Sandy Heath transmitting station

52°07′49″N 0°14′29″W / 52.130139°N 0.241389°W / 52.130139; -0.241389Grid referenceTL2036249485Built1965BBC regionBBC EastITV regionITV AngliaLocal TV serviceThat'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 (including Milton Keynes) and parts of North West Essex and South West Suffolk.

Sandy Heath has 3 relay stations which are located in Northampton, ^[2] Kimpton, ^[3] and Luton. ^[4]

It also broadcasts the BBC local radio station BBC Three Counties Radio and the independent radio station Heart East, formerly Chiltern Radio.

Construction

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]}

Services listed by frequency

Analogue radio

Frequency	kW	Service
95.5 MHz	1	BBC Three Counties Radio
96.9 MHz	0.84	Heart East

Digital radio

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

Analogue 625 line television

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

References

External links

• Info and pictures of Sandy transmitter including historical power/frequency changes and present co-receivable transmitters
• MB21 Transmission Gallery – Sandy Heath
• Sandy Heath Transmitter at thebigtower.com