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, 13 April 2011
M
Mike Dimmick2:41 PM
Colin: ArqB is using a different mode than Mux B used to, which requires 3-4 dB more signal. If Mux B was marginal it's not surprising that ArqB is now not working.
The mode change is to increase capacity - that capacity is being used by Sky Sports 1 & 2, which the BBC was temporarily carrying on Mux B before today. All the channels had to come off Mux B as it's replaced by the HD mux. At some transmitters that switched last year, Mux D did not switch mode (to become ArqB) and that caused a lot of pain and confusion for existing and would-be Sky Sports subscribers, who were told they couldn't get the channels. BT Vision, TUTV, Sky Sports 1+2 and the Mendip transmitter | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
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I've patched the page to show the move of ArqB to C67, as per one version of the Digital UK documentation.
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John: You will also require a wideband aerial to receive these multiplexes, you will never receive them with a group A aerial, which you may have.
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J
Jase4:23 PM
Signal from ArqB/C67 is appalling today, perfectly fine before today's rescan, now almost unwatchable.
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H
Hubert5:03 PM
Luton
Today Wednesday I retuned my TV which has built in freeview and I received only the BBC channels none others and even the BBC channels would drop out or the picture would break up. This is off a roof aerial which gave me perfect analogue picture.So I connected it to a loft aerial which I also have and this gave me 55 channels and perfect picture quality. So do I need to change my roof aerial or retune in a couple of weeks. I also noticed that my roof aerial points towards London and my loft aerial points towards Bedford. Please can you help. Thanks.
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Hubert's: mapH's Freeview map terrainH's terrain plot wavesH's frequency data H's Freeview Detailed Coverage
L
Lance5:10 PM
Ely
@Briantist
what are these two new Muxes you list? "NEW7" on Ch 49 and "NEW8" on Ch 23? Is this confirmed, and in what timeframe? Never heard these mentioned anywhere else but here.
Cheers
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Lance's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick5:41 PM
Lance: I keep telling Brian to remove those until something actually launches. It just confuses people.
They are the interleaved frequencies that could potentially be used for new services - probably Local TV services. There is no planned launch date, there isn't even a date for the auctions yet.
The rules used to consider probable frequencies were chosen to ensure that an aerial of the correct group would probably be able to receive them. I wouldn't use them as a guide as to what aerial to use, even at sites where it mattered. Sandy Heath requires a wideband aerial anyway, so it doesn't matter.
Also, the main frequency plans weren't finalized when the interleaved spectrum consultation happened, so the interleaved frequency assignments may have to change, especially where a transmitter uses one of the frequencies due to be cleared for 4G phone services (C61 and C62), or one of the frequencies that cleared services will go to (C49 or C50).
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K
KMJ,Derby7:36 PM
Hubert: If your roof aerial is pointing towards Crystal Palace you will get good analogue reception but on Freeview according to the Digital UK postcode checker reception is at best variable to poor and non existant on one mux.This is due in part to the current low power transmitters being on only a tenth of the post switchover power, which should then match the analogue coverage and interference from transmitters in adjacent regions.The loft aerial however is pointing at Sandy Heath which is shown as giving good reception on the high power PSB muxes and also on ArqB. Variable reception is possible for MuxA and MuxC but the signal for these two low power muxes is possibly lost with a loft aerial.It is likely that the roof aerial could also receive signals from Sandy Heath or Luton relay but these could be prone to variation in strength and interference after being received from behind or off the side of the aerial.
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Since last night and the second stage re-tune of the Sandy Heath transmitter we have lost our music channels. We can no longer get 21-Viva despite re-tuning and resetting. We received all channels before the switch.
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Andrew's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Steve Smith7:56 PM
Hi,
I've noticed that since switchover this morning to full digital that my signal strength on both my Humax receivers still only shows about 70%
I also have a pocket DTV receiver which is having trouble tuning into anything other than the main BBC channels.
Will the transmission power be turned up soon ?Do you know when ?
Cheers.
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