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 05/06/2023 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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Monday, 2 November 2015
M
Matt6:29 PM
Downham Market
Postcode is PE38 0QE. All of our TV's and set top boxes say "Cambridge and Bedorshire" when tuning in. We haven't had a problem in over a year and a half since we had an expert fit a new ariel on the roof for us. Everything was working perfect. However, from the 31st October 2015, we have been loosing signal. Today, 2cnd November has been the worst so far, as we temporarily lose ALL stations. One minute all stations are gone, the next only some are gone or are patchy. Tonight i've been trying to watch BBC1HD, ITV2 and True Christmas. BBC1HD and ITV2 are patchy and have spells where they go down totally. Then True Christmas has totally gone down. When i check the UHF21 signal quality, it is either no signal or signal quality at all, totally nothing. Or it fluctuates from good to bad. I've tried factory resets, new cables, everything. Since typing out this email we have discovered that the living room TV seems to be fine, but the downstairs and upstairs TV's are the one's having the problem. They are all connected direct ariel.
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Derek J Matts7:35 PM
All BBC & ITV channels dead no signal. Ely, Cambs
Have checked with some friends in Downham Market they have same problem.
Monday 2nd November 2015 1900Hrs.
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Robert Singlehurst7:49 PM
Kettering
Postcode NN14 1BY - presume I'm on Sandy Heath transmitter. I've been getting exactly the same symptoms as Matt. All fine one minute and then the next minute everything gone apart from COM5 - Pick, Dave and Really. What's going on?
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MikeB7:54 PM
Macclesfield
Matt: Think of your system a bit like plumbing - you say the main TV is OK, but not the other two. Since the signal is coming from the aerial, logically that must be OK (although always worth checking signal strength). However, the other two are not, so the fault is almost certainly where the signal goes off to feed the other two TV's.
Check a couple of things. 1) Whats the signal strength on the main TV? If its working, but low, then there is a problem with your system, with perhaps another problem on the spur to the other TV's compounding the problem. Sandy Heath is showing weak signal, but thats relative - it could be that the 'weak' signal has shown up an existing problem.
2) Are the TV's all tuned to the same (correct) Transmitter? Perhaps the main TV is tuned to one transmitter, but the other two are picking up a poorer signal from somewhere else.
3) If the system is using a booster, etc, check that the power supply is OK, etc. I suspect that an inspection of the loft is warrented!
Derek J Matts: We dont know which transmitter your using, so its difficult to check if they are working fine. Your signal could be from Belmont, Talcneston or even Waltham.Sandy Heath is showing weak signal, but 'no signal' tends to mean a problem at your end - broken cable, etc. That might also apply to your friends in Downham Market. Just because your have the same problem does not mean it has the same cause.
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Brian Greensides8:04 PM
Much the same here. Total loss of signal at times over the last few days. Hopping around in the loft to check if aerial cables etc had been attacked by creepy crawly things, no.
Problem still persists up to this time.
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Matt8:18 PM
Hi Mike. Thanks for the reply.
All TV's have gone down now, even the one in the living room. No signal at all for ages, then patchy, then back to no signal. So i highly doubt it is a fault at my end. It looks like other people in the area are experiencing the exact same issues. Checked signal strength on all 4 TV's and 2 set top boxes. They all show no signal and then fluctuate from good to bad. We "think" our aerial is pointed to Sandy Heath.
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Robert Singlehurst8:23 PM
Kettering
NN14 1BY - Surely if COM5 from Sandy Heath is working fine then it is not an end user problem? If everything went off then definitely but the channels I mentioned are showing a good signal.
I'm just trying to save people wandering around in their lofts unnecessarily if it's a problem with Sandy Heath :)
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jon8:39 PM
Jon: Same issue here in CM23 although crystal palace is serving most of the area our aerial points to Sandy Heath as better reception and wider range of channels but since 31 Oct had little of no signal on both tvs - tried re-tune, get some channels then again to get most but then signal drops out again. These issues can't be user end as there seems to be too many of them. Can anyone advise?
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Steve8:40 PM
Wellingborough
NN8 3EN - using Sandy Heath. Same problem as above since about late last week. Good signal strength - then loose BBC1 (and other channels - but not all) for 20-30minutes with no signal, then patchy signal, then it comes back with a good signal again. Have 2 TV with separate aerials - happens to both at the same time.
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