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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
Sunday, 13 October 2013
N
NigelJ
12:52 AM
Wisbech

Should have written iPlayer and not iTunes, but I am sure you get the picture or rather you won't soon:-)

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NigelJ's 19 posts GB flag
NigelJ's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
MikeG
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

8:14 AM

Hope you have a good internet speed over there in Wisbech Nigel if you're going to rely on the internet for your TV. Over here in Littleport we are lucky to get 4.5Mb and the promise of FTTC has moved from 2012 to the end of 2014 now, so who knows when. I get a good terrestrial signal here (SD and HD) and hope it's going to stay that way for the foreseeable future. Yes it will come eventually when all the country gets on fibre but they'll be a hue and cry if they do it too soon.

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MikeG's 31 posts GB flag
K
KMJ,Derby
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:34 AM

NigelJ: "will need a very expensive subscription" - The very reason for retention of the licence fee and Freeview, in order to keep TV affordable for the bulk of the population. I'm not sure why we need a resolution better than HD for watching Corrie or Come dine with me, or catching up on the local news. No doubt Sky will provide a 4k service with a subscription to match, for enthousiasts who are prepared to pay. The production costs alone could well limit the amount of material available, this affecting both TV companies and the movie industry, resulting in sports coverage being the most likely to use such technology.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag
N
NigelJ
1:50 PM
Wisbech

Do not assume the technology covered in my last post is for the benefit of the consumer, it is all about extracting the maximum amount of money from the viewer. As I have pointed out before, 4G is an expensive, and pointless, one trick pony. The only virtue of high speed data download is to allow HD video to be viewed while mobile, it is not going to improve voice communication, in fact it may make it worse, as the system requires a higher density of base stations cells to operate. Ok for the city, not much good for the rural user who just want to make a voice call.
Similarly, I suspect the 4K plus TV services will be used as a conduit for the sale of premium rate, DRM protected, movie and sports content. This is evident by the added DRM protection included in the revamped BBC iPlayer.
By forcing users to view online content, advertisers will know exactly who is watching what and target their ads accordingly. This is a direct result of having more channels on digital TV, as this has reduced the size of the audience for each channel, thus reducing the cost effectiveness of mass broadcast advertising. So how is this relevant to FreeView? Well clearly its days are numbered, with vested interests keen to move consumers to internet TV and make them willing to pay for the infrastructure costs of doing so, at the same time freeing RF spectrum for yet more mobile comms and eliminating expensive TV transmitters.
So do not be surprised if the quality of FreeView services are not considered important. I may be a little paranoid, but poor quality may well be part of a bigger plan. I believe the government has yet to realise the downside, which is the loss of a fast, universally, communication medium with the viewing public.

By the way my ADSL download speed peaks at 12Mbs, no where near the 30Mbs, minimum required for this brave new world.

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NigelJ's 19 posts GB flag
NigelJ's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
N
NigelJ
2:02 PM
Wisbech

Wish these posts had an edit feature, I never seem to get my posts right in one take, missed the word watched after universally.

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NigelJ's 19 posts GB flag
NigelJ's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:00 PM
Birmingham

Nigel J: I think you've just undermined your own arguement when you point out your broadband speed - and of course in much of the country its much less. Many of my customers are barely above dialup, and one gentleman today is going to be using a dish for internet access, because landline/fibre access is so poor. BT has been hauled over the coals for its poor rollout of rural broadband, something which government was paying it to do.

In fact 4G is a pretty good bet for many rural people to have better download speeds, and of course 5G is being mooted.

4K is possible to stream in somewhere like Korea, where 100mb is standard, but not for a while in the UK (nice though 4K is). However, Korean broadcasters have been experimenting with 4K - but broadcasting it, not streaming.

The reality of such technology changes is long-term, and seldom has anything to do with revenue, tax or anything else. If 'vested interests' wanted to move us all to internet tv and makes us pay the costs of it, they are doing a very poor job. The leader in making content available on the net is the ...BBC! And looking at current figures, most TV is watched live, not recorded, never mind streamed - thats going to change, but old habits die hard (think that we've been able to timeshift since the first VCR's).

If you'd looked at the mosts recent report from Ofcom, you would have seen a move to have MPEG 4 tuners (t2) as standard by about 2018. Since this format is one we all find in any modern TV, and you would expect no format change to occur for about a decade after that, there seems to be no plans to do away with RF transmissions for about 15 years, at the least.

The bottom line is that RF is still a pretty good way of getting most people to watch TV, and without a massive upgrade in broadband access, no other system is really viable.

' I may be a little paranoid, but poor quality may well be part of a bigger plan' - I think your worrying when you do not need to. Quality will be the result of pressue to give us good prgrammes, and the resources to deliver them.


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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
MikeB's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
M
MikeG
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

8:50 AM

Sorry Nigel, I'm with MikeB on this one. And if terrestrial digital TV lasts for another 15 years that'll do me.
Look how many older people left Sky because of their high prices when digital TV came out, because it is free once you have the equipment.
The young with plenty of money may go for subscription services but I doubt the elderly will.
Mike.

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MikeG's 31 posts GB flag
V
Val Muggeridge
12:20 PM
Bedford

Our Freeview reception which used to work perfectly now breaks up every day. Some channels are fine, sky etc but others BBC1, 2,3&4, ITV etc and many others lose the picture. It just keeps breaking up. It happens on both the tv with the freeview box and also on the main tv which has freeview within it.

Have tried rescanning, taking out leads and aerial but nothing seems to help. We receive from the Sandy, Beds transmitter which says there are no current problems.

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Val Muggeridge's 1 post GB flag
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Thursday, 31 October 2013
L
Laurence Howell
7:00 PM
Rushden

We have no BBC channels, ITV picture freezing and sound clicking. No signal on Ch21 and Ch27. Ch24 very poor. BBC has always been poor, but it has been like this for over a week.

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Laurence Howell's 1 post US flag
Laurence's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 2 November 2013
H
Henry Bishop
9:41 AM

The signal is breaking up on channels 51 & 52 at NN3. Is this due to the engineering work or could a 4G transmitter have either have been turned on or is being tested?

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Henry Bishop's 1 post GB flag
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