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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
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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.

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 June 2012
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:29 PM

JVO: Ah well, it was worth a try. Some receivers are more helpful than others.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Thursday, 21 June 2012
J
JVO
10:28 AM
Knebworth

Dave Lindsay. Just checked manual tuning again for C48,51,52 ... varies with the weather. And finally found stations on C48 ! (very poor quality)
Actual "Quality" measures upto 19% C51, 9% C52 but still 0% C48. (Not sure if truly 0, my set a bit strange ... always reports 0 for C21 ?)
Gives me more incentive to get a new aerial.
Thank you for you interest.

link to this comment
JVO's 6 posts GB flag
JVO's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris James
3:58 PM
Aylesbury

I am Chris james and my problem now seems solved by the simple expedient of swinging my low roof aerial through 180 degrees and tuning to the Sandy transmitter rather than Oxford:I also get both South Today and Look East news and the ITV meridian news and Anglia News with a perfect picture all the time. Maybe others living in Aylesbury and having problems could try this.

link to this comment
Chris James's 3 posts GB flag
Chris's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:14 PM

Chris James: I find what you have mentioned rather interesting insomuch that "if" your post code is truly representative of your locality then your aerial is a fraction under 40 degrees out for Sandy, as the predictor indicates Oxford @ 16 mls / 264 degrees and Sandy @ 33mls / 46 degrees from your location.

Of course should the post code be reasonably accurate then that's inclined to indicate that the satisfactory signal you are receiving is via a refection, and so long its of a stable nature all good and well.

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:31 PM

Chris James: Or of course looking at it from another angle, being that should the aerial now be correctly aligned for Sandy then it couldn't have previously been for Oxford or vice-versa, or that its simply the case that its a little out on both stations, as the 180 degree turn around would be error free by being directly visual.

Not that this really matters if the reception is satisfactory, as that's all that counts.

Should say though that Sandy's PSB muxes are indicated as only providing variable reception on that code, so keep this in mind should you experience any seasonal induced problems.



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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Saturday, 23 June 2012
D
David
3:56 PM

Hi I'm in Northampton NN2.
Awful reception on all multiplexes since just before the bank hol - about 1st June, so well after the last Sandy Heath work i think.
Neighbours have the same thing. There are good periods but they never last for longer than a few hours. Doesn't seem to be a pattern in times. What's changed since then to cause these problems? BBC say just manual re-tune your equipment! (52.2369,-0.8974) 

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David's 1 post GB flag
Thursday, 28 June 2012
A
Adrian Sankton
9:51 AM
Corby

D3&4 and HD use transitional S1 antenna until 27 June 2012
Hi I don't see any changes in the table and the transmision powe are still same
any sugestion...

link to this comment
Adrian Sankton's 1 post GB flag
Adrian's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:20 PM

Adrian Sankton: That is correct; there were no changes to the transmission power.

The S1 antenna was to protect against interference with transmitters in Kent until they switched over. This is because they used the same frequencies pre-switchover.

It affected the signal in that general direction, focusing it lower down to the horizon so as to curtail its propagation (in that direction).

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
H
Hertfordshaz
4:57 PM

Hi

I live in Hertford

A strange thing has happened - I was pootling along quite happily watching Anglia news from Sandy Heath. In the last few months, I am now picking up a bad signal of London news. Could the Bengeo relay be interfering with my Sandy Heath signal? Should I retune? Thanks

link to this comment
Hertfordshaz's 1 post GB flag
K
KMJ,Derby
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:53 PM

Hertfordshaz: Have a look in the 800s of the channel list for any alternative channels which carry Anglia news. When scanning if the London signal is found first (or Anglia is off the air or blocked by interference) you will find London channels stored on the "normal" channel positions. Retuning might restore the Anglia channels to their former location, but really you need to clear the channel list and do a manual tune, if possible, on the Sandy Heath frequencies.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag
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