bought from Homebase and formerly used in loft but now on high pole attached to shed pointing directly at mast (visible). Pefect picture all time from PC-TV tuner (USB widget) but M&S 1906F001 digi TV experiences breakup, bad sync all time, all channels, attentuator makes it worse. As I said, pre full digital not so bad. I suspect 3yold TV is actually rubbish.

link to this comment
Mike's 6 posts GB flag
Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:09 PM

Mike: Being located at only 4 miles away from Sandy you could possibly be suffering from severe signal overloading problems, your PC tuner not being because its liable to be insensitive compared to that in the TV.

My reason though for saying "possibly", is that in locations not too far away from a tall mast the signal received tends to be lower than that obtained from a position slightly further away, this due to the umbrella shielding effect, so a way to check the signal level received is to try a test set using a top aerial into your M&S TV, or if this not to hand try a short piece of wire (about 2/3 feet or so) pushed into the inner part of the TV aerials socket and see what results you get.

If you get OK reception by doing that then an attenuator of at least 20dB is required, and there shouldn't really be any need for your aerial to be mounted on a high pole either, unless that is you really are shielded!

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
M
Mike
7:08 PM
Biggleswade

jb38: Thanks, I also thought high signal strength might be the problem so I tried the tiny aerial that came with the PC-TV tuner in the M&S set. Result was no reception on freeview and very poor on the main channels (BBC1 etc). The PC tuner actually worked better with this little aerial. Also used an attentuator, variable up to 20dB but this just made it worse. Hence my suspicions that the TV is faulty but cannot understand why it got much worse after digital switchover - we always used it on digital before with limited problems.

link to this comment
Mike's 6 posts GB flag
Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
KMJ,Derby
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:15 PM

Mike: As a matter of interest how does the M&S set perform when ITV3 or QVC are selected? I make this suggestion as the SDN mux is still in its pre-switchover state, ie 2k mode at 20kW.

link to this comment
KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:39 PM

KMJ,Derby / Mike: A very valid point KMJ, as the power / 2K operation could be the main factor that's causing the problem.

Mike: I tried but failed, to find out some technical details about the specification of your set, as all I seemed to see were somewhat derogatory comments being made of not only your model but also another 26" version, so your assessment of the device could well be spot on.

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:50 PM

jb38, Mike: I wondered if the "M&S 1906F001" might be found by dropping the 001 suffix. There is a model made by Murphy: TP-1906F

A manual for this model is here:

http://www.contrast-uk.ne….pdf

link to this comment
Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:27 PM

Dave Lindsay: Yes, it looks as though that might be the device in question, although as you will obviously see on looking at the manual the absolute minimum spec is listed, and the idea of a service manual is quite out of the question, not of course that any of these type of devices are really repaired as such because in most cases anything under guarantee is just really replaced as a complete unit as parts aren't imported, with any that are seen advertised in places such as e-bay or wherever being boards that have been removed from complete TV's that have been damaged in one way or another.

This applies to most obscure brands of audio / video devices, and in some cases not so obscure!




link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Sunday, 22 January 2012
M
Mike
6:03 PM
Biggleswade

KMJ,Derby: jb38: D Lindsey:
Many thanks for all your help. ITV3 is just as bad but BBC1, BBC2 etc are all showing issues and not part of the MUX system? I dont think electrical interference is an issue as there seems nothing close to the set that might emit a signal - timing seems to be random as well. The Murphy 'manual' is certainly near identical to the one I have so that is its origin. I too have found derogatory comments about the set on the web. It seems very likely that the TV is, if not faulty as such, just plain poor quality. I may persue this further with M&S and/or get a better set.

link to this comment
Mike's 6 posts GB flag
Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Select more comments

Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

UK Free TV is here to help people. If you are rude or disrespectful all of your posts will be deleted and you will be banned.








Privacy policy: UK Free Privacy policy.