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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
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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
Sunday, 22 January 2012
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:29 PM

Mike: Many thanks for the update as is always interesting to know the result of anything tried, even although if it might well be in a negative sense! Just a pity you didn't have a normal Freeview box to try out on your aerial (box connected to your TV via a scart lead) as although I know you were using the PC's-TV tuner to judge against the tuner / receiver in the TV its not really the best of devices to use for comparisons, albeit that it might well be OK for the purpose intended.

I think though that the latter comment you made in the update is best policy, as although you will always get someone finding fault with something, it wasn't exactly easy to read anything other than derogatory comments about that particular model of TV, albeit on the face of it nothing would seem amiss, especially with it having an M &S tag on it.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Monday, 23 January 2012
B
barclay
5:32 PM

hi, im soooooo confused :-(
i live in far cotton northampton and should get all sandy channels.
i can today get bbca, d3+4 & sdn on ch 31.
this website states sdn should be transmitted at only 20,000 watts, i dont understand that i can get this but i cant get arqa or arqb which are supposed to be transmitted at 180,000 & 170,000 watts?
also i have gold but it isnt listed?
can anyone explain please?

link to this comment
barclay's 3 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:47 PM

barclay: The only thing I can see that could be the issue is that ArqA and ArqB are on Group B channels (higher up frequencies).

Have you had your Group A aerial replaced with a wideband one (or a second aerial fitted for higher frequencies)?

I'm not saying that this is the problem, but it is an observation of a possibility.

Have you tried manually tuning in these channels? Does the bar show any signal whatsoever?

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
B
barclay
6:17 PM

hi dave,
thanks for the reply, i had a good wideband in the loft but couldnt get sdn so ive just connected up the old ariel outside so you are probably right, i cant spend the money on replacing it as we are moving soon.
thanks
barclay

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barclay's 3 posts GB flag
Friday, 27 January 2012
D
Dawn Bonham
2:49 PM

Why is it that I am unable to receive certain Freeview channels in Northampton NN3 that friends living in Wootton NN4 take for granted? Why? When considering BT Vision - out of the 72 Freeview channels available, there are apparently 53 channels I can't get. It does make Digital TV look a bit of a joke ! How can I progress ?

link to this comment
Dawn Bonham's 1 post GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:02 PM

Dawn Bonham: Around 8% of the population can only get the Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) services because the commercial broadcasters don't wish to install transmitters to cover them.

However, I'm not convinced that this affects you as there are no small transmitters in your area that only carry the PSBs.

In order to give a more precise answer, an exact location is required. As too is the transmitter from which you are receiving your signal. If the transmitter is unknown, then the direction of the aerial along with the location should allow it to be worked out.

If it is the commercial channels that you are missing, then perhaps you are receiving from Oxford transmitter. I say this because its commercial services are on low power until 18th April. This is so as to avoid interference with another transmitter that has yet to switch over to digital and is therefore using the same frequencies until then.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Thursday, 2 February 2012
H
Harry
3:00 AM
Harlow

hi we live in Harlow at CM187PB, we currently receive our signal from sandy Heath ( cambs & beds) , we have all channels available from sandy Heath apart from the COM4/SDN channels.. will we be able to receive these channels in the future as we have near maximum signals on all other muxes

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Harry's 1 post NO flag
Harry's: mapH's Freeview map terrainH's terrain plot wavesH's frequency data H's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:40 AM

Harry: SDN will go up to full power on 9th May.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Friday, 3 February 2012
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

6:55 AM

Harry : Apologies, the database flag for SDN being on low power had been removed by accident. I have restored the information, see above.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
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