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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.

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 15/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


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),

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 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -0.2dB
C36 (594.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -0.2dB
C48 (690.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 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
Saturday, 29 September 2012
N
NJ
3:40 AM

Channel 27, which carries the BBC mux, on Sandy Heath is still unusable most of the time. All other Sandy Heath channels are received without a problem.
This is strange as the channels paid for by the TV licence are the only ones we cannot receive. I think it is time that BBC mux is switched to a better aerial on the Sandy Heath transmitter.

link to this comment
NJ's 19 posts GB flag
DouggieB
8:28 AM

JB38: Sorry it is only PSB2 that is in the correct place. ITV at 3 is the start of my EPG.All other channels are in 800-900 range. I only have 10 channels on what I would consider my normal EPG range.

link to this comment
DouggieB's 20 posts GB flag
K
KMJ,Derby
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:55 PM

DouggieB: Do you have anything at all (possibly Crystal Palace channels) in the other "normal" positions in the channel list?

link to this comment
KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag
M
MikeG
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

6:07 PM

NJ, that's very strange as all the Sandy MUXs are around the same power, 170/180KW, and all their aerials would be similar. It's just possible that you have an aerial problem but that would be very rare; have you tried a different aerial with a higher gain?
Mike.

link to this comment
MikeG's 31 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:21 PM

DouggieB: Apart from what KMJ,Derby has queried and with the answer to also being of interest to myself, I had a look at the manual for the LT26 earlier on today and as you will no doubt have noticed only the very basic info is given with regards to its tuning facilities, basically of course as there isn't any except the first time installation option.

As your problem could be suggestive of a software problem or that possibly a glitch of the existing software has taken place, or indeed that the set actually requires a software (firmware) update, I was searching about for some info on the model regarding these issues but failed to find anything mentioned, as its seemingly a bit of an oddball chassis with very little known about it, and so in view of this I can only advise that the best policy is for you to give Bush customer services a ring on 0845-604-0105 and ask to speak to their technical department and see what they come up with, as I don't feel that anything you can do will alter the situation if as you say, you have already carried out a reset, although just to double check I would carry out another one.

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:36 PM

NJ: Of course you have to look at the situation along the lines that there hasn't really been any complaints from other residents in the Wisbech area as far as your type of problem is concerned, and so if it is being caused by some form of localised interference then just how local is it to you?

I fully appreciate that some people will so to say "suffer in silence", but if the problem was being caused by RF interference from afar it would be affecting a good deal more people than yourself, and so it would be prudent to suss out someone relatively local to yourself and who would be willing to carry out a channel check on request should you be experiencing any problems.

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Monday, 15 October 2012
B
Brian
3:24 PM
March

Brian, font of all knowledge, I once had, now misplaced a web site address which gave all the individual frequencies for each mux channel. (ie psb1 = ch27) but this site gave the actual frqencies for bbc1, bbc2 etc.
Any thoughts ?
regards Brian

link to this comment
Brian's 17 posts GB flag
Brian's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
S
sue burns
11:22 PM

I have no channels it was fine this morning then at 4.00 it went off. I have done reset and it says no channels found.post code LU72QL.Aerial on roof.Only got freeview.Please help.

link to this comment
sue burns's 1 post GB flag
Thursday, 18 October 2012
T
Tim Newton
12:37 PM

I am trying to obtain the output from the UK Planning Model. I can see data on your website which is derived from the output of the UK Planning Model, but I dont seem to be able to access the actual data. According to a response to a recent parliamentary question (asked by Chi Onwurah and answered Mr Vaizey on 5th September 2012) such data should be available on this site. Could you please send me a link to the UK Planning Model output?

link to this comment
Tim Newton's 5 posts GB flag
M
Michael
sentiment_satisfiedGold

1:20 PM

Tim Newton: Mr Vaizey actually mentioned the website "ukfree.tv" in his parliamentary response? Are you sure he wasn't referring to Ofcom?

link to this comment
Michael's 358 posts GB flag
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