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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
Wednesday, 1 November 2017
J
J Knights
7:35 AM
Wisbech

PE13 5LB
Awful reception last night over several channels - BBC1, Channel 4 etc. This morning no reception at all. Hope this isn't going to occur all winter.

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J Knights's 12 posts GB flag
J's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
B
B Sadler
8:32 AM

Cant seem to receive any TV programs at the moment signal keeps breaking up or is non existent. Is this a weather issue? or is their something wrong with the transmitter? We live in west Norfolk and seem to suffer poor TV reception, poor mobile signal and diabolical broadband signal yet we pay the same as everyone else!

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B Sadler's 1 post GB flag
M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:54 AM

clive Sinclair: Look at the links below for which direction Sandy heath is in - its pretty much south if your in Peterborough.

Your aerial could be pointing at Waltham (mine is), so check that your tuned to the right transmitter. And if the signal levels are very low (actually check each mux), then its most likely your system - check all cables and connections.

And then there is your aerial. If its falling apart, then your going to get a rubbish signal. Aerials dont last forever, and are the last refuge of the bodger.

The Ortons will be fine for either transmitter, and I have to kill my signal a little, they are certainly close enough.

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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:37 PM

Clive Sinclair, B Sadler, J Knights, et al:

From The Wrekin pages today

"This is very likely caused by the high atmospheric pressure affecting various parts of the country, causing lift conditions which allow signals from distant transmitters which cannot normally be received to interfere with the signals from the transmitter you normally use. Do not attempt to retune as this will delete all of your channels which are already correctly tuned. As this is an entirely natural phenomenon, all you can do is wait for the atmospheric conditions to return to normal."



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 22 November 2017
M
MR D Langstone
4:52 PM

The aerial is a HG10 high rain LTE digital installed 11.5.17 there is a wolsey LTE WFAW425 4 output F connector which is fully screened part No 370562. We loose signal on channel 15 film 4 & channel 20 drama at times the screen goes blank and occasional the TV goes to the old bbc 2 .The aerial is on a 15 foot mast On the chimney 12 ft above ground

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MR D Langstone's 1 post GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:55 PM

Mr D. Langstone:

Please provide a full post code so that we can identify which transmitter you should be using and what the reception conditions are like.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 13 December 2017
C
C Jones
9:48 AM

I live in Hertford and have used Sandy Heath for past 30 yrs but this is now becoming a joke.I do not have line of sight to Crystal Palace or Hertford re-transmitter (behind a hill) and have upgraded my aerial. My current problem started last Friday when I lost all FREEVIEW channels but total reception has been an ongoing issue for past 12/18 mnths. Usually good on fine days but quality issues at other times. By Mon having complained to FREEVIEW, all channels came up late PM. Tue PM only had BBC 1/2 all others popping on audio and picture pixleated. . Signal strength on channels is usually 100% but Quality bounces between 0% and 100%. Is this not an issue to raise with BBC for a reduction in licence fee or are we expected to go on for 3/4 mnths with some/no channels?

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C Jones's 3 posts GB flag
M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:36 AM

C Jones: Think about it - Sandy Heath is used by 920k homes - so if its had problems for the past 12-18 months, dont you think other people might have pointed that out by now?

Since the transmitter is in the same place, on the same channels, and the weather is no more or less variable than it has always been, that leaves your own system - which consists of a piece of cable just 6mm wide and is subject to the worst of the weather.

You can complain to Freeview, etc all you like, but 99% of the time, when someone says they have a long term reception problem, and complains about their licence fee (as they often do), its THEIR system at fault.

BTW - 100% strength is far too high, and results in a worse picture, not better. Since you havn't given a postcode, we have no idea where you are in relation to the transmitter, but its a fair bet that you'd normally have fine recption, but your system has been failing for about 18 months.

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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
D
D. Meader
5:23 PM

[Duly inhibited by MikeB's response today re the 920k Sandy Heath users ...]

Has anybody other than me made you aware of a drop in the Quality of ArqB/Ch48
in the CB4 area in the last few weeks. This is totally specific to that Mux.
Signal strength is a little down at ~35%, say, but the quality is NONE/POOR according
to my set whereas it used to be VERY GOOD.

The Aerial is an indoor, unamplified, W type, through an AT800 4G filter.

Has somebody erected a notch filter in my line of sight do you know ?

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D. Meader's 2 posts GB flag
M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:24 PM

D. Meader: I'm not trying to inhibite anyone, but if you look at any time people complain about a long term problem, they always seem to blame the transmitter, the BBC, 4G, or strange changes that nobody else has observed.

The most likely explaination is that its their system, but they will swear blind its not, even when they post the same problem for months on end.

Moving onto your particular problem:
a) put your postcode into the site - it will bring up lots of data, and will allow people to see what sort of signal you should get

b) Check the connections - if people lose a mux, something has changed, and its usually a dodgy lead or connection - its not alwasy the weakest that goes either. Changing the lead is a cheap easy way of at least eliminating one possible issue.

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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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