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.

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 22/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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),
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 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)	289m	DTG-8	170,000W
	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)	289m	DTG-8	170,000W
	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?

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?

R

Robert Thomson
5:44 PM
Bedford

MK40 3PX

We are no longer receiving a signal to our rooftop and have .

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Robert Thomson's 1 post GB flag

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

H

Hayley
4:49 PM

I cant manually search for CH51 714000 on my Humax box it comes up with no results.

Please could you let me know why?

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Hayley's 1 post GB flag

J

John Kirby
10:20 AM
Chatteris

On the AVForums there seems to be a cross section of the UK complaining about the audio on HD which seems to have started in the few weeks. What they are receiving is every so often they get an odd pop on the sound. Any ideas why this is happening please. I have just heard it this morning myself on .

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John Kirby's 13 posts GB flag

John's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

R

Richard Wood
3:04 PM

My elderly neighbour's large, modern, Samsung TV has a weird fault on : anything moving on the screen (person, car, etc) outlines in RGB 'sparkles' (like a Photoshop effect). The TV's inbuilt displays perfectly, the strength shows as 100%. Any ideas?

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Richard Wood's 11 posts GB flag

M

MikeB

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

3:18 PM

Richard Wood: Its a bit of a nightmare to , but the first thing to ask is - does it happen when they are playing a , dvd or anything else? You said the worked fine, although really the strength should be nearer 80% ( 100%). If its only , then thats points to the tuner, , etc. If its on everything, then that points to a system fault or something more general.

Is it a 3D TV? A couple of years ago two old ladies said that their 6 series Samsung looked odd. After a while we figured out they had pressed the 3D button by accident, and could figure out how to undo it. Since you can make 2D into 3D, the screen looked a bit odd. It should say on the screen if its done that, but...

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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag

R

Richard Wood
2:24 PM

Mike B: Thanks for that.

I think that my neighbour has a DVD player, so I'll take a DVD round and with that sometime, not just now though...

I just saw her a few minutes ago and she said that the fault has gone, but she also said that it goes and comes back. I don't want her to think that a test which I've done has brought the fault back!

I think that her RF co-ax feeds into a splitter-. Could the be 'over-boosted'? Is that possible?

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Richard Wood's 11 posts GB flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

9:09 AM

- MainPossible service interruptions [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,866 posts xx flag

D

Duncan
12:42 PM

Hello I'm getting on the BBC . no HD signal and very poor on ch52 . I have a huge that I got from maplin it used to work better but I've always had the odd blocks appear every few minutes .my post code is . sg198ee . my mum is getting problems to downstairs . she has a different antenna .

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Duncan's 2 posts GB flag

D

Duncan
12:46 PM

Hello I'm getting on the BBC . no HD signal and very poor on ch52 . I have a huge that I got from maplin it used to work better but I've always had the odd blocks appear every few minutes .my post code is . mk464ef . my mum is getting problems to downstairs . she has a different antenna .

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Duncan's 2 posts GB flag

M

MikeB

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:25 PM

Duncan: Firstly, check your signal strength - your 32km from the , but it could be too high. But if its very low, and your getting , then it sounds like the wiring has a problem - broken, frayed, corroded, etc.

Same thing for your mum's TV.

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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag

Page 146

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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