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

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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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.

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

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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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C27 (522.0MHz)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	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)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	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)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H -0.2dB	C33 (570.0MHz)	291m	DTG-8	170,000W
	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)	289m	DTG-8	170,000W
	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)	289m	DTG-8	170,000W
	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?

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	ITV_waves
C21		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C24		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C27		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C31		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves
C32						com7
C33						SDN
C34						com8
C35						_local
C36						ArqA
C39			C5_waves	C5_waves
C43					_local
C48					ArqB	ArqB
C51_{tv_off}					SDN
C52_{tv_off}					ArqA
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						COM8_{tv_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 AM/FM Sandy Heath TV region BBC Cambridge Anglia (West micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sandy Heath transmitter area

Oct 1959-Feb 2004	Anglia Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:21 PM

Adam B /rickety : Yes, spot on, as I just managed to "check the spec" on the manual this morning.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

rickety

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

3:09 PM

Adam B/jb38 Thank you both! Now I know and my natural curiosity is satisfied. As long as offers the same number of HD as (not guaranteed in the future I know) then I will not feel deprived.
I can always rely on getting a quick and understandable answer from you guys on UKFree.

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rickety's 22 posts GB flag

R

Randall Evans
10:45 AM

I am currently having problems with some of the and 5 programmes, probably due to a weak . Will the changes to next week and in the future with this?
Is there a link to find out about the planned changes? I have found some channel change info but not transmission power.

Regards

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Randall Evans's 2 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

1:50 PM

Randall Evans: Bit hard to say without a full postcode, but see Single frequency interference | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice for general advice.

The strengths are listed at the top of the page under "Comparison of and digital signal levels".

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

P

Peter
4:44 PM
Towcester

I note that is "Anglia ". On ITV1 on 3 I receive the Anglia regional news. On ITV1HD on channel 51 and ITV1+1 on channel 33 I get the Meridian news. Any particular reason for this. I suppose it is better than BBC1HD which provides a caption instead of the regional news.

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Peter's 1 post GB flag

Peter's: P's Freeview map P's terrain plot P's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

6:30 PM

Peter: Yes, please see ITV1+1, ITV1HD, BBC One HD regional services on Freeview | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

R

Randall Evans
9:30 AM
Cambridge

Thanks for response.
Postcode CB2 9HU if it helps.

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Randall Evans's 2 posts GB flag

Randall's: R's Freeview map R's terrain plot R's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage

J

Jason
5:27 PM

I have to say I tend to agree with OS1 and his frustrations with the .
Looking at the DigitalUK postcode checker, at the moment I can expect good on 33 SD and 4 HD (which is pretty much what I get), in November this will drop to good reception on only 18 SD and 4 HD channels. After the final step in June next year I can expect only variable reception on ALL SD and HD channels!
I thought reception reliablility was going to improve not get worse!
Looks like I will have to go back to and have wasted money buying a decent Toshiba recorder?
I'm in Stevenage by the way.

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Jason's 6 posts GB flag

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

8:32 PM

Jason: When you use the UK postcode checker, ensure that it actually does say that the is for the . In Stevenage, it's possible that it will give you predictions for .

If you provide a full postcode, I can interpret the trade version of the predictor for you.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

P

Paul H
10:49 PM

I have kept up to date with the retunes, but have poor -no sound pixilation-on yesterday, film 4 and itv4 (12,15,24)
only occurs on main set with ,approx 10 years old- small set on indoor aerial upstairs ok, as is tuner on set top aerial in kitchen.
Do I wait for September retune or do I need to loft aerial?
Pe19 area.

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Paul H's 1 post GB flag

Page 51

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.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

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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