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 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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Monday, 14 May 2012
A
Ashley7:53 PM
Since the works on 9th May, I began to experience problems with Channel 21 (BBC) and as of today, there is hardly any signal at all. Are there still problems this week with the Sandy Transmitter?
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Tuesday, 15 May 2012
J
jb387:41 AM
mike,: Going by the programme channels you have reported as not being able to receive your situation is slightly different from Lisa's insomuch that you are seemingly able to receive Ch48 but not Ch51 nor Ch52, whereas in the case of Lisa her Ch52 is OK but not Ch48 and Ch51.
I suspect that the two channels you haven't picked up are still likely to be there but just not at a sufficiently high enough level for your TV's tuner to lock onto during a scan, so I would be interested to know the result if you went into the tuning menu / manual tune and entered either Ch51 or 52 but do NOT press search or scan, as in many devices as soon as a channel is entered into the manual search box its strength appears on the level indicator bar even although its not actually stored.
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J
jb3812:14 PM
Lisa: Apologies for delay in replying to your update, but if you read my reply to "mike," that immediately precedes this posting (15th @ 07.41am) that also covers what I feel is applicable to your own situation, insomuch that if the signal is actually there but just running at a low level that's not high enough for your TV's tuner to lock on to, then only the use of an aerial amplifier is likely to improve the situation, although an aerial being tried in different positions can in many cases be very effective, however I feel that in your situation this isn't really an option.
As far as these problem channels are concerned, namely Ch48 and Ch51, if you go into the "manual store" menu on your TV and enter Ch51 (714.000mhz) you might immediately see the signal strength being indicated without pressing search / scan, you could also try the test on Ch48 (690mhz), if though you do not see the strength being immediately indicated when you entered the channel / frequency then scan it anyway.
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L
Lisa9:20 PM
Hi jb38
many thanks for your latest post. I've now entered both Ch48 (690mhz) and Ch51 (714mhz) on the 'manual store' menu as you suggested, and both came with a selectable option of a 'Bandwidth' of either 7mhz or 8mhz - no other indication of signal strength at all - so I pressed the scan button on each Ch selection and got a message saying 'no channels memorised', so once again, no progress at all.
Whilst I acknowledge that this isn't your fault or problem and I appreciate all your kind help and advice in the matter, at the end of the day I'm really quite angry and frustrated that I now find myself without a good number of channels which I watched regularly prior to 9th May - my thoughts on this - "if it 'aint broke, don't fix it!" a sentiment which I'm sure will be mirrored by a number of people also having the same issues and problems on this forum.
many thanks again for your help.
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S
steve10:25 PM
Luton
Since the sandy heath retune my tv reception has got terrible, I'm getting picture break up on pretty much every channel. Is there still work being done or could it be atmospherics?
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steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 16 May 2012
J
jb387:35 AM
Lisa: Yes, its one of these type of situations whereby all a viewer can really do is to make sure that there is nothing amiss with their receiving equipment / installation as the problem is basically out with their control, as when a signal source changes from 20Kw up to 170Kw any problems with lost channels is usually caused by the tuner in their TV / boxes being overloaded, this resulting in either no reception on that particular channel or in more extreme cases no reception of anything, the "set top aerial" test always proving if this condition is applying or not.
Of course area's not too far away from you must be iffy for reception or the 40watts Dallington Park relay (@ 2 miles) wouldn't have been necessary, although I would find it very interesting to know what type of reception your neighbours are having on these channels if they are also receiving from Sandy, as Waltham is indicated as a possibility for reception in your area albeit that its SDN (ITV3 etc) dips into a variable reception status early September.
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Thursday, 17 May 2012
E
ErwinH10:23 PM
Hitchin
I have experienced problems similar to Lisas here in Hitchin using a Sony VTX-D800U digital receiver and an Acoustic Solutions (Argos own-brand) digital TV with an amplified communal aerial. We are a two-storey block of flats and I am on the upper floor. On the 9th May retune we lost Channel 51 Channel 52 is also lost, gone in the previous retune but I never watch that. The full 114 stations are reduced to 63. However, I can receive all channels perfectly using an old indoor TV aerial. I have a friend living in Chicksands (9 miles north) who also uses an indoor aerial on the ground floor of his house. He could not get Channel 51 prior to 9th May but now does. We are both somewhat closer to Sandy Heath than is Lisa in Northampton but an indoor aerial might be the solution and is certainly worth a try (possibly upstairs if available).
If I reconnect the communal aerial and look at the technical information on the Sony box then stations on Channels 51 and 52 have full signal strength but poor signal quality. This seems to vary with atmospheric conditions and sometimes the quality improves to give a watchable picture. Is this good strength but poor quality signal indicative of the wrong sort of aerial? Ours seems to struggle with frequencies greater than 700MHz. Or is it perhaps a sign of over-amplification? I shall experiment with attenuating the signal.
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ErwinH's: mapE's Freeview map terrainE's terrain plot wavesE's frequency data E's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 18 May 2012
I
Ian4:06 PM
I also experience same problem with my Lowry set top box , tried all the option so far, seems that Sandy heath are having problems, before upgrade it was excellent, can we have a downgrade back to where it was.... too many from all ov, I live in Milton Keyneser the area having same problems
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J
jb389:19 PM
ErwinH: If you can receive all the channels perfectly OK with a set top aerial then this is simply because of either (1) The signal you are receiving via the communal aerial is excessively high and is partially blocking the Sony's tuner, or (2) that the distribution amplifier used by the communal aerial system is itself being overloaded and sending out an defective signal, as you are indicated as being only 12 miles away from Sandy.
I feel though that its No1 that's the cause of your problem, and the only reason that a set top aerial works is because that it will not supply the same level of signal into the tuner as would be obtained from a communal aerial system (or roof if not communal) not that terribly far away from the transmitter, and so you should purchase an attenuator to place in line with the Sony's aerial socket, one of the variable types with a range of 0 - 20db would be fine, as although I feel that a fixed attenuator of about 10db would be suffice its very difficult to judge as to whether it would be or not as it depends on just how strong the signal is.
By the way you cannot reply on the signal strength / quality indications seen on Freeview devices that are operating with an excessively high level of signal, as the signal data gets corrupted in the tuner which results in the system used for measuring the strength / quality giving false readings, these always being low.
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Saturday, 19 May 2012
J
Jon D11:05 AM
Stevenage
Hi,
I replaced my free view box a couple of days ago and since then some of the channels come with the message bad or poor signal then the picture apairs and its fine but go geSt some Pixelation now and again! But with the old freeview box (icecript t5000) i got 90% SIGNAL AND 100% QUALITY !! But with the NEW freeview box ( a cheap alba box) i am getting 45% SIGNAL ON MOST CHANNELS BUT ONLY 30% ON C4 AND C5 BUT GETTING A 100% QUALITY ON ALL CHANNELS!! Has any one got any ideas??
PS Ilive in Stevenage in hertfordshire and is getting my signal from Sandy Heath !
Many thanks Jon D
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Jon's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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