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 29/05/2023 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 (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 | 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 |
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
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Wednesday, 23 May 2012
J
jb388:39 PM
Matt: These channels mentioned are from Sandy, but though Tacolneston is predicted as giving superior reception on that code and so its a case of where your aerial is actually facing towards, as for Tacolneston it should be pointing at just about due East as its located at 93 degrees @ 32 miles, whereas Sandy is at 220 degrees @ 40 miles.
Tacolneston uses channels 55 - 59 - 62 - 42 - 45 - 50, so if your aerial is facing East then delete what you have stored and manually tune in each of these muxes, as an auto-tune will usually always store anything lower than these albeit some are intertwined with Sandy's channels.
Another point you should always remember is, that if a person finds that after having carried out a retuning exercise that they now get less of a channel count than they previously had, then dependant on equipment used it can sometimes only mean that duplicates of a channel no longer exist rather than an actual channel as such having been lost, albeit fully admitting that it might actually be the case of a channel or two missing.
What make / model of TV or box are you using?
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K
Kelda10:39 PM
Bedford
Hi, I wonder if anybody can help.
Recently we have lost signal all channels on COM4. They either display pixalated or with the message "no or bad signal". This seems to have coincided with the updates earlier in May (have missed 3 weeks of Justified!). We only noticed when we came to watched recorded programmes from these channels. This continues to be a problem following a retune. We had this problem previously, but it was fixed after our switchover last year.
Our postcode is MK41 7HN, and get our signal from Sandy Heath.
Is there anything I can do to get these channels back?
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S
Stephen P11:37 PM
Matt if you look at the transmission frequencies above it lookls likely that your aerial is designed to get the low numbers previously in use but NOT the high ones. So when SDN moved recently from 31 to 51 you lost it.
Sounds like new aerial
Kelda COM4=SND - so same answer.
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Thursday, 24 May 2012
J
jb384:30 PM
Lisa: On back tracking through the postings made over the last few days and NOT seeing your name mentioned did actually make me wonder as to whether or not your problem had magically rectified itself, however the content of your latest posting has somewhat answered this.
Anyway, with regards to your idea of contacting someone connected to the switch over scheme for purposes of making a complaint, obviously what you decide to do is entirely your own decision, however I would advise against taking such action as its almost a foregone conclusion that any reply that you may receive from whoever will put the reason for your difficulties firmly down to some aspect concerning your installation come equipment that you are using.
That said, and without going over too much old ground, but your problem is simply because that you are not receiving two of the three commercial muxes which are transmitting on Ch's 48 - 51 - 52, insomuch that you ARE picking up programmes on ArqA Ch52 like (11) Pick TV or (19) Dave, but not though any that's on ArqB Ch48 such as (12) Yesterday / (24) ITV4, a similar situation applying with SDN Ch51 that (10) ITV3 or (38) Quest is on.
So getting back to the test I suggested you try by manually tuning in mux Ch48 as well as Ch51 and this being where you had mentioned about the bandwidth being requested, can I take it that you did select 8Mhz "before" pressing scan? as if you did not or had selected 7Mhz then nothing would be picked up. If though you did select 8Mhz and nothing was received then I would like you to select (11) Pick TV and check what the signal level / quality is indicated as being, as I still suspect that the signal is there but sitting just under the level that your tuner can operate on, Ch52 possibly having the slight power edge over Ch48 & Ch51 and that's why you can receive it.
There is of course another and much simpler way that you could determine the cause of your problem, that being to try and borrow another TV but not a Samsung brand, as most Samsungs do not have sensitive tuners.
Also, have you checked with any neighbours to find out if they experience similar problems to yourself with reception of either ITV3 or Yesterday? as only these two are required for testing as they represent the two muxes, but though if they can pick these channels up then have a look up at their roof to make sure that their aerial is pointing in the same direction as your own.
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Friday, 25 May 2012
M
Matt9:44 AM
jb38: My devices im using are...
Samsung Syncmaster 2333HD
LG42LD450
Panasonic DMR-EZ57V
PHILIPS HDT8520
If its a case of needing 'ANOTHER' new ariel i wont bother, instead ill sell everything apart from my LG42LD450 TV, stop paying my TV license, then start to use the internet to stream TV and Films on my laptop and LG42LD450 TV, great way to beat the man!
Everytime you do a switchover somthing new goes wrong, we get in touch to try solve the problem but are basicaly told its our fault and we'll need to spend more and more. You know last time i had a problem i phoned the Freeview helpline only to be told all my equipment were the wrong ones and there was nothing they could do! (despite the fact all my equipment is modern and previously had all the stations) lol
I feel so so sorry for the old people out there who are stuck with no channels and struggle to even learn the very basics of how to use a freeview box, they wouldnt have clue what anyone talks about on here (if they could even work out how to get here)
The whole things a complicated f**k up!
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M
Matt9:59 AM
jb38: Ps im not able to pick up anything from Tacelston either, just tried the manual tuning on Tacelstone muxes.
Funny how you say that they "PREDICT" that Tacelston gives off more power than Sandyheath. Spend more money on having my ariel messed around with yet again only to be no better off i bet. lol
Or id pay to have my ariel looked at and problem go away........untill you do another switchover and it all goes wrong yet again.
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S
Stephen P10:29 AM
Matt you seem to be "blessed" with two equal strength signals; both with a * for risk of multipath effects.
Are you redirecting your aerial for Tacolneston?
The switchover is nearly over so you should now or soon be able to get a final solution!
Freesat is good.
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J
jb3812:24 PM
Matt: Have you as yet checked where your aerial is facing towards? although I do have to say that irrespective of where it might be facing that "if" when you selected to manually tune in Tacolnestons BBC1 on mux Ch55 and you didn't see the signal strength being indicated "as soon as" you entered 55 into the box (no need to scan) then that's bad news, as using that procedure effectively turns your TV into an RF sniffer by-passing the cut off threshold that stops a picture being received under a certain signal level, generally known as the "digital cliff".
The aspect that makes it bad news being, that even if the aerial you are using is in the wrong grouping then as far as this sort of test is concerned it makes no difference, and indeed in many cases it doesn't either if its not a test!, as a person will "still" receive a signal but just at a level that's somewhat less than it would be if using an aerial in the correct grouping, although if you do have a group that caters for Sandy then that's at the better end of "incorrect" than it would be if it catered for Tacolneston and you were trying to receive Sandy, as differences are much greater when an aerial is too short for the frequency being received.
I do have to say though, that when problem's are experienced when using an out of group aerial that its usually always because that the reduced level is resulting in the signal hovering around, or even dipping under, the cut off threshold I referred to, but its not by any means a "black and white" case that an out of group aerial will not receive something as there are always shades in between, as it all depends on the level of signal that a person receives.
By the way, I did have a look at the terrain predictor for between yourself and both transmitters involved and didn't actually see any obstructions being indicated, of course not that this really goes for anything, as a person could reside behind either the Sherwood Forrest or a few tower blocks and it would still show a clear line of sight, as terrain predictors take no account of anything other than of a natural hill nature.
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M
Matt5:42 PM
jb38: I just discoverd im picking up stations from 27 and 24 only, there is NO signal 'quality' for 21, however there is about 50% signal 'strength' for 21.
Also theres no strength or quality for all the others you mentioned, only 27 and 24 have 10/10 full signal quality, with Signal strength about 50 to 75%
My ariel is facinggg....that way! *points* i dont know, its facing the same way as everyone else on my street, was Sandyheath last i knew.
Stephen p: Ill have a new ariel or Freesat if you pay for it? lol
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S
Stephen P6:26 PM
Matt 21 is on an offset frequency which some boxes cannot cope with but I don't know which.
And unless your aerial is new it is probably NOT suited to receive C48/50/51 as highest previously used was 31
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