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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.

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 25/03/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


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),

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 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -0.2dB
C36 (594.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -0.2dB
C48 (690.0MHz)289mDTG-8170,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 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
Friday, 11 January 2013
P
Peter
9:55 PM

Thanks Dave, will pop over to see them early next week and give it a go. will let you know of progress. Thanks for your help.

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Peter's 3 posts GB flag
Thursday, 17 January 2013
D
Damian
4:58 PM

Recently we lost all stations on channels 48 (Film 4 etc) 51 (ITV3 etc) and 52 (Pick tv etc). All BBC channels, ITV1, C4, C5 etc are excellent (Channels 27 and 24). I installed a new aerial, still same problem. Same on both TVs, manual and auto retuning does not help. Any ideas?

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Damian's 1 post GB flag
Monday, 21 January 2013
B
brian
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

2:26 PM
London

I went to my local chip shop the other day and noticed an aerial looking at Sandy Heath.

Nothing too unusual in that except that my chip shop (Mr Fast fry) is in Greenwich, South London.

I looked at the postcode checker and there is a 90% plus signal there on all the main MUXs .

Same if I put in sample postcodes in SE18 or SE2 further along the river Thames.

There have always been a few Anglia TV aerials along this stretch of river but always looking at Sudbury not Sandy.

Does anyone know if Sandy has had a major change in its radiation pattern? The digital power seems in proportion (at less than 1/5 of analogue).

I did a plot using this site Terrain - shows radio profile between two UK sites to optimise you DTT, Freeview, DAB or analogue TV reception and the path appears well and truly blocked several times miles away.

We are about 5 metres AOD and are 73kms away from Sandy!

My signal from Crystal Palace is fine by the way (SE10 0AE), I am just curious how such a strong signal penetrates south of the Thames.
(SE100AE)

link to this comment
brian's 32 posts GB flag
brian's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Michael
sentiment_satisfiedGold

4:01 PM

brian: Have you checked to see if the chip shop is actually getting the Anglia regional news? Because I can see two aerials by looking at google street view - one north, one south.

link to this comment
Michael's 358 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:27 PM

Michael: I'd be more concerned that if I ordered haddock I got haddock and if I ordered cod I got cod.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
B
Brian Manley
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

10:54 PM
London

Michael : Maybe Mr Fast fry himself is not watching news of school closures in Peterborough but one of his clan is as you can see from your poke around his roof top with google street view the aerial is one of them new fangled 3 pronged 'digital' ones you didn't get in the good old days, Dave : His skate is very good but you need to wait 10 minutes for it..

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Brian Manley's 32 posts GB flag
Brian's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 4 February 2013
N
nick
4:50 PM
Stevenage

i live in sg12ll and half the freeview channels are missing.
psb2/d3+4
com4/sdn
com5/arq a
com6/arq b
all the hd

i pay £ 145.50 a year for half the channels !

i live in a flat with municipal tv supply. they say its a weak area !
how do i get the channels i pay for ?

link to this comment
nick's 1 post GB flag
nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
M
Michael
sentiment_satisfiedGold

4:07 PM
Leicester

nick: Maybe it would help if you told us what channels you're missing instead of typing out all of the muxes.

Is everyone else in the flats missing the same channels? If so it could be an aerial problem, as you do need a wideband aerial to get all of the commercial channels from Sandy Heath. Also, HD channels won't show up unless you have a DVB-T2 tuner inside a box or TV.

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Michael's 358 posts GB flag
Michael's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 27 February 2013
H
Heather Marsh
8:44 PM

We have previously received all channels but within the last week we have a greatly reduced channel selection. We have emptied and rescanned with no change.

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Heather Marsh's 1 post GB flag
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
D
D Williams in NN8 5YU
4:43 PM

in the last couple of weeks our ITV channels
from Sandy have been very poor and breaking up. we did a signal check on each channel and it comes up with "poor ". all BBC and other stations are strong and come up with a full green signal strength, the ITV,s are all yellow with step backs to red ( very bad ) occasionally.
I have reset all freeview settings more than once but problem is still there please comment ? thank you

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D Williams in NN8 5YU's 1 post GB flag
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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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