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.
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._______
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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Friday, 13 July 2012
N
NigelJ11:05 PM
Wisbech
Further to my last comment on the poor quality of channel 27 from Sandy Heath.
I have noticed that all other Sandy Heath channels can be received without a problem, both with frequencies above and below channel 27. A closer examination of the reported signal strength and quality, indicates that even with a very strong signal, the quality is extremely poor, but only at certain times of the day.
I am beginning to wonder if the channel is subject to external interference.
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NigelJ's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 14 July 2012
G
G.F.Lewendon11:15 AM
Dear Lisa
Re :- Saturday 2 June 2012 5:28PM.
I do not feel that I can offer any better advice you than you seem to be getting re TV reception. But the following may help re PC crashes.
Yes re installing the PC operating system is both time consuming and tiresome.
All the following need to be prepaid befor any disater hits.
(It took me almost a week to rebuild and install a replacement XP system recently)
as so often you have to plod through various set up options it would be nice if those people that made the OS (M/S windows versions ?-all) could gather all the answers at the beginning then go of and apply the answers given by the user. But it does not stop there, email accounts need setting up with details only the user should know. But there are ways to make it simple the more simple the higher is the price. For email only and is quite cheap will cost price of floppy or space on memory stick / card or CDR / CDRW it should be possible to save / export the details of your email account to either or all of the above storage devices whilst the system is working as required. Then next time it lets you down once Windows is working again you import from the file you have the email account and your back sending emails real fast without messing with account details In Windows XP and Vistor find tools tab in the respective email application next look down new list for accounts open tab select account type then import saved data from file by using import function - it works rather like Save / open as found in file / menu of many word processors. A second option places a image of the hard drive onto CD's or DVD's the product is called "Nortons ghost" you have to stay with PC as image is made so that disc can be loadded into writing drive as required and same is true when using disc set to reload hard drive when system reinstall is felt only way to resolve problem. A copy of ghost may need to be purchased from the Symantic / Nortons web site. If you would like it easyer considder cloneing the hard drive whilst all is well with the system do not wait till theres a problem its to late by then. You might find free soft ware on line else can purchase from web also required is a formatted hard drive as big as the one you have in PC that can be housed / slid into a device* that is connected via a lead to PC whilst in use. Also you will need a blank disc to make into a start up disc that gets whole reload process going and of coures if you download the cloning software it is a good idea to keep a copy on a CD or DVD. Note this is differrent to backing up the hard drive or using system restore but unlike those data back up / repair tools the whole drive as at time of cloneing ends up being reloaded while you enjoy those more interesting things. Cloning will take some hours but once actvated runs without you sitting there. You end up with a working PC with minamal fuss but its not cheap.
*After drive is cloned store drive holding drive rebiuld data somwhere it will not be mistaken as a blank drive. However device can be used to attach diffrent hard drive giving you extra data storage space rather like swapping disc. So its not got to be used exclusiverly for drive cloning.
These devices let you attach a Sata drive via a USB lead even if there is no Sata connection on your PC the data transfer is just a bit slower via USB. Some permit attachment of 2.5" and 3.5" hard drives so are more usfull.
Hope thats helpfull.
Sorry to those who say this is a TV RX help site not a PC help site but as techs converg is it not up to those of us than understand one type of tech to help others that may like to know all the possible options to make life easyer.
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G
G.F.Lewendon1:15 PM
Dear NigelJ RE Friday 13 July 2012 11:05PM 12 hours ago Wisbech. Have you had a new neighbour move very close by that's using power line type Home plug adaptors instead of a wireless router with a PC for networking the house LAN. These device's can produce bad harmonics all over the RF spectrum & are bad news if you like to use short wave and in some cases have been known to effect DAB (band 2 FM as used for 405 TV in 30's-40's-50's through till final turn of in I belive late 80's or very early 90's Even extending into the UHF band See on web what the Radio society of Great Britain thinks of them. Nasty bit of kit! Problem is they are aproved standerd issue to customers who use the BT vision system. Its a bit like when astra started up in the late 80's and some manfactures said they could produce cheap 65 cm dia dishes with a beam width of 3 degrees which worked fine untill eutelsat took up its pre standing location option and replaced a weak satellite at 16.0 degrees east of south with a much more powerfull one. The problem not understood by UK MPs as at time astra was positioned at 19.2 degress east of south and if the astra home dish was of by only 0.2 degrees say pushed by strong gust of wind in a gale UK Gold was on same astra transponder downlink frequncy as the Egyptian channel "MBC" from eutelsat 2F2 or was it 2F3 positioned at 16.0 degrees east of south. All the positioning given to eutelsat had been granted by the european govening bodied based on recieving dishes being 90 cm dia or greater and as such had a acceptance angle or beam width less than 3 degrees so had to be much further of alinement for a problem to occur. Affected users would get a kind of co channel interferance as a result... is that why S.E.S Astra is now at 28....ish degrees east of south for digital use in uk ie like any lens the smaller the diameter the wider the beam. using a 1 meter PM dish on a H to H mount I had no problems and could see the weak feeds from a weak eutelsat parked between the above mentioned sats even if tuned to same frequncy and pol as UK gold. Following web address PLT / BT 'Home Plug' / PLN / Radio Interference / PLA / Powerline Telecoms / Broadband By Powerline (BPL) - QRM Part 1 - M0MTJ Will show how annoying these home plug adaptors can be. Whether this could be your problems source is not always easy to prove and or resolve even with much diplomacy. Have read on line of suffers offering to supply kit and instal to replace offending newsance when all other options have been tried. Another thought is has a construction crane poped up in your local area that during daytime because of its size or shape and even position is acting as a reflector at problem frequncy. Third thought :- Have you got two UHF aerials on the mast placed such that both dipoles are in line one above the other in same polarity this can cause problems but would always be presant. Forth thought :- Is person next door new user of sky box which is connected via boxes modulator if a older syle box (It maybe second hand) rather than via skart The modulator can be turned of from a user accesable menue. The cable used if poorly screened might be acting as a low level TX dipole if installed just on other side of wall to your viewing room again diplomacy may help resolve problem Following web address is full of aerial instal tips including my third thought interestingly in the sites section tab for aerial positioning find the table of results and note the effect found at ch 27 they report a 2.0 db signal loss. Quite a informative site. A.T.V (Aerials And Television) TV Aerial, DAB Aerial, FM Aerial. Hope above gets you on road to a cheap and simple answer.
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Monday, 16 July 2012
D
David Mann11:38 AM
Lost BBC1,2 etc as well as CBBC, CBeebies. They were working at about 6am this morning, but are not working now (11:30am). All ITV channels etc are OK. But BBC says there is not problem with Sandy Heath at present. Have tried retuning one of the Freeview boxes, and it has found no BBC channels.
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J
James Osbourn1:33 PM
I have lost BBC channels as well and a retune has not picked them up, some one please fix this
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J
jb381:48 PM
James Osbourn: Checked a few minutes ago and all channels from Sandy are perfectly OK in the Peterborough area.
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Tuesday, 17 July 2012
J
James Osbourn10:13 AM
retuned again later day and BBC came back again
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N
NigelJ10:52 PM
Wisbech
Thank you for your suggestions. A mains network is certainly a possible source of the RF noise. As the problem is restricted to a single RF channel,I am reasonable confident that it is due to external interference rather than multi-path reception, which I assume would not be so frequency channel selective.
My receiver equipment reports a high signal strength on CH27, but intermittently very poor quality. Changing from a 10 down to a 1 or 2 every few minutes.
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NigelJ's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb3811:35 PM
James Osbourn: Yes, as it was caused by the BBC transmitter being down for 11 minutes from 11:11am, and with the reason it checked out OK with me being because you had only queried the problem at 13:33, which of course it had been back on again for about 2 hours prior to that.
The point about this being, that any time when a channel selected results in a blank screen NEVER be tempted to carry out a retune as the programme will NOT have been lost from the TV's or boxes memory, and all re-tuning does is to guarantee that the memory is wiped clean which necessitates frequent rescans being made to recover the lost channels, whereas if things had been left as they were they would have returned of their own accord.
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Wednesday, 18 July 2012
S
Spa3:23 PM
I live in Ampthill,and I too have been having intermittent problems since the beginning of July with Ch 27 being poor quality! All the other channels are fine. The problem only seems to affect the WinTV-Duet receiver on my PC. All my other tvs and pvr are okay, the drop in quality doesn't seem to bother them.
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