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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Wednesday, 14 March 2012
M
Mark Fletcher10:07 PM
Halifax
Linda,Poole.Try manually scanning the Mux 2 multiplex on channel 32 on Rowridge is this the transmitter you are on.
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Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Shaun Southall
11:06 PM
11:06 PM
Anyone else just lost all the HD channels in Corby? (sandy Heath).
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Monday, 19 March 2012
Dino
5:28 PM
5:28 PM
Lost VHF Channel 31 and re-tuned to see if we could get CITV and Quest Freeview channels back, however they have completely disappeared. So much for a reliable Freeview service. Sandy needs to start providing reliable service IMHO.
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Dino: In circumstances such as yours, you would be best advised not to retune because the only possible outcome is that (most likely) you loose the programme channels from your receiver or you get them back. Crucially, the act of retuning cannot have any affect on getting them back, therefore they would have come back anyway if they are back after retuning.
The act of retuning is therefore like shooting oneself in the foot. Only where there is reason to retune, such as a change of channel should retune be carried out.
The only way you are going to get it back is to repeatedly manual tune to channel 31 until it comes back, whereas had it been left, you could simply have select CITV to see if it was back.
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A
Adam B5:53 PM
Dunstable
Dino:
On the 9th May Mux COM4 will move to UHF CH51, and increase in power from 20KW to 170KW. The current temporary situation is a result of the digital switchover process and will be full resolved on the above date.
Hope this helps,
Adam.
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Adam's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
J
Jim chaney11:30 PM
Cambridge
So, who do I really complain to when a transmitter drops power so much that I lose signal?
It *appears* (I am no expert) that the reason I have had no 5*, 5 USA, ITV2+1 etc for months now is that the managers of the Sandy Heath transmitter decided on an order of magnitude decrease in power would not be a problem. Well, for cb2 1re (the little white patch west of cambridge) that drop is enough to lose all channels on that Mux.
Switchover (maybe the shutdown of the Madingly transmitter?) has resulted in a significant loss of access to TV services, often for weeks at a time. There is clearly no hardware faults, as the signal appearance/loss are months apart!
I am at a loss, I am just miles away from a major technicality (Cambridge) and have huge holes in my tv schedule!
Tips?
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Jim's: ...
Thursday, 22 March 2012
J
jb387:46 AM
Jim chaney: The reason for Sandy's SDN mux being on low power is because it shares Ch31 with Crystal Palaces low powered HD service, however Crystal Palace stops using Ch31 from April 18th but its not until May 9th when a re-tuning event takes place at Sandy that SDN's power increases as well as the channel changing from 31 to 51.
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Monday, 26 March 2012
S
Scott austin 1:55 PM
Hi people does anyone know why we are havering probs in Northampton . It's every night at about 10 pm onwards.i am recovering 75db please help
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M
mieke7:00 PM
My tv has just stopped working altogether and it says ' connect aerial' - which is fully connected.
I live in Sandy. Anyone else got problems? (7pm).
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J
jb388:02 PM
mieke: I assume that it must have been a very temporary break? as I checked the signal from Sandy a few minutes ago and it was as normal.
It has been published to expect interruptions to the service to occur at any time during this week, so if the screen is found to be blank at any time do not alter anything.
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