Sandy Heath transmitting station is a television

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

station located between

Sandy, Bedfordshire Sandy is a market town and civil parish in Central Bedfordshire, England. It lies to the east of Bedford, to the south west of Cambridge and north of Central London. The town has a population of around 13,400 based on 2015 estimates. The ...

and

Potton Potton is a town and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England, about east of the county town Bedford. Its population in 2011 was 4,870. In 1783 the Great Fire of Potton destroyed a large part of the town. The ...

near the B1042. It is owned by

Arqiva Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquarters ...

, formerly NTL Broadcast. It was built in 1965, originally broadcasting

Anglia Television ITV Anglia, previously known as Anglia Television, is the ITV franchise holder for the East of England. The station is based at Anglia House in Norwich, with regional news bureaux in Cambridge and Northampton. ITV Anglia is owned and operated b ...

on VHF 405-lines, UHF with 625-line services of

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

, and

being added by January 1971. It carried

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

and Channel 5 from their launch days, Channel 5 at lower power than the other four services. Today it broadcasts

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...

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 stil
receive
four of the main six Muxes, in fact from Feb 2020 only MUX 4 (SDN) will be 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,

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

and north

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

as well as North West

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, bringing the nearby area '' Look East'' and ''

Anglia Tonight ''ITV News Anglia'' is a British television news service for the East of England, broadcast and produced by ITV Anglia. History ''Anglia News'' replaced the long-running news magazine programme ''About Anglia'' on Monday, 9 July 1990. Initially ...

'' (except on HD freeview-103 where it sends

Meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

). Coverage extends to parts of Buckinghamshire, Norfolk, Leicestershire, Peterborough, and South Lincolnshire. It also broadcasts the BBC local radio station

BBC Three Counties Radio BBC Three Counties Radio is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving the counties of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via ...

and the independent radio station

Heart East Heart East is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts to the East of England from studios in Milton Keynes. The station launched on 3 June 2019, following a merger of four Heart statio ...

formerly Chiltern Radio.

Construction

It was opened on 5 July 1965 by

Charles Hill, Baron Hill of Luton Charles Hill, Baron Hill of Luton, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC (15 January 1904 – 22 August 1989) was a British physician and medical spokesman, radio speaker, member of parliament, government minister and broadcasting executive ...

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 The Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory (MRAO) is located near Cambridge, UK and is home to a number of the largest and most advanced aperture synthesis radio telescopes in the world, including the One-Mile Telescope, 5-km Ryle Telescope, and ...

in nearby Cambridgeshire. Anglia TV broadcast on channel 6 from noon to midnight, and the astronomy observatory broadcast on it during the morning.

Services listed by frequency

Analogue radio

Digital radio

Digital television

Before switchover

Analogue television

Analogue television services are no longer available. BBC Two was closed on 30 March 2011 and the remaining services on 13 April 2011.

References

External links

Info and pictures of Sandy transmitter including historical power/frequency changes and present co-receivable transmitters

MB21 Transmission Gallery – Sandy Heath

{{Mendlesham_VHF_405-line_Transmitter_Group Transmitter sites in England Buildings and structures in Bedfordshire Mass media in Bedfordshire Sandy, Bedfordshire