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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
Sunday, 2 June 2024
P
paulJ
2:46 PM
Ely

Maybe Mark will give more precision on his channels/muxes impacted,
but COM 5 (eg food network) , for the duration of yesterday/ 1st was unwatchable, in Ely compared to all the other muxes, even though they all showed similar strength and quality though (on both panasonic tv & humax box)
Today COM5 is fine, as remain others

It is as though, for maintenance, they had cut back the bitrate to introduce both pixellation and audio distortion.

COM5 has been bad for most evening this past week >10pm , but this is the first time I see this throughout the day.

[
aerial (in loft) currently has a look angle of about 200 degrees, and calculation yesterday suggested 220 would be more accurate, but I don't see that such an error could be responsible for just com5 ., yagi type aerial maybe 15 elements
]

Regards, Paul (posted mutltiple times before)




link to this comment
paulJ's 2 posts GB flag
paulJ's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 3 June 2024
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:16 AM

paulJ:

Hi again. 222 degrees is supposedly the precise angle for your postcode. It depends a bit on what may be on your line-of sight or within the beamwidth of the aerial (especially locally), as to whether 200 degrees rather than 220 makes much difference. It can make a difference to each multiplex, and there won't necessarily be an optimal position for all multiplexes, sometimes you have to have a compromise, especially with an aerial in a loft as very local parts of the structure or it contents can make a difference. Experiment.!

Did you ever get the free filter from Restore TV?

As for you COM5 issues, reasons could be various. They maybe doing things with the encoding, it could have been weather briefly but then I would have expected other COM5 channels to be affected. if it were weather. Went to have a look at whether I could glean any information on bitrates affecting Food Network. Nothing conclusive I'm afraid and nothing specific for the 1st June for Sandy Heath anyway.

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Chris.SE's 4,363 posts GB flag
P
paulJ
10:24 AM
Ely

Chris.

I now rang restoretv and they are sending some 4G/5g filters - I'll report back

They gave me number for freeview information service too 03456 505050
which I may try to see if they can provide details on what maintenance sandy heath does regularly which might impact COM5/c36 more than others.

Yagi aerial, 10yr old, for which I can't see any specific manufacturer identity , may have been optimal for previous channel range up to c69,
perhaps a ubiquitous log36 aerial would give massive improvement ?

Thanks, Paul


link to this comment
paulJ's 2 posts GB flag
paulJ's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:14 PM

paulJ:

I wouldn't waste your money on calling the "Freeview Information service". They don't have a clue about anything technical. They are monkeys reading from computer scripts!
I have been highly critical of them in the past and no doubt will continue to be so when they are unable to get detailed technical information.
This Planned engineering works | Freeview is what they will look at.

If you used to get COMs 7&8 when they were operational then you may have a wideband.
These days, since 700MHz Clearance, the optimal aerial is a Group K (it cuts off anything above C48 - potential mobile cell interference). A log periodic will give you the flattest response BUT considering your distance from the transmitter and being in a loft, I would try this one -
https://www.blake-uk.com/56-element-log-periodic-group-k-aerial-new-double-element-design.html
and you'll need an F-connector for the aerial end.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,363 posts GB flag
Sunday, 11 August 2024
J
John
4:01 PM

I have a 4 ch DVB-T modulator to insert channels into my rf distribution at home.
What is the highest channel number available, that isn't affected by the 5G transmissions, please?

link to this comment
John's 1 post GB flag
S
Steve Donaldson
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

4:07 PM

John: The band of channels now in use and available for TV, without interference from 4G or 5G mobile base stations, is 21 to 48. 49 and upwards were previously used for TV, and have now been given over to the mobile operators.

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Steve Donaldson's 258 posts GB flag
Monday, 30 September 2024
D
DARREN AMOS
8:43 PM

Do you know why we don't receive Anglia ITV1 SD anymore via Freeview, but can receive its Plus 1 version an hour later?
We have had to switch to ITV1 HD but this is Meridian, not Anglia, even though we live in Northamptonshire. Do you know why that is the case?
We are tuned to Sandy Heath transmitter and have a strong signal.
Note I have seen many posts with the same issue, so it isn't our equipment.
We have reset & retuned but still no change
This suddenly happened whilst we were watching the channel around 1:00 am on the 27th August.
It did come back for an hour or so a few days later then disappeared again

link to this comment
DARREN AMOS's 1 post GB flag
S
Steve Donaldson
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

9:02 PM

DARREN AMOS:

This is the first I've heard about this. I found this thread on a forum about Humax devices (not affiliated with Humax):

https://myhumax.org/forum/topic/itv-sd-has-disappeared/page/4

Is yours a Humax?

That said, if it's a Humax box then what about the TV?

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Steve Donaldson's 258 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 1 October 2024
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:13 AM

DARREN AMOS:

Just FYI, the reason you see Meridian on HD is because ITV currently only distribute 4 major regions in HD. Down in the SW they get Central!
We are still waiting for ITV to roll out the individual regions in HD as the BBC did last year!

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Chris.SE's 4,363 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 2 October 2024
A
Anne Moorley
8:48 AM

Cannot receive any freeview channels apart from BBC ones today from 6.30 am ( not sure if happed before this time as TV not on

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Anne Moorley's 1 post GB 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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If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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