Full Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 52.130,-0.242 or 52°7'47"N 0°14'33"W |  | SG19 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 29/05/2023 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 (66°)
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 |
Local transmitter maps
Sandy Heath Freeview Sandy Heath DAB Sandy Heath TV region BBC Cambridge Anglia (West micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sandy Heath transmitter area
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Wednesday, 1 November 2017
J
J Knights7:35 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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B
B Sadler8:32 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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M
MikeB9:54 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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MikeP
6:37 PM
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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Wednesday, 22 November 2017
M
MR D Langstone4:52 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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MikeP
5:55 PM
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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Wednesday, 13 December 2017
C
C Jones9:48 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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M
MikeB10:36 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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D
D. Meader5:23 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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M
MikeB11:24 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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