Full Freeview on the Dover (Kent, England) transmitter

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:41 PM

Gordon Ormston: The high post- signals are such so as to provide equivalent coverage to that of the former analogue (at least for BBC, ITV1, C4, C5 and other Public Service ).

Due to fewer frequencies being available, transmission powers had to be kept down so that they could be re-used by transmitters within a closer proximity than they otherwise would have been. Also, power was low so as not to interfere with analogue transmissions already on air which were co-channel.

In essence, it was a quasi-national ; i.e. there were gaps in coverage which is why we have a "switchover" and not just a "switch-off" (of analogue).

I assume that they covered as much of the population as they could with this network giving greater preference to those transmitters with more viewers (the assumed objective being to cover as many as possible). In any case, international clearance would have had to be granted with any signals along the coast being more likely to affect the continent.

So there was probably little that could be done if the pre-switchover service was to be crammed in.

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See ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice

A variable attenuator such as that shown on that page will cost £3 or £4 from online sources such as eBay. These are usually 20dB ones.

As an example (others are available!) I found this one:

VARIABLE ATTENUATOR TV SIGNAL REDUCER 20dB 3 5 6 9 10 12 15 18 DIGITAL FREEVIEW | eBay

Friday, 15 June 2012

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:11 AM

Gordon Ormston: Yes, come the 27th it could happen to other .

Andrew Walter
7:28 AM
Dover

It seems that myself and Gordon have the same problem. I already had a on the as I live under the shadow of hill that improved things vastly pre . Since the switchover I have not been able to get the BBC . I have checked, rechecked, retuned and can confirm that the BBC channels are on . Yesterday with the amplifier still in place I had a signal strength of 60% and jumped from 40% upto 100% constantly. The suggestion of fitting an attenuator was proved by removing the amplifier (thought that this would prove one way or another without buying one) this made things even worse. The signal strength went down to 20% and quality (still jumping) from 0% upto 20%. By the way I live within 3 miles of the . It looks like I might have to call in an aerial guy and spend a vast amount of money just because of the switchover.

Andrew Walter's 3 posts GB flag

Andrew's: A's Freeview map A's terrain plot A's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:35 AM

Andrew Walter: There is always the possibility that you need even more attenuation than you have. Perhaps connecting two attenuators inline with one another, one of them being a variable one.

The head amp needs removing, no doubt. With it in installed, its the from the could be too high for the amp to cope with. Thus the signal will distort at the amp.

So the of the amp will always be distorted. Adding attenuation will therefore give you a smaller distorted signal.

To pick-up less signal, whilst tuned to , try a 12 to 18 inch piece of wire inserted into the inner part of the aerial socket. Or use a set-top aerial. Or, as a crude attenuator, try your top aerial with a section of the screening removed so as to "loose" some signal.

David
2:08 PM

so how come im ok with my here in sandwich then. also my is in the & i get 90%

David's 3 posts GB flag

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

3:22 PM

David: The two main factors that increase the likelihood are:

1. Proximity - the closer you are, the stronger the that is in the air. (Obviously the more off line of sight you are, the less likely that you are going to get too much signal, e.g. if you are in a valley but not very far from the ).

2. People who upgraded their aerials because there old ones weren't sufficiently sensitive to pick up the low power pre- signals may find that their aerials are now too sensitive. These would "tend" to be further away than those who aerials were sensitive enough.

Again, distance isn't everything. People can live close but with obstructions and without line of sight.

The point is that the difference between the pre-switchover digital and post switchover digital is big.

Digital is about thresholds. So you need enough level of signal to get a (the lower threshold) and not too much as to exceed the upper threshold.

Those who, before switchover, had sufficient signal level (to be above the lower threshold), but which was below the upper threshold by an amount greater than the increase in strength (before vs after) will therefore be OK.

Kathie
5:20 PM

Following on Wednesday I could not receive any BBC . After speaking with the helpdesk of my supplier I managed to complete the "factory retune" and all of the BBC channels appeared. Now however I can't get Yesterday or ITV4. My comes from the covering the "south east area" (rather than the Kent area which only has 17 available channels). Any ideas what else I can do to recover Yesterday and ITV4 without losing BBC? Thanks

Kathie's 2 posts GB flag

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

6:56 PM

Kathie: Yesterday, ITV4 etc from is currently on , so if your set has manual tuning, try tuning to it.

If you can't get it, it could be that previously you were "only just" able to receive it due to its weak strength. The strong BBC may have had an adverse effect on of other . This should correct itself when you retune on 27th.

derek strand
10:53 PM
Ashford

Just to say that we are in Ashford and have had problems with our recorder not saving BBC1 after the switch over on 13th - since reading this forum we have turned our down and it appears that this has corrected the missing BBC chanels from , many thanks - it is just a shame that this information is not made available via local press etc so that those who do not have internet could be aware.

derek strand's 1 post GB flag

derek's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Saturday, 16 June 2012

Kathie
4:45 PM

Thanks for the advice, I will wait until after 27th to see what happens. Interestingly our neighbour can get that we can't, don't know whether he's got better equipment than us or whether he's just lucky. Not much of this information is available anywhere else, we were beginning to worry that we'd bought all this new equipment only for the TV service to be WORSE.