Full Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter
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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 
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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 (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 | 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 |
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
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Sunday, 28 October 2018
N
Nick9:05 AM
Sorry Mike the end of my post got cut off, if you or your colleagues do have any ideas I can try, or tips tricks I would be hugely appreciative. I'm quite tech savvy so don't worry about bombarding me with your tech hehehe
Thanks very much
nick
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MikeP
10:35 AM
10:35 AM
Nick:
The clues I picked up on are that you have several trees nearby which I assume are in line with the signal path from the transmitter to your aerial. They are often a problem because of the leaves growing in spring and falling in autumn. They get wet as well and both those affect the way signal travel past the trees. Is it possible to site the aerial so it does not look through the tree canopies? It is usually better to mount the erial to look around them or over them.
The other is that you have a loft aerial but I am unaware that any planning authority is allowed to restrict your having a single aerial mounted externally (there are rules about multiple dishes and their size but you are allowed one external dish and one external aerial normally. I suggest you ask the local planners about that apparent 'rule'.) However, there may be a covenant applied to your property that may restrict the use of outdoor aerials - but that is not a planning matter but one of common law relating to ownership and use of land.property. If there is one it will be mentioned in the deeds of your house, which should be discussed with your lawyers.
I am not aware of any reduction/change in the radiated power of COM7 and COM8 from Sandy Heath, they appear to be the same as they were before the move. Because the frequencies used are now higher the signals are affected a little differently than before due to atmospheric absorption effects, etc.
Tiles do affect reception, especially when wet or covered with snow. It is also important to have the aerial as far away from water tanks and/or pipes as is possible and definitely not 'looking through' them. Loft insulation that has a metallic film included will also cause reception problems with an internally mounted aerial in the loft. The same is true for any layer immediately below the tiles as any metal between the aerial and the transmitter will cause problems.
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C
Coach1:16 PM
Im still having issues with BBC4 HD and other channels on same mix. Anyone else still having issues. As it was raining last night it can't be high pressure still.
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MikeP
3:44 PM
3:44 PM
Coach:
The BBC4 HD service is carried on the BBCB muliplex which is on Channel 21+. So you need to have a good wideband aerail that has good performaance at channel 21 as well as all the way through to channel 56 (COM8).
Put your post code and house number into the Digital UK Coverage Checker (http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/coveragechecker/) to get the correct bearing from you to the transmitter and then check that you aerial is the required wideband type as well as being correctly aimed at Sandy Heath transmitter (if that is indeed you best option transmitter).
I assume you have checked all the aerial cables and connections already, including unplugging any coaxial plugs/sockets and refitting them?
Please also check the signal strength shown by tyour TV set but DO NOT RETUNE. Let us know what the reported strengths are please?
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C
Coach4:03 PM
MikeP: Thanks Mike. Only started to play up 2 weeks ago. Other channels such as bbc1 he are about 90% strength plus 100% quality. BBC 4 all over the shop however.
Thanks.
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Monday, 29 October 2018
I
Iain6:12 PM
Hi
I have Freesat. Although I am in West Anglia subregion, the News I get is East East Anglia. When I set up my TV I entered my MK postcode. Help please.
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S
StevensOnln16:55 PM
Iain: Are you watching ITV SD or ITV HD? Not all regions have a HD version of ITV available, so your box may be showing you the version corresponding to a neighbouring region (unhelpfully they are all just labelled as ITV HD so you can only really tell which version you're watching from the regional news).
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Wednesday, 31 October 2018
A
Alan5:54 PM
Coach: Hi I live in the Dunstable area LU6 postal code and I have lost all HD freeview channels for over two weeks and before then the signal has been off and on.
What has happend?
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N
Nigel J6:21 PM
Nick: the clue to this problem I suspect can be found by looking at the signal condition. Most TV sets provide a means to see both the signal strength and the signal quality( relate to message error rate) as part of the tuning menu. I would bet that you will see a high signal strength while the signal quality is low to non existent. The cause is co-channel interference. When the UK is under high pressure the poor frequency reuse distance between transmitters proves to be inadequate to stop the transmitters interfering with each other.
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C
Coach9:01 PM
All very strange.BBC HD new now ok but signal up and down. Totally lost BBC4HD even though high pressure gone! Any suggestions?
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