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 22/04/2024 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 (65°)
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 |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sandy Heath transmitter area
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Friday, 1 April 2011
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Mike Dimmick3:56 PM
Reading
Trevor: I don't imagine *everyone* did. Multiplex D has not yet switched over, but it's possible that some interim change was made in preparation for the next change.
On the 13th, Mux D changes mode becoming ArqB and moves to C67, currently used by Mux B - generally the numbers got the best allocations, then A, B, C and D in that order. That may improve matters. However, some people may lose them due to the change in mode, which gives more capacity but requires more signal compared to the level of interference.
The final re-configuration for this multiplex is planned to be on 14 September.
Ofcom's latest stations table, incorporated into the licence by reference, says 'Until further notice, may use transitional antenna'. This is against the final configuration, so could relate to the situation after DSO. The notes for Multiplex 2 (D3+4) and B (HD) both say 'Use transitional S1 antenna until 27 June 2012', though this is probably to avoid clashing with another main transmitter that won't switch over until later - possibly Rowridge.
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Mike Dimmick3:58 PM
Reading
Rob: So far, only the main BBC multiplex has switched over. The rest of the multiplexes switch over on Wednesday 13 April.
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Mike Dimmick4:11 PM
Reading
David Howard: While the public service multiplexes complete switch over on the 13th of April, the commercial multiplexes don't complete until later in the year. Once they do, there will not be a clash. They have to move to get out of the way of Sutton Coldfield's switchover, in fact.
Multiplex A from Sandy Heath uses the same channel as ITV1 (analogue) from Sutton Coldfield, C43. Mux C (ArqA) uses the same channel as BBC Two from Sutton Coldfield, C40. It's likely that this will cause a noisy analogue picture on the TVs connected to the Sutton Coldfield aerial, and nothing much usable on these muxes on the TVs connected to the Sandy Heath aerial.
When Sutton Coldfield switches, C40 becomes the HD multiplex and C43 becomes BBC A. Sandy Heath ArqA therefore moves to C31 a week before BBC A starts at Sutton Coldfield, and ArqA moves to C67 (freed by ArqB moving to C48) a week before the remaining changes at SC.
If the two aerials are linked together with a diplexer, to put the signals on one cable, you may find that it only includes Group A channels (21-35) from Sandy Heath, and only Group B and above channels (37-68) from Sutton Coldfield. This means you won't get the commercial muxes from Sandy Heath when everything's complete (you might get ArqA when it's on C31). However, they have the same content at all English transmitters anyway.
I hope that's, um, clear?
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David Howard6:53 PM
Northampton
Mike Dimmick: Many thanks for your help. I didn't expect it would be straightforward - looking out across the rooftops from my study/bedroom window I see aerials pointing East, West and South ! My two roof aerials are indeed linked together (there's a brown plastic box which is presumably the diplexer, happily located in the loft)so it seems that once the switchovers are completed in the autumn I'll be receiving all available channels from one transmitter or the other, and which is which will only be an issue as regards regional news programmes and the like. If necessary when the time comes I can no doubt "unlink" the two leads from the roof aerials to check what I'm getting from each in terms of channels, signal quality and strength etc. Assuming they are OK individually would it be feasible to incorporate a switching facility ie along the lines of the audio source selector I use in my hi-fi set up,in order to choose aerial A or B or, perhaps, A+B or would this cause problems eg with the box re-tuning itself every time? At any rate it seems there'll be little if any advantage in leaving the aerials linked once the switchover is completed so if necessary I'll just make a choice between them - I guess I must be in a better position than many people and shouldn't complain about having too much choice !
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Dave11:02 PM
Ely
My 3 year old Philips digital TV cannot access BBC digital text anymore since Phase 1 of the switchover.
I am told by Philips this should be working by Phase 2 but I am not convinced.
Others must be having similar problems surely?
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Saturday, 2 April 2011
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Mike Dimmick10:55 AM
Dave: your TV may be confused by the data appearing on both the high-power BBC A multiplex and on the low-power Multiplex B. However, my understanding was that they were carrying it on both Mux 1 and B before switchover. There are stories that the BBC will soon be removing it from Mux B in the rest of the country. Did you do a factory reset or first time installation, not just an automatic scan? Sometimes receivers remember information from previous scans which conflict with the new information. For instructions on how to do this for your TV, see TV Re-tune ____The digital text data will not be present on the HD multiplex, which replaces Multiplex B at phase 2. So it should sort itself out then. Otherwise, it's possible that there is some incompatibility with the current digital text data and your TV. Check that the TV has the latest firmware available at Philips - Contact and Support . Generally they should automatically update when a new version of firmware is broadcast, but this usually requires that the set is left on in standby overnight, so viewers who unplug their sets overnight don't get the updates. (RG47SH)
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J
jim3:37 PM
Bedford
Hi does anyone know the bearing from mk41 0ga to the sandy heath transmitter please.
regards
Jim
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jim's: ...
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Mike Dimmick4:20 PM
Jim: Go to Find out how to receive Freeview and Freeview HD | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice and click 'By Direction'. That shows the bearing as 102°, slightly south of east.
A compass will not quite show the right bearing because these bearings are east of true north, while the compass needle points to magnetic north, a few degrees different. However, the aerial has a relatively wide cone of acceptance so it doesn't have to be that accurate - just adjust the aerial for best results. (RG47SH)
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Sunday, 3 April 2011
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Menna6:57 AM
Dunstable
I have a digital external antennae. I have no signals at all. I get my signal from Sandy Heath.Is ther anything I should do to rectify this problem?
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Bob7:55 AM
There seems to be a problem with Sandy heath, caused I suspect, by a duplication of channels on MUX ch 27 & 67.
It seems OK to start with, but a few hours later, BBC1 etc VANISH!
The cure seems to pull the aerial plug out, so the re-scan misses ch67 - if your box does not tell you which channel it is scanning, there will be a percentage bar, over 75% will be the point to "pull out"
This may not be a problem with some boxes, but it certainly was with an old PVR Goodmans GHDD1782
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