Switchover starts in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV This week sees the first stage of the digital television switchover for 747,300 homes in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
From 6am Wednesday 3rd August 2011, you must to a perform a "first time installation" retune (sometimes "Factory Reset" or "Shipping Condition") on your Freeview box or television set if you use the Belmont or Oliver's Mount full service Freeview transmitters. This is because the old "multiplex 1" BBC service will be replaced by the BBCA multiplex on a different frequency.
If you use the Grimsby (by noon), Hunmanby (9am), Lincoln Central (by 9am) or Weaverthorpe (by 6am) relay transmitters, from Wednesday 3rd August 2011 you will be able to receive the BBC Freeview services (with the exception of HD) for the first time, and you will no longer be able to view BBC TWO on analogue.
You MAY find that old equipment will no longer work - see TVs and boxes that do not support the 8k-mode
On Wednesday 17th August 2011 will see the second stage of switchover, which provides the final Freeview configuration, including Freeview HD for all transmitters in this region.
On this date, you will need, once again, to do a "first time installation" as indicated above.
A small aside
Whenever I hear the name "Belmont", it reminds me of seeing this card on the ITV button in the morning
Which was accompanied by this music and voice: Yorkshire Television Theme Tune which I guess must have been some early inspiration for this site...
1:39 PM
Mark: The relay in the Sandringham estate is called 'Kings Lynn' by the broadcasters. It currently only transmits BBC One Anglia and ITV1 Anglia - the signals from Belmont in its coverage area for all four main analogue channels are strong enough, but BBC One and ITV1 are the wrong region (since Belmont was re-attributed from Anglia to Yorkshire in the 1970s).
You should get digital equipment now and retune tomorrow, and on the 17th, to keep receiving BBC Two and Channel 4. You will still get BBC One East and ITV1 Anglia from Kings Lynn on analogue - you'll need to retune again on 9 November (for BBC) and 23 November (for ITV1) to get the new digital signals from Kings Lynn.
Digital UK's predictor suggests that you should get a full service from Belmont.
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David: I would have a look at Compare Freeview Light and Freesat TV | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .
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4:22 PM
At last!! After what seems like years of waiting we are finally going to get a decent digital signal. I live in East Yorkshire 60km from Belmont and very slightly "out of sight". To receive most freeview Mux's under most conditions I have needed a 25db masthead amp and Televes 3 element aerial. Given the distance from the Tx I do not suppose I am likely to get too much signal, but I will find out tomorrow.
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4:51 PM
Re Brian's pic above, whenever I hear Belmont I think of the Lancashire village of that name, confusingly the home of the Winter Hill transmitter.
It was some time before I realised that in these cricles "Belmont" was not synonumous with "Winter Hill"
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5:14 PM
Brian, I have Freesat at home really I would not recomend them, If anyone does have to use satelite I would say get the Free of subscription from Sky.
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6:49 PM
David - Why?
I have one of each, and find the channel numbering and lack of unviewable for free channels makes the Freesat my preferred option.
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7:10 PM
Freesat lack of control of the box and TV makers using the Freesat brand and specifications.
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7:45 PM
What - there are some bad ones? I must have been lucky.
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10:34 PM
Will BBC 2 go off at midnight then ?
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