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For the last six years, I have answered many thousands of personal emails that you have sent to UK Free TV.

Sadly, I am unable to offer this personal service at the moment.

Until I can restore this service, please can you leave any questions you have on an appropriate page, where they will be answered as soon as possible, or below, if you can't figure out where to ask.

I look forward to your questions!



Help with TV/radio stations?
BBC Three Linear channel re-opens1
Will car radios have to be replaced?2
Will UKTV History and FTN eventually be available on fSfS or Freesat? They are 3
Could u please explain why there are no subtitles on most of your films terresti4
Can I pay as you go for British Europsort on my digital tv without subscribing?5
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Comments
Sunday, 23 September 2012
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:59 PM

Chris Bowden: I think that your 12:46pm posting of today (23rd) has been addressed to me by mistake rather than whoever it was intended for.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Monday, 24 September 2012
W
WALTER CRAIG
1:17 AM

I have bought my own sky+ box and it is fully installed and working but i can't record anything because the screen displays a message saying insert viewing card. can i buy a viewing card for just 'fsfs' because i only want to watch the free to air channels or do i still have to subscribe to sky.

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WALTER CRAIG's 2 posts GB flag
W
WALTER CRAIG
1:21 AM

P.s.
i also want to record free to air channels 'fsfs'.

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WALTER CRAIG's 2 posts GB flag
S
Stephen P
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:03 PM

I'm fairly sure you can't record at all without a subscription.

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Stephen P's 1,173 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:31 PM

WALTER CRAIG: Just to confirm what's already been said by Stephen P, a subscription is necessary to enable use of the recording side of the box, and which to my belief costs £10.00 per month.

You should give Sky a phone though, as one point I am not quite 100% sure about is regarding whether or not the person applying for this type of subscription has to already be in possession of a "free to view" card, as the access code to enable to box to record etc has to be "over air" downloaded into a card.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
J
Jeepers!
11:58 AM
Calne

As I am in the Calne transmitter area, which is pretty useless for channels, does this mean if I purchase a freeview+ box or purchase a TV service, I will still be under the poor service of the Calne transmitter? I'm not sure how this works for bought in services.

Thanks for your help.

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Jeepers!'s 2 posts GB flag
Jeepers!'s: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:20 PM

Jeepers!: Basically yes, as the Calne PSB only transmitter is, as you will probably already know located at just over 1/2 a mile away, and with its "light" status unlikely to ever change.

However you are indicated on the predictor as being able to receive Mendip, and although I have serious doubts as to whether you would be able to receive a usable signal from there if you can access your aerial then there is nothing to stop you swinging it around to face 243 degrees (presently 203) as well as changing its mounting to horizontal, then follow this by carrying out a manual tune signal check on Ch48, Mendip's ITV3.

The only problem you are likely to encounter being the possibility of your aerial being group A, and this would reduce the signal strength of anything picked up from Mendip as it uses higher channel numbers, although this would not necessarily stop you from receiving anything on the manual tune check referred to.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:27 PM

Jeepers!: Only the main transmitters and some larger relays carry all Freeview channels. The Commercial broadcasters don't wish to pay for (and have no obligation to) transmit from the small sites like Calne.

At your location, reception from Mendip (which broadcasts all channels) may be a possibility. I had a look at your road on Google Streetview and in the photographs which were taken in May 2009. Whilst there are quite a few aerials on the Calne transmitter, the chimney stack on numbers 46 and 48 has two aerials on both of which face Mendip and the next chimney along also has an aerial on Mendip.


The two-tier terrestrial transmitter network is due to the fact that the Commercial broadcasters are not mandated to mirror the coverage of the Public Service channels.

The cost of broadcasting from the 1,000 plus "filler-in" relays like Calne is roughly the same as that of transmitting from the 81 largest transmitters (largest by viewer population). These relays serve about 8.5% of the population whereas the 81 full-service ones cover 90% of the population. So the Commercial broadcasters have decided that they don't wish to double their cost of transmission in order to increase their potential viewer bases by about 10%.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
P
paula
11:18 PM

i have bought a hitachi hdr255 freeview+ box but the connector for the aeriel input is a push in and the connector on my aeriel is a screw in connector. do i simply cut the screw in one off and replace with a push in or is there a simpler solution to this.
thank you


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paula's 1 post GB flag
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:04 AM

paula: Are you sure that the coax you refer to as the aerial isn't for satellite (Sky or Freesat) reception purposes? as "F" connectors (the screw type) are 90% or more of the time used for satellite reception, and with any time they aren't the "F" connector found in a living room was usually for purposes of it being screwed into a small power unit used to power either a loft or mast head amplifier, as many of these devices use that type of connection.

You can of course get an adaptor that has a female "F" socket on one side and a male coax connector on the other, TV shops are likely to have them, but I would try and determine the purpose of the "F" terminated coax, although the main thing is that you cannot damage anything if you purchased an adaptor, just possibly wasted your money!

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
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