 | |
  Sandy Heath transmitting station (Bedfordshire) | |
| Mast height | 244 metres (801 ft) |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 52°07′49″N 0°14′29″W / 52.130139°N 0.241389°W |
| Grid reference | TL2036249485 |
| Built | 1965 |
| BBC region | BBC East |
| ITV region | ITV Anglia |
| Local TV service | That's TV Cambridge |
Sandy Heath transmitting station is a television and radio broadcasting station in England, located between Sandy, Bedfordshire and Potton near the B1042. It is owned by Arqiva, formerly NTL Broadcast. It was built in 1965, originally broadcasting Anglia Television on VHF 405-lines, UHF with 625-line services of BBC2, BBC1, and Anglia Television being added by January 1971. It carried Channel 4 and Channel 5 from their launch days, Channel 5 at lower power than the other four services. Today it broadcasts digital television on the DTT platform as digital switchover took place on 13 April 2011. On 17 June 2018, as part of the 700MHz clearance, Com5 (ARQ A) moved from Ch52 to Ch36, Com7 (Arq C) moved from Ch32 to Ch55 and Com8 (Arq D) moved from Ch34 to Ch56
It is a K group or wideband TV transmitter (horizontal polarization), though an original A group aerial will still receive four of the main six muxes,[1] in fact from Feb 2020 only MUX 4 (SDN) was out of the A group. During DSO, the digital transmission power for the PSB and commercial muxes increased from 20 kW to 180 kW and 170 kW respectively.
Sandy Heath is the main local TV transmitter for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, Northamptonshire, north Hertfordshire, north Buckinghamshire and parts of North West Essex and South West Suffolk, bringing the nearby area Look East and Anglia Tonight (except on HD freeview-103 where it sends Meridian).
It also broadcasts the BBC local radio station BBC Three Counties Radio and the independent radio station Heart East, formerly Chiltern Radio.
It was opened on 5 July 1965 by Charles Hill, Baron Hill of Luton for the ITA (Anglia TV). By the end of 1965, it was hoped that nine ITA transmitters would be open.
From its start until late 1966, the transmitter could not broadcast schools programmes in the morning because the frequency (waveband) clashed with the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory in nearby Cambridgeshire. Anglia TV broadcast on channel 6 from noon to midnight, and the astronomy observatory operated on these frequencies during the morning.[citation needed]
| Frequency | kW | Service |
|---|---|---|
| 95.5 MHz | 1 | BBC Three Counties Radio |
| 96.9 MHz | 0.84 | Heart East |
| Frequency | Block | kW | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|
| 215.072 MHz | 10D | 1.7 | Herts, Beds & Bucks |
| 220.352 MHz | 11C | 0.72 | Cambridgeshire |
| 222.064 MHz | 11D | 4.7 | Digital One |
| 225.648 MHz | 12B | 5 | BBC National DAB |
Digital television[edit]
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Before switchover[edit]
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Analogue television services are no longer available. BBC Two was closed on 30 March 2011 and the remaining services on 13 April 2011.
| Frequency | UHF | kW | Service |
|---|---|---|---|
| 471.25 MHz | 21 | 1000 | Channel 4 |
| 495.25 MHz | 24 | 1000 | Anglia |
| 519.25 MHz | 27 | 1000 | BBC2 East |
| 551.25 MHz | 31 | 1000 | BBC1 East |
| 615.25 MHz | 39 | 10 | Channel 5 |