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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 25/03/2024 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, 2 November 2013
L
lisa
2:22 PM

We have had no channels or signal for a week now! V Fed up having to retune all of the time too. No option now but to use satellite instead.

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lisa's 1 post GB flag
J
joyce
5:36 PM
Leighton Buzzard

i live in flats with communial arial been here about 8 weeks since here twice had no signal at all for freeview,once for a week and only get very few freeview channels dont get channels like Real and Challenge which i did before only very basic channels,itv + 1 etc my reception is from Camebridge,the arial person said its because of where i,m situated yet sky still get all channels here my post code is lu74rz house number 69.
thank you.

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joyce's 2 posts GB flag
joyce's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jamie stevens
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

6:01 PM
Petersfield

joyce:

sky reception is from a satellite out in space which is completely different to freeview which reception is from a transmitter.


sky reception relies on ZERO obstacles in the way between the dish and satellite so should always work correctly.

Freeview reception can sometimes have obstacles such as trees and buildings giving some locations issues.

That aside, an aerial should only be installed if it can achieve perfect reception.

If there are problems with the communal reception then the original installer should put any issues right.

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jamie stevens's 207 posts GB flag
jamie's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 5 November 2013
D
daryel anthony
12:08 AM

Sunday woke to no tv channels on 1-9 did a retune and totally gone not even being picked up, see that work is being done on sandy heath transmitter but that was a week ago and no problems have been reported, any ideas? (52.0298,-0.7508) 

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daryel anthony's 2 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 6 November 2013
P
Pete Newton
8:28 PM

We've had no BBC channels at all, and numerous others are missing. This has been the situation for nearly 2 weeks. Prior to that, we had all channels for a week, prior to that - the same problem for a week or so.
We have retuned a few times, and always seem to end up with to end up with even less!
Constant problems with reception from this transmitter, but always the BBC channels that are worst affected.

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Pete Newton's 2 posts GB flag
Saturday, 9 November 2013
T
Termiteman
10:29 AM
Cambridge

Live near Cambridge and use Sandy Heath. We have been suffering reception issues for the last two weeks. Anybody know if the engineering works are still ongoing or should I check my aerial following the high winds?

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Termiteman's 1 post GB flag
Termiteman's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
C
Chris Rumsey
8:14 PM
Milton Keynes

Sirs,
We live in a notorious part of Bletchley (MK2) I recently changed our aerial and got most if not all channels. Within the last two weeks We have got a breaking up picture for ITV1 and other ITV channels yet the BBC channels are fine and clear. Is the ITV band running at reduced power?

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Chris Rumsey's 1 post US flag
Chris's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 24 November 2013
M
Margaret Paterson
4:39 PM
Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes tv cable has been abandoned by Virgin Media which I have always used. I get No channels from my freeview TV.
Can I use an indoor aerial (up to 20db signal gain) and will it be strong enough to pick up a signal from Sandy Heath?

link to this comment
Margaret Paterson's 1 post GB flag
Margaret's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:35 PM

Margaret Paterson: Your not the first the person to have mentioned this - Can I stop paying Sky and use my satellite receiver to get Freeview ? | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice

The whole history of the thing is slighty bizarre, but there you are. Obviously there is Sky/Freesat, and I assume there is Virgin (!), but Sandy Heath is 35km from you, with a clear signal path. If you click the links by your question, you can see what sort of signal you might get.

On the other hand, indoor aerials are fairly rubbish, and even an amplifier, they are still not that great. They are pretty small, and generally not hign up. However, give its a go. They are not expensive (dont spend more than about £20), and you might get an old aerial from someone.

Ifr it does not work, then you could go the satellite route (Freesat dish to watch/record is about £100, and the cost of a PVR/Sky), or see if you can get a proper aerial.

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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
Monday, 25 November 2013
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:16 AM

Margaret Paterson: Considering the fact of you being located at just under 22 miles away from the Sandy transmitter and with the signal path from same being via a mini forest of trees, then I think it very unlikely that any form of "same room" aerial would give satisfactory reception, that is should anything be received in the first place!

However, you can get a rough idea of whether or not anything can be received by connecting a short length of wire (about 6 feet or so) into the aerial socket of whatever you are using then carrying out an auto-tune, the wire aerial referred to preferably being placed near to either a back or front window, as (post code accuracy dependant) the signal would appear to arrive from the right hand side of your property parallel to the front / rear walls.

Should the outcome of the test be negative then you could possibly consider the various options suggested by MikeB.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
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