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 02/12/2024 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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Monday, 13 November 2023
C
Chris.SE6:46 AM
Ian Leslie Jackson:
Further to my previous reply to you at Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) DAB transmitter | free and easy for 21 years I've been doing some further research.
A number of very adjacent postcodes to your locale, have received postcards from https://restoretv.uk/
It seems that you may have not, but that does not mean that you aren't suffering interference problems from a new/upgraded mobile phone mast.
Contact them on 0808-1313-800 and explain that you are having persistent problems with your Freeview reception and that this has been happening now for a couple of months and that you understand that neighbours in adjacent postcards have had postcards. Can they please send you a Free Filter.
In the meantime, the HD channels at Sandy Heath are on UHF Channel 21, so try a MANUAL retune of C21 and as previously mentioned make sure that Automatic Retuning on your TV is turned off if possible.
Once correctly tuned, do NOT retune.
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Sunday, 26 November 2023
I
Ian Leslie Jackson2:10 PM
Chris.SE: Hi Chris, I have read all of your messages but, today the pixilated pictures on BBC HD channels today are making the viewing impossible. I am talking with Panasonic about the tuning problem where the TV is not designed to disable Auto tuning. I have infact been speaking to them for 3 weeks and, will be speaking to them tomorrow. I feel these TV'S are sold under the banner of Not fit for purpose.
Kind regards,
Ian Jackson
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C
Chris.SE3:28 PM
Ian Leslie Jackson:
I agree with you that sets where you cannot disable automatic updating/retuning are a pain in the proverbial when engineering, weather conditions or even faults on your own aerial system my result in brief periods of no or weak signal. Panasonic should be able to provide a firmware update to add this functionality.
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T
Tom7:59 PM
Suffering pixilation on all HD channels Cambridge CB24 area.
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S
Steve Donaldson8:15 PM
Tom: You're the second person to report an issue with the HD multiplex of Sandy Heath this evening. See this other comment:
Final Freeview retunes to allow 5G mobile at 700MHz listed | free and easy for 21 years
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C
Chris.SE8:28 PM
Tom:
Steve Donaldson;
Sandy Heath is currently listed for Planned Engineering as noted further up the page. That's the most likely cause.
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nigel9:09 PM
Steve Donaldson: Issues here too with the HD multiplexes this evening
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paul 9:45 PM
Like others, in Cambs Ely region/CB6, HD multiplexes have been unwatchable evening of today/26th.
Seem to be no SandyHeath maintenance mentioned on the map at https://ukfree.tv/extras/…ing.
If there were a new 5G inteference problem would this be so intermittent ?
(I've not yet looked for a site that lists new local mobile masts/transmitters)
Paul
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P
paul 10:20 PM
4g mast locations seem to be shown at
https://www.cellmapper.net/map
but, for Cambridgeshire, does not show which of them may have also had 5G services turned on
Paul
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C
Chris.SE10:34 PM
paul :
As listed at the very top of this page -
Sandy Heath transmitter - Sandy Heath transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 20/11/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick
Sandy Heath has been having Planned Engineering for a few weeks now.
All: To check if you should have received a postcard about possible interference from a new/upgraded phone mast, enter your full postcode on this page -
https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/
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