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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

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 29/05/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

_______

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, 250 BBC Red Button, plus 15 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, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Anglia east),
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C21+ (474.2MHz)	291m	DTG-	180,000W
	56 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD (England no regional news), 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, 109 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, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! movies action, 46 Channel 5 +1, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 CBS Reality, 74 Dave ja vu, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 89 ITV4 +1, 203 CITV, 208 Pop Player, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, plus 15 others
COM5 ArqA	H -0.2dB	C36 (594.0MHz)	289m	DTG-8	170,000W
	11 Sky Arts, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 pick, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 57 Smithsonian Channel, 60 Drama +1, 70 Quest +1, 75 Yesterday +1, 83 Together TV, 233 Sky News, plus 9 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, 71 Quest Red +1, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 88 Classic Hits, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 19 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 (66°)
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 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?

Comments

Saturday, 23 January 2016

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:31 AM

- : BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 22:53 on 20 Jan to 01:40 on 21 Jan. [BBC]

link to this comment

Transmitter engineering's 140,848 posts

Sunday, 24 January 2016

bob

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

3:58 PM

Waspattack:
I've lost that a couple of times recently. Either a fault, or Co- .

link to this comment

bob's 30 posts

Monday, 25 January 2016

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

10:32 AM

- : BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 22:53 on 20 Jan to 01:40 on 21 Jan. [BBC] Possible weak [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 140,848 posts

Tuesday, 26 January 2016

Waspattack
7:41 PM

Bob,

Now fixed. Turns out it was the fires/tar that had been causing the problem. The was installed right over the chimney pot and the heat/smoke had damaged the internals. New aerial positioned in a much more sensible position and I'm back to good strength again.

link to this comment

Waspattack's 2 posts

Thursday, 28 January 2016

Gordon
1:32 AM
Hitchin

Waspattack (in Happy 2016 - welcome to the Golden Age?

How long has your drop on COM7 been happening?

I lost it completely after works at the end of Nov 2015 (see Happy 2016 - welcome to the Golden Age?

I'm at SG4 7SN with a and (s). COM8 comes through loud and clear, but not COM7.

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Gordon's 3 posts

Friday, 29 January 2016

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:32 AM

- Possible weak [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 140,848 posts

coach

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

8:56 PM

After a couple of months of good on HD , this week I'm yet again getting break up. is stated as having possible weak signal. I wish they were more specifc. Surely they know if it's weak or not.

link to this comment

coach's 33 posts

Saturday, 30 January 2016

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:03 AM

coach: Not necessarily, as engineers working on RF and associated equipment could well experience some unforeseen problem which could place either themselves, or the equipment they are working on, in danger without a reduction being made, this being the reason for "possible" weak having been posted, as it covers all eventualities.

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jb38's 7,179 posts

Dexter
4:42 PM

Hi I've just got a manhattan plaza hd s2 reciver. But for some reason the remote won't control sound and turning tv on and off I thought all had universal remote controls anyway I would appreciate some on wether this remote is universal and if so how do I get it to control tv it didn't come with any codes .

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Dexter's 2 posts

MikeB

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:48 PM

Dexter: I've got the same box, and while you can use it to control volume as well ( has its own volume control), I just change the with the manhatten, and change the volume with the TV remote. Its just much easier, and no, it doesn't seem to be universal.

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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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