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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
Monday, 30 December 2019
K
Ken Newstead
1:23 PM
Buntingford

My neighbour and I both live in SG9 0BA postcode and had some signal loss yesterday and total loss this morning at around 1 pm. At 13:15 pm we were both OK. Has there been any work on the Sandy Heath transmitter that would have caused this?

link to this comment
Ken Newstead's 2 posts GB flag
Ken's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
Ken Newstead
1:29 PM
Buntingford

Further to my last post for SG9 0BA postcode, at 13:25 pm there is again just a "Weak or No Signal" message.

link to this comment
Ken Newstead's 2 posts GB flag
Ken's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
L
Liam Erop
1:41 PM

No signal at all in nn36pf area

Keeps going off air and picture break up on all channels.

link to this comment
Liam Erop's 1 post US flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:51 PM

Jason Drake, Rosemary, Alan Carter, Carol Richards, Ken Newstead, Liam Erop & others.

Please read my long post 1:00AM last night on p217 here.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
M
Mark Hank
3:09 PM
Milton Keynes

Postcode MK4 2JF..

Unable to receive any com8 channels eg Freesports 64... Any known issues as all other channels ok and about 93%...

link to this comment
Mark Hank's 1 post GB flag
Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
B
Brian Greensides
3:45 PM

As back up to my claim of very intermittent freeview reception please be aware that I have 3 independent tv sets fed from 2 separate aerials. Could someone from Sandyheath freeview please look at this web site:-
Freeview TV signal down for people across the whole of Cambridgeshire - Cambridgeshire Live

Thank you Brian Greensides
30/12/2019 15:44 hours

link to this comment
Brian Greensides's 17 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:40 PM

Brian Greensides: Mark Hank: evelyn o'rourke:

I'm surprised that none of you read my previous post here and so read my long post 1:00AM last night on p217 here.
In case you have trouble going back a page, here is a direct link Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy


link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 31 December 2019
C
Charlie B
4:56 AM

all day 30/12 and into the morning of 31/12 I am having signal problems in the PE15 are. Sandy Heath is our nearest transmitter. Many stations that I can normally watch including BBC channels are not coming through and reporting "no signal"

link to this comment
Charlie B's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:21 AM

Charlie B:

Have you not read the previous posts here? Do you really expect people to repeat what has already been stated?
Here's a link to the post with the primary information - Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy


link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 1 January 2020
N
Nigel Johnson
6:17 PM

Chris.SE: can we assume that scheduled moves of sandy heath channel allocations will be postponed if they conincide with unusual tropospheric radio propagation. Or are we to see messages to return at a time when the new frequency allocation will be blocked by interference.
One must wonder why the mobile phone companies are so keen to gain access to the higher Freeview TV frequencies, when they are subject to tropospheric RF ducting and scattering. Something that is going to become even more common due to the effects of global warming. Are the mobile phone operators not concerned about the disruption to their services when they attempt to use these frequencies in the mobile network backbone.
While the 5G is not directly responsible for the current free view interference, the sell off of the high frequencies in the band, must have had an impact on channel reuse distance planning, squeezing the free view channels closer together and thus reducing the available frequency reuse allocation distance, making co-channel interference more likely.

link to this comment
Nigel Johnson's 2 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
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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