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 21/10/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
_______
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
|
|
Saturday, 19 May 2012
Jon D: I posted previously to you about checking that the receiver is tuned to Sandy Heath channels rather than Crystal Palace (or any other transmitter):
Freeview on Sandy Heath TV transmitter | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
You should confirm that you are tuned to Sandy Heath by bringing up the signal strength screen on the following and checking that they tuned correctly:
BBC One = C27
ITV1 = C24
BBC One HD = C21
ITV3 = C51
Pick TV = C52
Yesterday = C48
If they all show 100% quality and they remain so, then you have nothing to worrry about.
For digital reception, so long as the signal strength is above the threshold needed to resolve the picture, and it remains so, then the picture quality is the best that it can be.
Not all the strength scales (shown on the screen) are the same so I wouldn't go comparing expecting them to be the same.
| link to this comment |
J
Jon D12:10 PM
Stevenage
Hi,
Thanks for the info, the channals are correct! So will leave it that!
Thanks again Jon D
| link to this comment |
Jon's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
T
Tim11:56 PM
Radlett
Has COM4/SDN on channel 51 gone up in power as of the 9 th May?
| link to this comment |
Tim's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 20 May 2012
J
jb387:24 AM
Tim: Yes, because as well as changing its operating channel Sandy's SDN increased power from 20Kw up to 170Kw.
| link to this comment |
D
DErek8:56 PM
I live on top of the Chiltern Hills just south of Luton.
Typically people living near me pointed their aerials at Crystal Palace and watched London regional programs.
Since the latest retunes I am getting Anglia Region programs
Is there anything I can do to resolve it?
| link to this comment |
Derek: Try manually tuning if your receiver allows.
For Sandy Heath they are 27, 24, 21 (HD), 51, 52, 48
Unfortunately Crystal Palace's channels are in the 20s, so there is no workaround with unplugging the aerial during the scanning of its channels.
Ideally, wipe what's stored and add the five (or six if it's HD) channels. Simply manually tuning without clearing what's already there may achieve nothing as these channels will probably be stored in the 800s, and therefore when they are manual tuned, the TV may consider that they are already stored.
If you would like some more help/pointers with this, let us know what make and model you are using.
| link to this comment |
S
Stephen P10:42 PM
Derek post your postcode here so we can see what strengths and directions involved.
What aerial are you using?
You may have the channels you want in the 800s (usually) and be able to move them to 101/2/3 etc.
Freesat lets you pick whatever services you like, Automatically if yyou give it a postcode for where you want.
| link to this comment |
Monday, 21 May 2012
M
Matt7:53 PM
Hi, Before the May switchover thing a few weeks back ive lost looooads of stations? Before the May switchover i was doing realy well and had all the stations,now im missing loads and others cut in and out and pixelate. Whats all that about???? My postcode is PE38
Stations ive lost are Quest,E4+1,Film 4,Viva,4 Music, Dave ect ect ect, ive lost loads!
| link to this comment |
J
jb389:08 PM
Matt: All around the Downham Market area (should you be in it) its possible to pick up signals from both Sandy and Belmont with roughly the same strength in various areas and you might have picked up a mixture of both during a re-tune, and so "if" BBC Look East is your news service then its coming from Sandy on mux Ch27, and so the three commercial mux channels that match it are: 51 - 52 - 48.
To check this, select Dave(11) and carry out a signal check on it for purposes of seeing what channel number is associated with the indication, which of course should be mux Ch52, if 53 its from Belmont.
Carry out the same test on Quest(38) and in that case its should be mux Ch51 but 30 if from Belmont, finally select Yesterday(12) which should be mux Ch48 but 60 if Belmont.
If you find that that's what's happened then you will require to manually tune in Sandy's six mux channels one at a time, these being :27 - 24 - 21(HD) - 51 - 52 - 48
Should though you have Look North as the BBC news service then that's from Belmont, and in that case the six mux channels used are: 22 - 25 - 28(HD) - 30 - 53 - 60
| link to this comment |
Select more comments
Your comment please