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Full Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.130,-0.242 or 52°7'47"N 0°14'33"Wsa_postcodeSG19 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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
_______

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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C27 (522.0MHz)291mDTG-180,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) Cambridge, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 16 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C24 (498.0MHz)291mDTG-180,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Anglia (West micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) South ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 South ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Anglia east), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C21+ (474.2MHz)291mDTG-180,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Cambridge, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H -0.2dB
C33 (570.0MHz)291mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -0.2dB
C36 (594.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -0.2dB
C48 (690.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

DTG-8 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?

regional news image
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
regional news image
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?

1965-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-1312 Feb 2020
VHFA K TK TK TW TW T
C6ITVwaves
C21C4wavesC4wavesC4waves+BBCBBBCB
C24ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C27BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C31BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C32com7
C33SDN
C34com8
C35_local
C36ArqA
C39C5wavesC5waves
C43_local
C48ArqBArqB
C51tv_offSDN
C52tv_offArqA
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_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

Oct 1959-Feb 2004Anglia Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Comments
Wednesday, 13 February 2019
M
Michael John Howarth
10:28 PM

This evening (13-2-2019) we have had major disruption of the main TV Channels, making them unwatchable for almost all the time. This occurs a number of times each year, although some channels never seem to be affected (Channel 37 "Quest" for example.

We have a brand new roof arial, with internal signal booster, and yet both before and after the replacement arial, this keep occurring. The arial installer about the alternative, Talconston, which is equidistant from Sandy Heath, advised us NOT to change , as it was no more reliable.

We are aware that in high pressure weather systems, signal strength at the extremes of range are reduced - but to lose signal altogether on ONLY SOME (The Main) channels is unacceptable and inexplicable

link to this comment
Michael John Howarth's 2 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:37 PM

Michael John Howarth:

You have explained it yourself. High pressure causes numerous recepotion problenms and often affected just some channels and not others. As it is a perfectly natural phenomenon there is noth anybody can do about it. It has been known about the many decades.



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Thursday, 14 February 2019
P
Peter Reynolds
9:01 AM
Peterborough

Have no signal from Sandy heath.....can get Sky news,and various other channels
but no BBC ,Itv or Channel4 or 5.
We are on freeview.
Have tried turning off booster...no difference.
All connections have been checked and ok.
We have experienced this problem before and then it clears.
Is this an atmospheric issue ?
There is a mobile phone mast near us in the village... could that cause interference?
Postcode is PE3 9NH.
THANKS

link to this comment
Peter Reynolds's 1 post GB flag
Peter's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
R
Roger Fentiman
9:28 AM

BBC1 and 4 unwatchable in Haddenham and Witchford. Have to stream them.

link to this comment
Roger Fentiman's 1 post GB flag
D
Dr C A Fox
9:57 AM
Royston

I have done endless manual resets and still have terrible reliability issues on Frequency 27, in other words all the BBC channels. There is nothing wrong with my aerial, nor with my television a Panasonic Viera. I live at SG8 8SP and can actually see the transmitter from my house. Why am I paying a licensing fee if I'm getting such poor reception and how can I improve it?

link to this comment
Dr C A Fox's 2 posts GB flag
Dr's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:19 AM

Dr C A Fox: If you can see the transmitter then there's a good chance that your TV is being overloaded with too much signal (try fitting an attenuator to reduce the signal strength). What signal strength and quality readings on other channels such as ITV?

link to this comment
StevensOnln1's 3,671 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:16 PM

Dr C A Fox: & Roger Fentiman: & Peter Reynolds:

There is Planned Engineering work at Sandy Heath at present with "Possible Weak Signal" so this is the most likely cause of the intermittent/temporary loss of reception. With the current weather High Pressure system this won't help matters either.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,359 posts GB flag
Thursday, 21 February 2019
E
Earl Thomson
11:11 PM

Hello I have a very good quality aerial which was fitted 4 months ago for Freeview in the kitchen we have sky in all other rooms .

On my Freeview TV we are having constant pixelation and drop out of signal I have checked with local residents around the area who are also experiencing serious reception issues with there Freeview HD TV .
I have returned and checked cables.

link to this comment
Earl Thomson's 2 posts GB flag
E
Earl Thomson
11:15 PM
Daventry

My postcode area is NN11 3SZ

Manor house with outside worker buildings.

Kind regards Earl Thomson.

link to this comment
Earl Thomson's 2 posts GB flag
Earl's: mapE's Freeview map terrainE's terrain plot wavesE's frequency data E's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 22 February 2019
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:21 AM

Earl Thomson:

Those sort of problems are not due to any faults anywhere, but are mainly due to weather conditions. Patience is called for.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts PT flag
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Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

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