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, 24 April 2011
ray bayes: The signal strength and picture quality are quite unrelated - see How digital television works | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .
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Tuesday, 26 April 2011
L
Lou8:38 AM
St. Neots
Bought a Panasonic tv with inbuilt freeview in December, since when have rarely switched on the Virgin box. Yesterday removed the Virgin box and installed a freeview+ recorder. The Teknika tv with inbuilt freeview we bought on 1st April for the bedroom now receives 0 signal! We tried it in the kitchen, where the Samsung tv with inbuilt freeview works fine.
Any idea what's gone wrong? Neither of us are particularly good at this kind of thing.
Many thanks.
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S
Steve11:21 AM
Wrexham
Lou - Did the Teknika previously work? If so try again same place. Remember to connect the aerial lead!
Have you retuned it?
Does it recognise any channels?
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Wednesday, 27 April 2011
M
Michael Jeffries3:52 PM
Can youexplain why BBC channels keep breaking up and going off air ssince switching Sandy Heath to digital. All other stations have a clear reception,
Michael
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S
Steve5:48 PM
Wrexham
MJ - If you have any amplifiers try without them. Signals can be TOO strong.
Do you have more than one set/ariel? If so, all same or various?
What do neighbours experience?
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N
Nathan Quinn10:35 PM
Rather annoyed here. I can't store the multiplex with Film4, Yesterday etc channels on it because that mux is identified as "Cambs & Beds." instead of "Cambs & Beds.." (two dots instead of one). My box doesn't like one transmitter having two different identifiers and there is no manual tune option, so that multiplex is now off limits to me. The signal quality is fine, as I can watch it on my old box. I've read another account like mine on Digital Spy, so I know I'm not alone. Most will probably think the signal quality isn't good enough and that's why they can't receive channels on the multiplex, but it's more likely due to the identifier typo. My old box didn't care, but my new one does, so that silly type needs fixing NOW.
Who should I tell? Can you pass this info on?
Cheers.
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N
Nathan Quinn10:40 PM
*silly typo
I made a typo with the word typo. Great.
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N
Nathan Quinn11:43 PM
Apparently it was the Dave, Sky, etc mux that was named wrong. Can't figure out what's wrong then. If I use my other box with the same aerial I can watch the Film4 mux easily. Can't even pick it up all pixelated with this new box, even though signal quality is much better in general.
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Thursday, 28 April 2011
Nathan Quinn: As above, "The commercial multiplexes at Sandy Heath will remain on their pre-switchover channels and powers for a period after digital switchover. SDN will then temporarily move to channel 31 (at 20kW ERP) on 31 Aug 2011, before adopting its final allocation of channel 51 on 18th April 2012. Arqiva A will adopt its final allocation of channel 52 on 23 Nov 2011. Arqiva B will temporarily move to channel 67 (at 20kW ERP) at switchover and then it will adopt its final allocation of channel 48 on 14 Sept 2011."
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Friday, 29 April 2011
D
DAVE9:40 AM
Bedford
Pre the digital switchover all digital programs were perfect, but from that day on I get picture freeze (and no sound) 2 to 5 times an hour,lasting a second or two.
Nothing has changed at all at home - IT MUST BE SANDY HEATH !! my post code is MK45 3HD.
What do you think ?
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