Arqiva statement on Hannington transmitter group
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV From Arqiva:
NEWS ALERT
Date: 22 February 2012
DSO completed for Hannington transmitter group
The Digital Switch Over process for the Hannington transmitter group, serving parts of Hampshire, Berkshire and Surrey has been successfully implemented by Arqiva.
The three public-service multiplexes are now being transmitted at full power from the main station at Hannington and, for the first time, from its eight dependent relays at Aldbourne, Alton, Chisbury, Hemdean HP/VP, Hurstbourne Tarrant, Lambourn, The Bournes and
Tidworth.
The 'commercial' multiplexes (Hannington only) do not reach their final DSO powers until April 2012, as planned.
Following the analogue switch-off for BBC Two on 8 February, the remaining analogue signals for BBC One, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 ceased by 00:02 on Wednesday 22 February. The new digital signals entered official service at Hannington at 06:00, with the
last of the relays completed by 12:53.
Arqiva is the transmission provider for all terrestrial TV and most radio services in the UK.
Help with Freeview, aerials?
In this section
Thursday, 23 February 2012
G
Gary7:15 PM
Hook
Since Feb 22nd most but not all channels are improved from the Hannington transmitter. Channel 15 (Film 4) has disappeared having previously been one of the strongest in Hartley Wintney.
Is this an expected outcome and will channel 15 improve and if yes when?
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Gary's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Gary: The power will increae one either 4th or 18th April. I had understood it as being the latter, but the Digital UK website suggests both!
Anyway, you are missing "Arqiva B" multiplex (which carries Film4 and others) which is channel 47, so go through the manual tuning and try adding 47.
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K
KMJ,Derby8:51 PM
Gary & Dave Lindsay: There is an element of confusion surrounding the working of the COM muxes following DSO at Hannington which extends into the Digital UK predictions. C44 is decommissioned at Guildford on 4th April 2012 so it is likely that ArqA will be transmitted at full power from that date. C41 and C47 continue in use until 18th April, no deterioration is shown for the already poor signal from Guildford, so it would appear that SDN and ArqB from Hannington continue to use the low power antenna until 18th April 2012 as Brian indicated in the Switchover notes for Hannington.
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Friday, 24 February 2012
KMJ,Derby: Thanks for the clarification and explanation.
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N
N Smith11:21 PM
We seem to have lost "Yesterday" channel since switchover at Hannington.. Used to have a clear signal using a high gain aerial but whtever alteration is made to the directional alignment still no Yesterday. Any advice would be appreciated.
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Saturday, 25 February 2012
G
Gary7:48 AM
Hook
Dave & KMJ, Thankyou for your explanation and better understanding of the full switchover situation.
In the knowledge that things will improve on & around the 18th April, I am happy to wait.
At that time, will the switchover be complete and the only way to further improve, will be to improve my reception gear?
Currently channels 1-6 and a few others are indicating 100% signal and 100% quality on the TV meter, however some receivable channels vary around 10%-37% area!
Regards Gary
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Gary's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Gary (and others): According to the Digital UK Tradeview predictor there are no more retunes for Hannington. As KMJ,Derby says, C44 (Arq A which includes Pick TV), should increase in power on 4th April which means that you should manually tune to it on that date.
Then on 18th April, manually tune to C41 and C47. There should hopefully be no need to do a full retune (risking picking up another transmitter); just simply add the multiplexes that come available to you.
The only other thing I would say is that the high signal level for the Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) multiplexes (which includes BBC, ITV1, C4, C5, HD) being higher could be desensitising your receiver to the lower power ones. Whilst in-built signal strength meters might not all read the same value, 100% does seem very high. If you have a signal booster remove it, or try reducing its level of amplification (if it allows) and see if the strength of the two commercial multiplexes you do get increases (by checking ITV3 and Pick TV). Having adjusted, try manually tuning to to C47 if Yesterday/Film4 aren't on your list, else go to one of those channels and see if they are back.
Your other possibility (particularly if you don't have any amplification) is to get a variable attenuator and see if you can reduce the level of the signals going into your receiver. Your aim would be to strike a balance. You will be reducing the level of all the signals (strong and weak). See if you can lower the strong ones enough such that the receiver becomes more sensitive to the weaker ones, but not weaken the weaker ones such that they become too weak! Be aware that it may be an impossibility; there may be no balance to be struck where you are.
I would select the channel that is 37% strength and then adjust the attenuator, seeing where it goes up to its highest value. The receiver will take some seconds to respond to any change in signal level, so do it a bit at a time and wait for it to settle. Having got the highest value you can, check the other channels, in particular, see if the missing Arq B (Yesterday/Film4 etc) is back. You could always adjust the attenuator whilst viewing the strength of Arq B to get it at its strongest.
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K
kieron11:55 AM
Bracknell
i can't receive dave,itv3,qvc or5*/5usa and am using built in freeview from a new rooftop aerial adjusted to receive strongest possible signal.any ideas
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kieron's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb3812:39 PM
kieron: Unfortunately irrespective of what your aerial might have been adjusted to receive DUKs reception predictor indicates that even after the low power multiplexes at Hannington have increased their output power on April 18th you are still only indicated as being able to receive SDN and ArqA with a status of variable, and even although ArqB is shown in the green its not exactly that sparkling.
That said though, all multiplexes from Crystal Palace is shown as being reasonably OK from April 18th so it might be worth a try at that.
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Sunday, 26 February 2012
D
David10:16 PM
N Smith - we have lost the same mux in Reading (we're clear of the 'notch' area and have had generally good Freeview reception from Hannington all along). After switchover the ArqB mux on Ch47 has all but disappeared (we picked it up at the retune on all 4 of our various receivers but have hardly seen it since, so have had to do a manual retune to Crystal Palace on Ch29 for now).
Fingers crossed that the power increase in April will bring ArqB back for us - the DUK predictor shows 79/90 now and 98/99 from 4 April, so I'm cautiously optimistic. (SU710741)
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