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 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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Sunday, 22 January 2012
M
Mike6:03 PM
Biggleswade
KMJ,Derby: jb38: D Lindsey:
Many thanks for all your help. ITV3 is just as bad but BBC1, BBC2 etc are all showing issues and not part of the MUX system? I dont think electrical interference is an issue as there seems nothing close to the set that might emit a signal - timing seems to be random as well. The Murphy 'manual' is certainly near identical to the one I have so that is its origin. I too have found derogatory comments about the set on the web. It seems very likely that the TV is, if not faulty as such, just plain poor quality. I may persue this further with M&S and/or get a better set.
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Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb387:29 PM
Mike: Many thanks for the update as is always interesting to know the result of anything tried, even although if it might well be in a negative sense! Just a pity you didn't have a normal Freeview box to try out on your aerial (box connected to your TV via a scart lead) as although I know you were using the PC's-TV tuner to judge against the tuner / receiver in the TV its not really the best of devices to use for comparisons, albeit that it might well be OK for the purpose intended.
I think though that the latter comment you made in the update is best policy, as although you will always get someone finding fault with something, it wasn't exactly easy to read anything other than derogatory comments about that particular model of TV, albeit on the face of it nothing would seem amiss, especially with it having an M &S tag on it.
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Monday, 23 January 2012
B
barclay5:32 PM
hi, im soooooo confused :-(
i live in far cotton northampton and should get all sandy channels.
i can today get bbca, d3+4 & sdn on ch 31.
this website states sdn should be transmitted at only 20,000 watts, i dont understand that i can get this but i cant get arqa or arqb which are supposed to be transmitted at 180,000 & 170,000 watts?
also i have gold but it isnt listed?
can anyone explain please?
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barclay: The only thing I can see that could be the issue is that ArqA and ArqB are on Group B channels (higher up frequencies).
Have you had your Group A aerial replaced with a wideband one (or a second aerial fitted for higher frequencies)?
I'm not saying that this is the problem, but it is an observation of a possibility.
Have you tried manually tuning in these channels? Does the bar show any signal whatsoever?
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B
barclay6:17 PM
hi dave,
thanks for the reply, i had a good wideband in the loft but couldnt get sdn so ive just connected up the old ariel outside so you are probably right, i cant spend the money on replacing it as we are moving soon.
thanks
barclay
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Friday, 27 January 2012
D
Dawn Bonham2:49 PM
Why is it that I am unable to receive certain Freeview channels in Northampton NN3 that friends living in Wootton NN4 take for granted? Why? When considering BT Vision - out of the 72 Freeview channels available, there are apparently 53 channels I can't get. It does make Digital TV look a bit of a joke ! How can I progress ?
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Dawn Bonham: Around 8% of the population can only get the Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) services because the commercial broadcasters don't wish to install transmitters to cover them.
However, I'm not convinced that this affects you as there are no small transmitters in your area that only carry the PSBs.
In order to give a more precise answer, an exact location is required. As too is the transmitter from which you are receiving your signal. If the transmitter is unknown, then the direction of the aerial along with the location should allow it to be worked out.
If it is the commercial channels that you are missing, then perhaps you are receiving from Oxford transmitter. I say this because its commercial services are on low power until 18th April. This is so as to avoid interference with another transmitter that has yet to switch over to digital and is therefore using the same frequencies until then.
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Saturday, 28 January 2012
Thursday, 2 February 2012
H
Harry 3:00 AM
Harlow
hi we live in Harlow at CM187PB, we currently receive our signal from sandy Heath ( cambs & beds) , we have all channels available from sandy Heath apart from the COM4/SDN channels.. will we be able to receive these channels in the future as we have near maximum signals on all other muxes
| link to this comment |
Harry's: mapH's Freeview map terrainH's terrain plot wavesH's frequency data H's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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