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

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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 22/05/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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

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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.

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?

T

TheWoodman
10:43 AM
Cambridge

Rescanned successfully on 3 TVs, 2 digiboxes serving TVs and 1 Elgato EyeTV for the iMac. Each receiving all , all MUXes, all programmes from .

HOWEVER...

We have a DVR (Digihome DTR0207 twin tuner) which worked just fine (well, with the occasional freeze or pixelllation consistent with a loft aerial pre-) until 3-6 months ago. We considered replacing this box but decided to await the mid-April 'final' re- and associated -boost.

After today's re-scan, ALL that it will find is MuxC on .

This PVR is fed by an aerial which does not go through a /splitter. (I have tried it fed from the other loft aerial, through the booster/splitter same performance.) The RF out from the PVR feeds a Freeview TV which re-scanned successfully today, finding all channels, all MUXes, all programmes.

Any suggestions?

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TheWoodman's 11 posts

C

Colin
10:47 AM
Milton Keynes

Your table above shows Aquiva B on 48 from Wed 13th April 2011. It seems that it is on CH67 from today 13th. I beleive it is at because I could receive the old BBC MUX B on CH67, today I cannot receive anything. Its seems they are parking ARQ B on 67 for a while according to digitaluk.co.uk

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Colin's 7 posts

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

11:05 AM

TheWoodman: I would think replacing the DTR0207 with a new + or Freeview+HD box is a good option.

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Briantist's 38,844 posts

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

11:08 AM

Colin: One place it says yes to , another it says no. I am waiting to see which is the correct.

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Briantist's 38,844 posts

C

Colin
12:03 PM
Milton Keynes

: digitaluk.co.uk/manualretuning for my postcode MK130QG gives a very useful table of MUXES / Frequencies for current status and next FOUR changes requiring a retune. is so complex!

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Colin's 7 posts

J

John
12:56 PM

In simple language when will be able to receive all of the currently designated against transmitters A C and D with 20,000W low .
At present only channels avialble are those on PSB1/2/3.

Thank You

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John's 5 posts

K

KMJ,Derby

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

12:59 PM

Colin and : According to UK will be used by Mux ArqB (8k )until 14th September (when it changes to ). C67 is then used by MuxC (2k mode) from 14th September till 23rd November 2011. MuxC/ArqA then changes to in 8k mode.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts

K

KMJ,Derby

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

1:09 PM

John: dates for high working are 14th September 2011 for Mux ArqB; 23rd November 2011 for ArqA and 2012 (date tbc) for SDN

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts

L

Lee
1:36 PM
Sandy

I live in Sandy and getting a very weak on ch67 on all 3 tvs's but perfect on all the others.

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Lee's 3 posts

C

Colin
2:18 PM
Milton Keynes

Thanks: and KMJ, that confirms why I can't rx that mux. CH 67 was borderline on MUX B before , for some reason it is below the threshold now. I got a few broken images earlier, confirming it is there, seems I will have to wait until later in the year for that mux.I have a high external but is locally blocked by trees just coming into leaf.

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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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If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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