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

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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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 29/05/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C27 (522.0MHz)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	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, 250 BBC Red Button, plus 15 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C24 (498.0MHz)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	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, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Anglia east),
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C21+ (474.2MHz)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	56 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD (England no regional news), 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, 109 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H -0.2dB	C33 (570.0MHz)	291m	DTG-8	170,000W
	20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! movies action, 46 Channel 5 +1, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 CBS Reality, 74 Dave ja vu, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 89 ITV4 +1, 203 CITV, 208 Pop Player, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, plus 15 others
COM5 ArqA	H -0.2dB	C36 (594.0MHz)	289m	DTG-8	170,000W
	11 Sky Arts, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 pick, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 57 Smithsonian Channel, 60 Drama +1, 70 Quest +1, 75 Yesterday +1, 83 Together TV, 233 Sky News, plus 9 others
COM6 ArqB	H -0.2dB	C48 (690.0MHz)	289m	DTG-8	170,000W
	12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 71 Quest Red +1, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 88 Classic Hits, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 19 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?

BBC Look East (West) 1.0m homes 3.7%
from Cambridge CB4 0WZ, 29km east-northeast (66°)
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	ITV_waves
C21		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C24		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C27		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C31		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves
C32						com7
C33						SDN
C34						com8
C35						_local
C36						ArqA
C39			C5_waves	C5_waves
C43					_local
C48					ArqB	ArqB
C51_{tv_off}					SDN
C52_{tv_off}					ArqA
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						COM8_{tv_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

Local transmitter maps

Sandy Heath Freeview Sandy Heath DAB Sandy Heath TV region BBC Cambridge Anglia (West micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sandy Heath transmitter area

Oct 1959-Feb 2004	Anglia Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

R

Russ Dring

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

9:38 PM
Spalding

David, Are you receiving ? At your location it is possible that you are picking up too, is approximately in the same direction. If you did a full rescan your could have taken the SDN from C.P. at a lower . Try scanning with the aerial unplugged then, manually input the following 21, if you have H.D. then 24, 27, 48.51,and 52. These are the Sandy channels. Here in Spalding I have 100% quality on all multiplexes signals ranging from 83 - 90%

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Russ Dring's 48 posts

R

Russ Dring

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

9:52 PM
Spalding

David,
Sorry should have said exactly the opposite direction! Your could be picking up C.P. from the back of the aerial. Seeing the S.D.N. from C.P.on Ch 25, could store it first ignoring the Sandy multiplex on Ch 51. Also at your locaton, though a long way away, which uses Ch 25 could reduce the of C.P.if it has stored it.

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Russ Dring's 48 posts

J

Jason
11:12 PM

Hi
Most people need to only retune in manual if you live within the Milton Keynes area. If you do an automatic tune there is a chance that the will up aswell as .
So go to menu and select manual tune. Then ch21'24'27'48'51 and 52.
Do not choose automatic tune.

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Jason's 2 posts

S

Stephen P

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

11:39 PM

Christine Frost - If you have several TVs that used to work and now all don't it is probably either your or a problem.

What experience do others locally have.

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Stephen P's 1,173 posts

B

Brian
9:10 AM
March

When will the Tx'r info in the table above be updated (assuming it will be.
Primarily to show SDN om mux A (Com 4)now being 51 ( 714 MHz)
Regards Brian

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Brian's 17 posts

D

Derek Bradnam
12:16 PM

Lost all of my BBC and my box now will not above 32.
, this was after recomended re-tune.

Rf is set to channel 68 is this correct?

Before you ask I have unplugged and re-plugged as you have recomended.

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Derek Bradnam's 1 post

M

murf
9:32 PM
Ely

Is anyone else having problems with lost on the COM4 block (e.g. on ch10)???

My Mum is reporting this (on ) after retuning this week. She hates anything technical so asked me to but I know nothing about Freeview (only have , no ) - saw the stuff about channels above and got her to try only channels on COM4 and she doesn't have them either. Everything else (she watches) seems OK.

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murf's 2 posts

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:46 PM

murf: (epg 10) is now operating on high from on SDN mux 51 but has only been doing so since early morning, so I suggest that a complete reset should be made on whatever she is using followed by another auto-tune being carried out.

If she doesn't live local to you then ask her to remove the and carry out an auto-tune without it as that will blank out anything stored, then reinsert the aerial again and carry out a final auto-tune and that will load the channels back in again.

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jb38's 7,179 posts

N

Nigel Johnson
1:16 AM

I cannot receive 48, all other received at 10/10 and signal strength. My postde is PE132EG

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Nigel Johnson's 19 posts

M

Martini
1:54 AM
St. Neots

Nigel,
Try a manual tune of 48.
This may get them saved.
Are you picking up on that TV as you may have those from there and the Sandy ones in the 800's.

Page 88

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.

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