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 29/04/2024 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, 18 April 2012
B
Brian1:24 PM
So Sandy Heath Mux A (SDN) remains ch 31 until 9th May ? Then ch 51? Is this correct, haven't seen any information regards date change (I understood it was going to be today 18/4/12 Comments please
Brian
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A
Adam B2:43 PM
Dunstable
Brian:
Yes, C31 until 9th May then C51.
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
B
Brian2:53 PM
Adam B Thanks for the reply and confirmation of change date.
Brian
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Thursday, 19 April 2012
J
John1:31 PM
Chatteris
Do we know when Sandy Heath will be on full power instead of above average and Low?
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John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 20 April 2012
A
Andrei10:17 PM
Stevenage
Hi,
I'm living in Stevenage from 4 april I've lose all ch 48 (Film 4, Yesterday, Viva).
They will be up again?
Thank you.
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Andrei's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 22 April 2012
J
Jon D9:07 AM
Hi.
I live in Stevenage & was told by a freind to retune my freeview box which i done on Friday 20th April, On doing so most of my channels have moved !! channels like bbc1,bbc2,itc1,channl4,channel5 ect are now on channels 364 365 ect !! the picture that is on channels 1,2 etc is just pixelated!!
I have be receiving all these channels from sandy heath fine uptill now!!! Can anyone give me any advice ?? Many thanks
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S
Stephen P11:21 AM
Jon D - Sounds like your scan put weak channels it came to first in the 1 2 3 slots and stored stronger ones in an overflow area. You can probably move them; or try retuning with the aerial unplugged until you get past the ones you don't want.
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J
Jon D3:39 PM
Thanks Stephen,
Have tryed what you said! have had some luck! But i still have got to use some of the channels in the 300's !But i have heard that if you sandy heath are not on full power untill 9th/10th of may ! could any tell me if this is the chase?PS Ia second free veiw box in the spare room which i have NOT retuned and thats fine !
Thanks Jon
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Jon D: As a test to see what transmitters you could be picking up in your area, I put the postcode for Cineworld in Stevenage into the Digital UK Tradeview predictor:
Postcode Checker - Trade View
As I suspected, Crystal Palace may be coming in strong in your area now that it has switched over (which it did so on Wednesday).
Confirm where the erroneous BBC One and ITV1 channels are coming from. Do this by going to them and bringing up the signal strength screen. Most receivers give the UHF channel number (equivalent to frequency) that it is tuned to. If BBC One is on C23 and ITV1 on C26 then those signals are coming from Crystal Palace. You then know what you're trying to avoid when the device goes through its scan.
Unfortunately the signals from Crystal Palace are all in the 20s, as are the Public Service channels from Sandy Heath. The Commercial channels (ITV3, Pick TV, Yesterday etc) from Sandy are in the 40s and 50s (except for one which I changes on 9th May and for which you will have to retune for).
Refer to "After switchover configuration" on this page Freeview multiplexes | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
The programme channels are broadcast in groups known as multiplexes.
Now, what I would do in your situation, if it turns out that the erroneous BBC and ITV signals are from Crystal Palace is to run the automatic tuning scan with the aerial lead unplugged up until 50%. This should give you ArqA (Pick TV etc) and ArqB (Yesterday) which are on 52 and 48 respectively. When you do this after 9th May it will also give you SDN (ITV3) which will then be on 51.
Having done this, then go to manual tune (if your receiver has this function) and manually add the missing multiplexes. BBC A (BBC One etc) is on C27 and D3&4 (ITV1 etc) is on C24. If the receiver has HD, then you need to manually tune to C21 for HD channels.
Finally, as SDN is presently on C31, manually add it. This will move to C51 on 9th May.
If this is a suitable workaround, then make a note of it should you need to retune at a later date.
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S
Stephen P4:37 PM
Jon D - there's a note about temp aerials above. Dunno personally.
You can probably move the channels you want into the 1 2 3 etc. slots.
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