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 20/01/2025 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 |
Local transmitter maps
Sandy Heath Freeview Sandy Heath DAB Sandy Heath TV region BBC Cambridge Anglia (West micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sandy Heath transmitter area
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Saturday, 30 November 2024
C
Chris.SE8:37 PM
Christopher Peachey:
Well there's several possibilities here. We'll leave aside the possibility of a problem with the aerial installation (water in the connections/cable) at this point but might have to come back to it if there's any other issues.
Did you not see the transmitter engineering post before yours?
Next point, why do you want to retune? C33 is the correct UHF channel for Sandy Heath SDN/COM4 multiple, and you are tuned to it. Trying to retune when a signal can't be decoded (due to poor quality/interference) or No SIgnal will usually result in the correct tuning being cleared. You cannot tune to signals that aren't there or can't be decoded!
Whatever the cause, don't try retuning.
It would have been nice to know how long the problem has been present. You shouldn't have any particular problems with reception from Sandy Heath in normal circumstances and get all 6 multiplexes with 100% quality. If you don't have 100% quality on the others, please post the Signal Strength and Quality figures for each multiplex's UHF channels.
If C33 is the only channel not having 100% quality then if it's not the engineering work, interference is the most likely cause.
1) There is some "tropospheric" conditions about in your area which can cause interfering signals from distant transmitters (in the UK or Europe). Those conditions should clear later.
2) There a possibility that there could be a new/upgraded phone mast now using the 700MHz band and there's at least one mobile mast near you well within the beamwidth of your aerial's line of sight to Sandy. That could cause some interference issues. You should have received a postcard from Restore TV..
See - https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/
I'd contact Restore TV and request a Free filter. Now if you have any aerial pre-amp amp/splitter the Filter must be fitted before them. If a pre-amp is fitted to your mast, you need to advise Restore TV and they should send an engineer Free of charge to install a waterproof one on the mast.
Post back how things progress.
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C
Chris.SE8:45 PM
Christopher Peachey:
Forgot to add, do check your aerial hasn't moved at all, it should be pointing at around compass bearing 244 degrees, that's roughly WSW, and it's rods (or squashed Xs) should be horizontal.
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Monday, 2 December 2024
Transmitter engineering
5:10 AM
5:10 AM
Sandy Heath transmitter - Sandy Heath transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 02/12/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]
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Monday, 9 December 2024
Transmitter engineering
5:09 AM
5:09 AM
Sandy Heath transmitter - Sandy Heath transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 09/12/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]
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Monday, 16 December 2024
Transmitter engineering
5:09 AM
5:09 AM
Sandy Heath transmitter - Sandy Heath transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 16/12/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]
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Wednesday, 25 December 2024
S
StevensOnln14:59 PM
David Johnson: The BBC are currently warning of high pressure conditions causing reception issues in various parts of the country. Unfortunately nothing can be done about it other than waiting for the weather conditions to change.
High pressure currently affecting TV & Radio services across parts of the UK - 24 December | Help receiving TV and radio
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Thursday, 26 December 2024
B
barry hardwick12:13 PM
Maybe if we could have analogue, but just the lower number of stations during high pressure times, , that would be a very acceptable solutionStevensOnln1:
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C
Chris.SE6:21 PM
David Johnson:
Hope you haven't retuned as in these sort of conditions it will often clear your correct tuning and tune you to the weak signals from the distant transmitter which will eventually disappear!
You cannot tune to signals that aren't there or can't be decoded.
If you are correctly tuned, do NOT retune.
IF you did retune and now have the incorrect tuning, clear the current tuning by unplugging the aerial and doing a full retune, then plug the aerial back in and do a MANUAL tune of the UHF channels as listed at the very top of this page.
barry hardwick:
Similar comments apply to you. You are some distance away from the transmitter (unless you've moved since 2019!).
However, just to add, Analogue will make absolutely no difference to Tropospheric/Temperature Inversion conditions. Analogue signal are RF signals just as are digital and will be affected by such weather conditions in exactly the same way.
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C
Chris.SE6:25 PM
barry hardwick:
Apart from seeing my previous post, Freeview are also reporting these conditions.
High pressure could affect reception across the UK this week | Freeview
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Saturday, 28 December 2024
O
Owen8:28 PM
Chris.SE:
However, the Analogue transmission power levels were around 5x / 6dB higher, so there was more margin against interference. And analogue receivers were more tolerant to reduced signal levels, degrading more gracefully and just showing noise / interference on the picture.
Whereas with the digital system, a slight-drop in signal level (particularly for those on the margins of reception, as a decent more-local transmitter is not provided for our area) can just result in no reception at all - as I've had for many periods this year (The worst since switchover, and presumably due to sunspot cycle peak), as well as last few days.
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