Freeview: Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) full-Freeview transmitter
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Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter

Google StreetviewGoogle mapBing mapGoogle Earth52.130,-0.242 or 52°7'47"N 0°14'33"WSG19 2NH

4G at 800MHz (at800) Freeview reception issues

When 800MHz 4G mobile broadband services start there will be 1 multiplex in the higher risk range (C21-23, C30, C59-60): C21: BBCB
See How do I know if the 4G broadband will overload my Freeview? and Full UK map of 4G issue areas for details.

Transmitter fauls and engineering works



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The symbol shows the location of the Sandy Heath transmitter which serves 920,000 homes.

Other maps:Sandy Heath DABSandy Heath AM/FMSandy Heath regionBBC CambridgeAnglia (West micro region)

Radiation patterns

Radiation patterns withheld

Map key

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.

Sandy Heath transmitter Freeview broadcasts

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. The rating shown takes in account the output power level and the various Freeview transmission modes and do not indicate an ongoing fault.

MuxEffective power level, aerial positionRatingModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 horizontal
Above average64QAM 8K 2/3
24.1Mb/s
DVB-T MPEG2		180,000
Channel icons
1 BBC One Cambridge, 2 BBC Two England, 7 BBC Three, 9 BBC Four, 70 CBBC Channel, 71 CBeebies, 80 BBC News, 81 BBC Parliament, 301 301, plus 12 others
• as a digital multiplex transmitted on frequency C27 (522.0MHz) from 291m datum.
PSB2
D3+4
 horizontal
Above average64QAM 8K 2/3
24.1Mb/s
DVB-T MPEG2		180,000
Channel icons
3 ITV (Anglia (West micro region)), 4 Channel 4 South ads, 5 Channel 5 Part Network ads, 6 ITV 2, 13 Channel 4+1 South ads, 14 More 4, 28 E4, 33 ITV +1 (Anglia east),
• as a digital multiplex transmitted on frequency C24 (498.0MHz) from 291m datum.
PSB3
BBCB
 horizontal
Above average256QAM 32KE 2/3
40.2Mb/s
DVB-T2 MPEG4		180,000
Channel icons
101 BBC One HD (England no regional news), 102 BBC Two HD (England), 103 ITV HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, plus 1 others
• as a digital multiplex transmitted on frequency C21+ (474.2MHz) from 291m datum.
COM4
SDN
 horizontal
Above average64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s
DVB-T MPEG2		170,000
Channel icons
10 ITV 3, 20 G.O.L.D. (not free), 25 Dave ja vu, 26 Home (not free), 27 ITV 2 +1, 30 5*, 31 5USA, 34 ESPN UK (not free), 38 Quest, 39 The Zone, 44 Channel 5 +1, 72 CITV, plus 22 others
• as a digital multiplex transmitted on frequency C51 (714.0MHz) from 291m datum.
COM5
ArqA
 horizontal
Above average64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s
DVB-T MPEG2		170,000
Channel icons
 TV News,  TV Stars, 11 PICK TV, 12 Dave, 17 Really, 29 E4+1, 32 Movie Mix, 46 Challenge, 48 Food Network, 82 Sky News, 87 Community Channel, plus 9 others
• as a digital multiplex transmitted on frequency C52 (722.0MHz) from 289m datum.
COM6
ArqB
 horizontal
Above average64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s
DVB-T MPEG2		170,000
Channel icons
15 Film 4, 18 4Music, 19 Yesterday, 21 VIVA, 24 ITV 4, 41 Sky Sports 1 (not free), 42 Sky Sports 2 (not free), 47 4seven, 83 Al Jazeera English, 85 RT English , plus 21 others
• as a digital multiplex transmitted on frequency C48 (690.0MHz) from 289m datum.


Regional news from the Sandy Heath transmitter


BBC Look East (West) 1.0m homes 3.7%
from Cambridge CB4 0WZ, 29km east-northeast
to BBC Cambridge region - 4 masts.

ITV Anglia News 1.0m homes 3.7%
from Norwich NR1 3JG, 119km east-northeast
to ITV Anglia (West) region - 5 masts.

How the transmission frequencies change over time

years1965~851984-971997-981998-20112011-132013-182013-18
aerial groupVHFA KKWWWW
C6ITV
C21C4C4C4+BBCB+BBCB+BBCB
C24ITVITVITVD3+4D3+4D3+4
C27BBC2BBC2BBC2BBCABBCABBCA
600C31BBC1BBC1BBC1
C32com7
C34com8
C39C5C5
C40+C
C42-1
C43+Alocal
C45-2
C46+D
C48ArqBArqBArqB
700C51SDNSDNSDN
C52ArqAArqAArqA
800C67B

orange background for multiplexes names moregreen background for transmission frequencieslilac background for power levels in watts800MHz band: 4G mobile to start in 2013700MHz band: possible 4G in 2019 more600MHz band: new or moved digital TV services more
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W
Italics for analogue, digital switchover was Wednesdays 30th March and 13th April 2011.

  • Ofcom have projected that a local television service for Bedford including Sandy could use an Interleaved Frequency on the Sandy Heath transmitter using C43
  • COM7, COM8 projected for 2013-16.

Comparison of old analogue and current digital signal levels

Analogue 1-4 1000kW
com7, com8(-7dB) 200kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7.4dB) 180kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-7.7dB) 170kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-17dB) 20kW
Analogue 5(-20dB) 10kW

History of Channel 3 in the Sandy Heath transmitter area

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.


Your comments: most recent posts are at the bottom

firstFirst comments prevEarlier comments  ◊  Later commentsnext Latest commentslast

Your comments are always welcome. Please use the form below to add your thoughts or questions to this page. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

jb38
Monday 16 July 2012 1:48PM
James Osbourn: Checked a few minutes ago and all channels from Sandy are perfectly OK in the Peterborough area.
Transmitter engineering
Monday 16 July 2012 1:57PM
SANDY HEATH transmitter - Freeview BBC Digital TV Off Air from 11:11 today [BBC]
Transmitter engineering
Monday 16 July 2012 5:04PM
SANDY HEATH transmitter - Freeview BBC Digital TV Off Air from 11:11 today to 11:22 today [BBC]
Transmitter engineering
Tuesday 17 July 2012 5:05AM
SANDY HEATH transmitter - Freeview BBC Digital TV Off Air from 11:11 yesterday to 11:22 yesterday [BBC]
James Osbourn
Tuesday 17 July 2012 10:13AM
retuned again later day and BBC came back again
NigelJ
Tuesday 17 July 2012 10:52PM Wisbech
Thank you for your suggestions. A mains network is certainly a possible source of the RF noise. As the problem is restricted to a single RF channel,I am reasonable confident that it is due to external interference rather than multi-path reception, which I assume would not be so frequency channel selective.

My receiver equipment reports a high signal strength on CH27, but intermittently very poor quality. Changing from a 10 down to a 1 or 2 every few minutes.

jb38
Tuesday 17 July 2012 11:35PM
James Osbourn: Yes, as it was caused by the BBC transmitter being down for 11 minutes from 11:11am, and with the reason it checked out OK with me being because you had only queried the problem at 13:33, which of course it had been back on again for about 2 hours prior to that.

The point about this being, that any time when a channel selected results in a blank screen NEVER be tempted to carry out a retune as the programme will NOT have been lost from the TV's or boxes memory, and all re-tuning does is to guarantee that the memory is wiped clean which necessitates frequent rescans being made to recover the lost channels, whereas if things had been left as they were they would have returned of their own accord.
Transmitter engineering
Wednesday 18 July 2012 5:02AM
SANDY HEATH transmitter - Freeview BBC Digital TV Off Air from 11:11 on 16 Jul to 11:22 on 16 Jul [BBC]
Spa
Wednesday 18 July 2012 3:23PM
I live in Ampthill,and I too have been having intermittent problems since the beginning of July with Ch 27 being poor quality! All the other channels are fine. The problem only seems to affect the WinTV-Duet receiver on my PC. All my other tvs and pvr are okay, the drop in quality doesn't seem to bother them.
NigelJ
Friday 20 July 2012 6:32AM Wisbech
NigelJ: The quality problems I have been experiencing with Sandy Heath channel 27 have for the moment spontaneously disappeared. I cannot say if this was due to the switch off of a local interference source, a corrected fault at the Sandy Heath transmitter or changes in atmospheric conditions reducing co-channel interference from some other transmitter.

Th fact that the problem was specific to CH27 and that the signal strength was consistently high, seems to rule out multi-path and fading due to atmospheric conditions, as these effect were unlikely to be restricted to only one MUX transmit frequency and would be associated with changes in signal strength.

I would be interested to know if there are any likely candidates as a source of co-channel interference, since this would mean that similar reductions in signal quality can be expected whenever the weather conditions match those of the past few days/weeks.
Spa
Friday 20 July 2012 11:55AM
My problems with ch27 have disappeared as well (for the time being). I was wrong about it only affecting the receiver on my PC. The quality was so bad on Wed afternoon that all my tvs were breaking up.
It looks to be the same problem as NigelJ is having, which indicates it can't be local interference as Ampthill is a long way from Wisbech. I suspect engineering work on the transmitter. The problem appears to be mainly restricted to during the day.
Other people may not be experiencing the same problem because they probably have much better reception than me. There's a slight hill between me and Sandy Heath, so I have to use an amplifier to boost my signal. This is probably why a slight drop in signal strength/quality on a particular channel may be causing a problem for me but not for most people.

Ch27 is perfect today.

It would be a big help if "Transmitter engineering" posts were a little more detailed.
NigelJ
Saturday 21 July 2012 1:34AM Wisbech
NigelJ: After a brief period of good reception of CH27 from Sandy Heath, I am back to the strong signal and unusable quality situation. I am now convinced that the problem is due to co-channel interference from other TV transmitters. In my case, most likely from Crystal Palace.

I can only conclude that during the system planning, an insufficient frequency reuse distance was defined to cope with adverse weather conditions.

If the co-channel interference source is in the direct line of the receiving aerial, there does not appear to much that can be done at the receiver to improve the Cr/Ci ratio.

Maybe a few more frequency channels should have been allocated to DTV and fewer to GSM4 LTE.
Suzy
Friday 27 July 2012 12:22AM
i keep getting no signal/ bad signal / this channel maybe blocked or scrambled on certain stations , Digital UK says i should be receiving my signal from Sandy Heath as my postcode is LU55HR when i check the signal detection it say Oxon & Bucks, its coming from and Digital Uk says there is no such transmitter ?? strength is good but no quality, i have to daily do a rescan to keep trying to pick up a signal so i can view some of my stations or to get the missing ones like Pick tv , Really, etc back again and when i do get them back i keep getting the same messages and if i am luckily enough to get a picture its keeps breaking up, I have had some one out to check my aerial and it cost me £40 to be told everything was fine and i had good signal strength and quality, i can afford to get some one else out and its driving me mad by having to retune, some of the signal detedtions says they are East Yorks & Lincs ! which is way up country from me, am really at a lost, is there anyone can help please
Suzy
Friday 27 July 2012 12:24AM
that should of read i CANT afford to get some one to come out again
Suzy
Friday 27 July 2012 12:27AM
other signal detection am getting is Cambs & Beds , none of my detections are coming from Sandy Heath have check all the station i have
jb38
Friday 27 July 2012 8:07AM
Suzy: Carry out a factory reset on your TV or box to blank out everything already stored, if you do not see a factory reset option take your aerial out and carry out an auto-tune without it, as this will also blank out the channels stored, then once completed go into your TV or boxes "manual" tuning menu and enter Ch24 followed by pressing "search" or "scan" storing the programmes found if not done automatically.

Once you have completed this action do exactly the same with each of the following channels : 24 - 21(only if HD TV or box) - 51 - 52 - 48.

You "may" be able to bypass having to carry out this procedure if after having carried out an auto-tune you had seen a "select area" option popping up when you would have selected "Cambs & Beds" which "is" Sandy, but it depends on the device you are using and Sandy (20 miles / 36 degrees) is indicated as the station giving the best signal.
KMJ,Derby
Friday 27 July 2012 8:36AM
Suzy: The transmitter identification names were changed to "area" names some time ago so as not to give incorrect information on the signals from relay transmitters. Sandy Heath and dependant relays now show Cambs and Beds, Oxford is Oxon and Bucks and Belmont is East Yorks & Lincs. If your aerial is pointing NNE/NE to Sandy Heath you should receive BBC1 East and ITV1 Anglia at positions 1 and 3 of the channel list. If the aerial is pointing WSW to Oxford then BBC Oxford and Meridian ITV1 should have been stored. After you have established which transmitter you should be receiving, do a manual tune for the correct set of frequencies after first clearing the channel list. SH is C24, C27, C48, C51, C52 plus C21 (HD). Oxford is C53, C60, C55, C59, C62 plus C57 (HD). Note that if you are seeing a signal from Belmont (which the "variable" prediction for C53 and C60 from Oxford suggests is possible when conditions are such, the channels will probably give unreliable reception if stored.
KMJ,Derby
Friday 27 July 2012 8:39AM
jb38: Sorry, I didn't realise you had already replied until after I had sent my post.
jb38
Friday 27 July 2012 11:29AM
KMJ,Derby: No problem whatsoever KMJ, as if my memory serves me well I think that I might actually have made that same mistake twice myself involving you having already replied to some ones query, basically caused by me typing out a reply and then going into another screen to double check something, then returning to the previous and posting the reply without checking if the screen had been refreshed in the time away from it.
Suzy
Friday 27 July 2012 1:18PM Dunstable
jb38: and KMJ thansks, i did do a factory restore which wiped everything off completely and I dont have an HD box just a Humax PVR 9150T digi box , I tried to do the manual scan and it only gives me 68 station and of that 22 is radio stations :(, then i got it up to the 148 stations doing a auto search , i find if i do them individually it wipes previous ones i found that i had a good signal on off, so back to square one, it wont store each station when i do a manual search i lose the ones i did find on a previous manual search, i now have my Really, Pick tv and other ones i was missing back but they just break up or have no or bad signal saying when i go onto them :(. i feel like throwing the box out the window, as its been driving me mad for months now, and it all started when they did the switch over was all ok till then, I also dont have ITV3, BBC1 & 2 unless i got down to channel 800 for them, No Dave BBC3 or 4 no ITV2+1 :( infact just gone through them all and i dont have anything now lol they are all saying no or bad signal helpppppppppppp
Suzy
Friday 27 July 2012 1:20PM Dunstable
infact all i have now that I can watch is itv2 ch4 and ch5 everything else says no or bad signal :(
Suzy
Friday 27 July 2012 2:20PM Dunstable
aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh ive got my stations back !!!!! woooooooooo hoooooooooooooooo took me for ever but i went through it all manually, only thing is they are not in the order like ch1-BB1 CH2-BBC2 ETC etc theyre down in the 800's so if i can find a way now to swap the numbers over lol i will be back to normal, i now have a great picture on Pick tv and really, best ive ever had lol my main two stations i watch apart from CH5 lol thanks for all you help at least i know i can watch tv again x
Suzy
Friday 27 July 2012 3:33PM Dunstable
Spoke to soon my pick yv and really stations are still breaking up oh well at least they are better, am not getting no or bad signal now lol
jb38
Friday 27 July 2012 8:13PM Chester
Suzy: This is because you have not used the correct procedure. What to do is press "menu" then select "installation" enter password (0000) then run down the list and select and press on "default setting".

Once this has completed go into the menu again and select installation, select and press on "manual" search where you will see a channel number shown on the right hand side, use the > (right hand) arrow on the large centre button and a list will come on under the channel number already shown, run up or down the list until you see Ch27 and press on it when it will immediately enter the box, then press on "search" and waiting until its picked up all the programmes, which with that box might not be particularly fast, once found though finish by pressing "save" or "store".

You then repeat the process by going back to "installation" and then using exactly same procedure as before but this time entering the second on the list Ch24 and so on.

Carry on until all five have been entered, scanned, and saved.

The number again being: CH27 - Ch24 - Ch51 - Ch52 - Ch48 all referring to Sandy.


Suzy
Sunday 29 July 2012 10:07AM
jb38: i did everything you said and it stored the stations this time, but.......when i come to CH52 and do a search on that it comes up with no stations found, and 52 is all the stations i prefer to watch and the ones i am now missing, some woman at Digital Uk told me my problem was with my neighbours doing something that interefers with my signal, but they arent, then she went on to tell me i need a new aerial but ive had it all checked out and its fine. On ch 52 i have poor quality and no signal at all ....... and the only wat i found i can get these stations back is by doing an autoscan , but when i get them they kepep breaking up or saying no or bad signal, or this channel may be blocked or scrambled i guess i will have to resign myself to be with out these, which is then no point in having a tv since theyre the stations i watch,
jb38
Sunday 29 July 2012 10:35AM
Suzy: Now that you have all the correct mux channels stored needless to say do not be tempted at any time to carry out a rescan or you will be back to square one, and if your TV or box has a channel auto update facility switch that off.

As far as Ch52 is concerned you are certainly not alone as far as having problems trying to receive that channel, and which I have to say unfortunately includes myself as well as others local to me, and as I have every facility at my fingertips so to speak for carrying out tests I know its NOT a case of moving the aerial to a slightly different position to rectify the problem as it doesnt, I am also aware that this same problem also exists in parts of Northamptonshire.

However as you are at a different (lower) angle to Sandy than the areas I was referring to the best thing I can advise you to do is find out from anyone you know in your area (not too far away) if they can receive (11) Pick TV and give an update on your findings.
jb38
Sunday 29 July 2012 11:04AM
Suzy: Further to, and connect with what I mentioned about Ch52 I would like if you could carry out a test on that channel albeit that it isn't actually stored, so go into the tuning menu again and enter Ch52 using the same procedure as before but do NOT scan it, as all I would like to know is what (if any) indications you see on the strength / quality bars, as even signals at a level that wont produce a picture are generally still seen indicated as the box is purely acting like a signal meter.

By the way after you see and make a note of the signal indications just back out of the menu screen again, this action not upsetting anything previously done as far as channels stored are concerned.

Suzy
Sunday 29 July 2012 8:59PM
jb38: hiya i just did what you have asked and gone into see what the strength and signal is on Ch52 and for some reason the strength is at 61% and the quality fluctuates between 50 and 75, normally when i go in there , there is completely no quality at all, how strange that i an getting that today, my picture on these Pick tv is terrible it keeps breaking up, the strength doesnt move at all it is staying at 61% just the quality that is moving, my neighbour have sky or virgin am the only one in my little caul-de -sac that has freeview :(
jb38
Monday 30 July 2012 7:54AM
Suzy: Thanks for that update on your findings, and with what you have reported being roughly in line to what was expected on that type of test, the Humax being particularly good for this unlike many other devices that give "way out" indications. If though you have actually managed to store that channel and which as I suspect will likely disappear again, do NOT try to get it back as it will still be stored in the boxes memory, this being proven by if you carry out a signal strength whilst on the blank screen you will see the level showing but indicating somewhat less than it did when you had a picture on the screen.

Needless to say that these variations seen in the quality is something that you wont really be able to do anything about, as its basically caused by something totally out with your control such as a distant range of trees, although I do have to say that as your indications are superior to anything obtained up in my area of Stamford, and although I have said that trying experiments with an aerial in slightly different positions has no effect in my area it might actually make a difference if tried where you are, but as can be imagined its a hit and miss affair which cannot be guaranteed to succeed.

I would appreciate though if (just for the record) you could maybe find time next weekend to carry out another signal level check and give another update on findings, as checks made a few days apart give a better picture of what's going on signal wise.
NigelJ
Monday 30 July 2012 11:08AM Wisbech
Judging from the comments in recent postings, I am not the only one whose TV reception quality is being affected by weather related co-channel interference.

The clue to this type of interference is a strong signal associated with a very high error rate as reported by the signal quality display.

In my case such interference is at its worst just after sunrise and during the morning. As I reported in my earlier postings, the interference is mainly confined to CH27, which means I lose all the BBC channels.

Retuning when this happens, results in the TV finding the BBC mux from Belmont, which I assume is a normally weak signal, received from the side or back of the aerial.

At night signals from Sandy tends to recover and I see messages reporting "New Service Found".
It is interesting that for 30+ years I received TV signals from Sandy without any problem, except under extreme high pressure lift conditions. Now we have digital TV, the channel planning is so bad, Co-channel interference is common. Could it be that pressure from Government, keen to sell off RF spectrum, has resulted in too few channels being allocated to poor old Free-View?
Suzy
Monday 30 July 2012 7:19PM
jb38: it rained yesterday, thunder storms , and heavy down pour....... i had all my stations !!! everything worked , no breaking up etc etc perfect picture...............turned tv on this morning, lost Pick TV again saying no or bad signal or this station my be scrambled. also lost Really tv, Yesterday keeps breaking up, weather today has been light showers, but mainly sunshine, seems i need it to constantly rain for to get a perfect picture with no lost of viewing at all :( i guess i will just have to resign myself to miss all my favourite programs. i will check again in a few days to see what the signal is like, but i wont keep messing around with it. thats it now, thanks again to all that has tried to help, seems like my only option is Virgin ir Sky and i cant afford either lol xx
jb38
Monday 30 July 2012 9:10PM
Suzy: Why dont you opt for Freesat? as once the cost of the box has been paid for plus the fitting of the dish, then you will have ultra reliable reception for ever completely free of charge.

Dish kits (complete) can be obtained for as little as just over £30.00 or so from numerous e-bay outlets, and all you would then require is someone to install it for you.

By the way as far as your reception is concerned, rain clouds can on occasions assist Freeview reception dependant on their height, and caused by them reflecting terrestrial signals into areas that would normally be bypassed by the signals heading skywards.

Of course on the other hand, the very same rain clouds if of a really heavy thundery nature can block satellite reception for a minute or so, because microwave signals cannot pass through an intensely watery cloud any more than they can be received under water.
Suzy
Tuesday 31 July 2012 5:44PM
jb38: cant afford freesat, and like sky it is not good as there are trees around my garden ( council property ( so i cant cut them down, sky say there is no line of sight, ie trees blocking signal , which i already knew as being an ex sky employee, had a fantastic picture earlier then it rained :( all broke up then it stopped raining, it was fine, not its raining again, lost the picture l going to go and stick a huge umbrella over my aerial lol see it that makes a difference ! x
jb38
Wednesday 1 August 2012 12:09AM
Suzy: With regards to not being able a have a satellite dish because of the trees blocking the signal, have you just been told this as a result of an enquiry? (no matter who you addressed your enquiry to) or was this what you were told by an engineer "after" having carried out a test? as although the image I am looking at is about three years old the angle of obstruction to the satellite position that I see "might" just be able to be cleared if the dish was mounted at near to gutter level.

This being said based on the fact that the dish when mounted on the rear of the building would be facing slightly to the left, and also on the assumption that you reside about the fourth property down from the start of the row, and not right next to the end where the other row adjoins at right angles.

Just really asking out of interest, and by the way I only mentioned Freesat as it is truly free, whereas Sky only is if you can get hold of an old box and have someone install a dish for you.
Suzy
Wednesday 1 August 2012 8:44PM
jb38: hi, i had an engineer out when i first moved in, am i in a ground floor council flat the woman who lives up stairs also wouldnt let me have a dish put on "her property" as she put it as she owns her flat up stairs, so my dish would have to be low and around the back of my property, I am in the property that adjoins at right angle lol, tipical isnt it, ive given up trying to watch my stations now i even just tried to watch a film on film 4 and it keeps breaking up, same with a few other stations now, may aswell get rid of my tv , as it will save me money not having to fork out for a tv licences for something i cant watch half the time, thanks for all your help and advice, time to get rid rid of tv !!!!
Sam
Wednesday 1 August 2012 9:45PM
You're not the only one having the same problem with channels breaking up, not getting a signal.
NN169LG is my post code and getting the same results as Suzy is.
All tv's in the house are getting this problem, two of the tv's are brand new. Nothing is wrong with any of the boxes.
jb38
Thursday 2 August 2012 12:11AM
Suzy: I was beginning to have a sneaking suspicion that the property Google earth was indicating as corresponding to the code provided was possibly inaccurate as the whole row most likely uses the same postcode, however now you have said that you are in the corner position then I fully understand why satellite reception is out of the equation, as that particular position is almost completely shrouded by trees.

Before you give up though there is one final thing you could try and at no cost to yourself provided that you carefully remove it from its packaging without damaging it as it "is" a returnable item, the item in question being a signal booster sold by Argos item number 534 / 4235 and as seen on page 565 of the latest catalogue.

Admittedly I do have my doubts about exactly how effective it will be in your particular situation where fluctuations in the signal level are so commonplace, and I only really suggest trying because its known to be feeding into a box with a stable tuner, i.e: the Humax, but though a device like this can be easily adjusted to keep the signal received running high enough to keep it well away from the lower threshold reception level which should (in theory) help kill off some of the glitches you are experiencing, as boosters "do" serve a purpose albeit that they might well be seen demonized in certain places.
jb38
Thursday 2 August 2012 12:26AM
Sam: Out of interest where exactly are you receiving your main signal from? as on the property with a satellite dish mounted on the chimney stack I can see one aerial pointing at Sandy, another at Waltham, and an FM aerial that "appears" to to facing towards Sutton Coldfield.
Sam
Friday 3 August 2012 9:22PM Kettering
It's the Sandy one. BBC news is always look east.
jb38
Friday 3 August 2012 11:41PM
Sam: Well Sandy is located at 28 miles @ 133 degrees from your location whereas with Suzy its 20 miles @ 37 degrees, so your problem isn't necessarily directly linked to Suzy's unless through the possibility of atmospheric conditions applying in both cases.

Of course in cases where reception problems are suspected of being caused by external reasons, although I fully understand peoples reluctance into taking this action but making an enquiry with someone that lives reasonably nearby is really the only way of finding out for certain if the problem being experienced is common to the area, and in your case it would be particularly interesting to know if the resident of the third house up (white door as well as panel above) from the very end pebble dashed one is also having problems with Sandy, as their property appears to be fitted with a Log 40 aerial pointing towards Sandy, these aerials being a good standard to judge reception on whereby if they are having problems then anything will.

By the way a Log 40 aerial does not have a reflector on its rear and tapers inwards towards the front.
NigelJ
Saturday 4 August 2012 1:36AM Wisbech
I would be interested to know how many people are experiencing single RF channel interference. i.e. problem receiving all the logical channels on the same RF MUX frequency. I would like to establish if the reported problems are due to weather and time of day related co-channel interference. Should this be the case no amount of adjustment of the receiver or aerial is going to improve the situation.

Such interference is characterised by a high signal strength, which may change rapidly in value, and poor quality as measured by bit error rate.


Symptoms include picture freeze, pixelation and breaks in sound with associated pops and squeaks.

The tuning menu of most TV sets allow the user to check both the signal strength and quality on a scale of 0 to 10. This menu option also displays the frequency and/or RF channel number.
Suzy
Friday 10 August 2012 8:56PM
jb38: Hi again, i will try a signal booster as this is driving me round the bend, even though i like watching the Olympic ( not much choice really ) i am getting a bot board with it and i miss my programmes from Really, Pick tv etc, but do you think a booster will help ? if it pours down with rain i have a great picture but for the past few days ive had nothing at all on those stations :( i just cant understand the weather causing so much trouble with my viewing . so will get a booster like you said if it doesnt work i can always return it lol thanks again x ( oh cut down a lot of those trees that you see on google, but cant cut down the ones surrounding the property as they are council ) lol
Suzy
Friday 10 August 2012 9:01PM
Had a look at the signal booster in argos, i will also have to get an aerial extension and if my outside aerial goes into that i will need something to run from that to the digibox i will see how it goes x
jb38
Friday 10 August 2012 9:35PM
Suzy: Yes, give it a try as you have nothing to lose provided that you do not damage the packaging and have kept your receipt safely away.

By the way, test it out by first of all selecting a channel on your TV and checking the results "before" connecting the aerial to the TV via the booster, then once connected via a jumper lead from the boosters output to your TV and the aerial straight into the booster, set the booster at just above zero indication making sure the reception was still as before, if not advance it until it is, then if the channel is suffering from intermittent freezing etc try "slowly" advancing the booster whilst observing the picture for any improvement.

I do have to say though that although these boosters can in many cases make a vast difference to reception its in situations where although the signal level received is maybe dropping off in the evenings resulting in pixelation etc, that although the signal might well be at a lower and critical level its "not" of an erratic nature as far as quality is concerned as virtually nothing can compensate for that, and of course trees are notorious for causing that type of problem.
Neil
Wednesday 22 August 2012 6:36PM
Hi, I have no signal in Cambridge. Is the transmitter down
Claire
Sunday 2 September 2012 8:30PM Peterborough
I live in Stilton (pe7 3rs) and for the last 2 days have experienced signal loss or signal delays( picture freezes for a second) constantly on ITV, channel 4 & 5. Have tried retuning etc but still the same. Have checked with someone else in my village who I know is on freeview and they're experiencing the same problems. It's starting to make these channels unwatchable with all the jumping etc.
Mrs PD Arendse
Monday 3 September 2012 8:41AM
Claire: I live in the Stevenage area and receive Anglia TV. Since Saturday evening September 1st at about 7pm the signal started breaking up and the picture was blocking. This lasted until about 10pm. This problem only affected ITV1. I did a reboot on the TV and Freeview box but this made no difference. Again last night at about 7.50pm the sanme thing again. I know it is not my box of TV as my second TV was the same. I live in a block of flats which has a communual aerial. What can I do as my reception on this channel is unwatchable.
Russ Dring
Monday 3 September 2012 9:13AM Spalding
I have had similar problems on Sunday evening,with Sandy Heath on ITV1 Ch4 and 5.

Signal strength very good 84%(as normal) quality 100%(as normal) Humax Fox T2, Loewe TV and Panasonic TV.

Could well be a transmission issue on this multiplex as there is no indication that the signal is poor.
LARRY
Monday 3 September 2012 1:20PM Saffron Walden
I've been experiancing exactly the same problems over the last couple of days BBC 1 is fine, but ITV 1 and channel 4 breaking up. Again signal is 9o% and another tv on a different aerial gives the same prob.
Tim
Tuesday 4 September 2012 6:46PM Radlett
Tim
Tuesday 4 September 2012 6:57PM Radlett
Claire, Mrs Arendse, Russ, Larry
I suspect you are all getting reception problems due to high pressure (Inversion effect), I live on the fringe of Sandy Heath and as soon as there is high pressure I lose channels, I notice as the evening progressed on Saturday evening blocks of channels dropped out, There maybe other factors involved in all your reception problems but this is a possible problem you are all having, Others on here maybe able to advise further.
Mark Fletcher
Tuesday 4 September 2012 11:17PM Halifax
As Tim from Radlett rightfully stated above inversion effect was the cause as i last night between 9pm-11.45pm was briefly receiving transmissions from BBCA mux on frequency 23 and D3+4 mux on frequency 26 both from Crystal Palace,plus BBCA mux on frequency 27 and D3+4 mux on frequency 24 both from Sandy Heath ironically enough,as well as BBCA mux on frequency 61 and D3+4 mux on frequency 54 both from Waltham,yet losing both the BBCA mux on frequency 22 and D3+4 mux from frequency 25 for a time both from Belmont (now in my 800's list) at my location.



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