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.
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 
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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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Wednesday, 3 September 2014
E
Ed peters10:55 PM
ArqA is down in Hitchin, it has been for a few days but the retune has wiped them out.
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Friday, 5 September 2014
R
Rod12:00 AM
Hi...
..I find "Quest" is V. Weak on my TV. @ + 5% ......BBC/ITV etc are Fine.....@ 95%
Im Nr S. Walden (Henham) Any Help appreciated
NB ( Xtal-P. is Ok @ 60%).
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MikeP
8:59 PM
8:59 PM
Rod
We really need a post code (or one of a nearby shop) so that contributors can determine which transmitter your are using and whether there are any issues.
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Tuesday, 16 September 2014
N
Nik4:05 PM
I have found that the Sandy Heath BBC one HD, BBC two HD, BBC 3 HD will sometimes drop signal at about 22:00 for a couple of hours.
I is not the fault of my TV as the signal is normally 84% signal strength and Quality 100%, but when it drops it all falls to 0% and bit error is up.
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Friday, 26 September 2014
R
Ray Ellison5:53 PM
Peterborough
Maxey Peterborough PE6 9EE The new and moved BBC News channel on 130 keeps breaking up and coming up with No signal messages all other channels are fine its always bad on BBC why. It was fine on channel 80
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Ray's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb386:56 PM
Ray Ellison: If you receive Freeview from the Waltham transmitter, carry out a signal test on the news channel and make sure that Mux Ch49 is displayed and "not" Mux Ch27 which is Sandy, Waltham offering a more reliable signal than Sandy due to the signal path from the latter being blocked at two separate points along the way.
Further advice dependant on findings.
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M
MikeB8:55 PM
Ray Ellison: Following on from JB38's excellent advice - I'm in the PE area, and if your using Waltham, make sure that you havn't picked up Belmont by mistake (they are on a similar bearing), or of course Sandy Heath.
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J
jb389:44 PM
Ray Ellison / MikeB : Yes, Belmont is indeed another possibility, and in that case Mux Ch22 would be indicated.
However, the angles of the signals received from the three stations arent really that close, Waltham @ 22miles / 295 degrees - Belmont @ 47 miles / 6 degrees, and with with Sandy @ 37 miles / 172 degrees.
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M
MikeB10:44 PM
jb38: In theory it should be fine, but I know my Goodmans box always picks up Belmont before Waltham, and thanks to its lack of manual tuning, I always end up having to play the game of doing part of the scan with the aerial out.
I can really recommend Goodmans for so many reasons...!
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Saturday, 27 September 2014
J
jb3812:30 AM
MikeB: Quite so, as boxes (or TV's) without a manual tuning facility are quite unacceptable for use in the UK due to the sheer number of multiplex channels being used, many of picked up in adjoining areas to that served by the station that supposedly covers the area and causing no end of problems, as the aerial out until a certain percentage of the scan has taken place procedures are totally hit and miss on most devices, as many of do not have operational progress indications.
I would never recommend Goodmans to anyone, as the reliability of the device is entirely dependant on the chassis that happens to have been used in a particular model, this sometimes difficult to determine without removing the top cover and inspecting the PCB, as even the Vestel range fitted in Hitachi PVR's use three different variations of the same chassis.
As far as Belmont is concerned, yes! it does belt into certain areas, and indeed although being approximately 14 degrees out from being a reverse pick up on an aerial facing towards Sandy, it is indeed capable of being received if the signal is at a high enough level due to factors such as reflections etc.
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