If you live in the Dover and Bluebell Hill transmitter areas your digital switchover starts this week. If you already use Freeview you will need to retune - if you have never had Freeview, you will get the standard definition BBC services this week. Switchover will complete in two weeks time.

^{Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV 12th June 2012 at 19:14}

This week sees the first stage of the digital television switchover 446,200 homes in North and West Kent.

From 6am Wednesday 13th June 2012, you must perform a "first time installation" retune (sometimes "Factory Reset" or "Shipping Condition") on your Freeview box or television set if you use the Bluebell Hill or Dover full service Freeview transmitters.

This is because the old low power "multiplex 1" BBC service will be replaced by the high power BBCA multiplex on the old analogue BBC TWO frequency:

Bluebell Hill (6am) - BBC TWO analogue closes on C46, Mux 1 closes on C59, BBCA starts on C46.
Dover (6am) - BBC TWO analogue closes on C56, BBC One analogue moves to C56 from C50, Mux 1 closes on C68, BBCA starts on C50.

On Wednesday 13th June 2012 if you use the (6am), (9am), (9am), (noon), (noon), (9am), (11am), (2pm), (noon), (9am), (6am), (1pm), (6am), (noon), (9am) transmitters you will be able to receive the BBC Freeview (with the exception of HD) for the first time, and you will no longer be able to view BBC TWO on analogue.

Coverage Maps

On these maps, the full-service six-multiplex transmitters are shown with the "red star" Freeview logo. The public service three-multiplex masts are shown with a brown indicator. The green areas on the maps, are the areas where the strongest is from the shown transmitter , with the light blue showing overlap areas where signals from other regions are stronger.

You MAY find that old equipment will no longer work - see TVs and boxes that do not support the 8k-mode

Another common problem at switchover is the increase in signal will overload amplifiers and over-the-top installations. If this is the case you will have to remove the or from the system, or perhaps fit an attenuator if you have no amplification. - see Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you.

On Wednesday 27th June 2012 will see the second stage of switchover, which provides the final Freeview configuration, including for all transmitters in this region - see UK Free TV soon for full details.

On this date, you will need, once again, to do a "first time installation" as indicated above.

If you are over 75, you should already have been supplied new equipment by the Switchover Help Scheme.

Help with Freeview, aerials?

How do I get a test card with Freeview	1
I would like to know if it is possible to receive UK terrestrial Freeview servic	2
I have been told I would receive too much singal from my Freeview tansmitter as	3
Can my Freeview box receive more than one BBC and ITV region?	4
Is it true that my 87 year old mother is entitled to a FREE upgrade when the ana	5

In this section

Should the UK close down the TV networks to allow for more mobile broadband?	1
UK Digital switchover ends - Northern Ireland completes on 24th October 2012	2
The last day of analogue television in the UK - goodbye PAL	3
2 days left of analogue television - goodbye teletext	4
3 days of analogue to go - goodbye to NICAM 728	5
Changes to Saorview frequencies and power levels, 24th October 2012	6

Comments

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

Josh

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

11:25 PM

I wonder if people in the North of France will now be able to receive from the South of England more easily?

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Josh's 97 posts GB flag

Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Liz English
1:48 PM

We are in Maidstone, but the retune 13/6 has resulted in us losing as the from (200000 Watts) is stronger than than from (20000 watts). We are getting 99% strength/ on Mux (Crystal Palace), but only 82% on (Bluebell Hill). Not all receivers allow a manual tune to C46. Will the Bluebell Hill power be increased further after the 2nd retune 27th June?

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Liz English's 1 post GB flag

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:08 PM

Liz English: No, 's is the maximum that is permitted. The plan is very complex, with the same frequencies being used repeatedly all over the country, and increasing at one site would cause problems at the other sites using the same frequencies.

The majority of equipment seems to just use the first version of the that it finds, not the strongest or best . They may tune in even if Bluebell Hill provides a better signal. See for ideas on how to solve this problem.

Newer equipment should offer you a choice of which region to store at the preferred channel numbers if it picks up more than one region. It's supposed to be part of the spec, but I know of some HD boxes that still get it wrong.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:15 PM

Liz English: All receivers should have to allow manual tuning. It is bad designers that are responsible.

What should happen is that they are locked in a room with 100 of the things and told to tune them all in correctly with the "real world" problem that you are experiencing. Then they should only be allowed once all that is done.

Are you sure that it doesn't have manual tuning?

My Sony RDR-HXD870 does but it's a bit hidden. Having tuned to programme channel, e.g. ITV1, you bring up the strength screen and that allows selection of UHF channel. The having "looked" at that channel then allows the user to add any that may have been found.

The tricky thing here is that Bluebell's pre- ITV1, C4, C5 etc is in the 20s which is where all of 's are. You should be able to remove the aerial lead for the first 30% of the to miss out Crystal Palace. However, in so doing you will miss out Bluebell ITV1. If you can put up with that or if you have manual tuning hidden somewhere, then you may be able to add it using that.

The only thing I will say about manual tuning is what it does may vary from device to device. Because receivers usually put duplicates in the 800s, other transmitters within range are often tuned in. In some cases manually tuning then achieves nothing because as far as the receiver is concerned it is tuned (albeit in the 800s). Obviously the user wants the manually tuned channel to be the main one and not thrown in the 800s.

The trick may be to get it so that it doesn't store the mux from the wrong during the automatic tuning scan, perhaps by removing the aerial for all or part.

Failing that, you may find that BBC One from Bluebell is in your 800s. There may be a facility to swap services. I will be a pain to swap all the BBC ones, so you may just have to that you don't get much break-up because the wretched thing has tuned to CP.

The thing is that BBC from Bluebell is now on its final power. Crystal Palace switched in April, so you probably have never tuned since CP switched over which is why you've never had this problem before.

If you find that this is still a problem after 27th, then run the automatic tuning scan with the aerial unplugged until 30% and this will miss out CP. All of Bluebell's will be above CP's at that time, so this should sort it.

*Unless* perhaps it is one of those pesky pieces of junk that take it upon themselves to do a full retune at some point when unattended and therefore revert to CP. If there is an option to turn this "function" off (which there isn't forced to be) then it should be turned off. If this turns out to be a problem, then you will have to cross that bridge when you get to it.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:19 PM

Josh: Should be equivalent to how well they could receive yesterday. The high- digital use the main transmitting antennas that analogue formerly used.

There has been a wide-ranging programme of replacement - the main antennas have been replaced at nearly all main sites, only 's dates from before 2000 as far as I'm aware. This has been done to improve the coverage possible from each antenna but also because the previous antennas were approaching end of service life. A few had been replaced less than 10 years before . Most were serviceable for digital, but at least one was replaced again (, for example, got a new taller for DSO, with a new aerial on top of it).

's new main antenna is on a pentagonal form - five faces pointing in different directions - but it only has panels fitted on three of the faces, the ones pointing north-east, north-, and south-west. There are no panels firing toward France or Belgium. You can see this being lifted into place at mb21 - The Transmission Gallery . This new antenna should send far less power into France, and we've already had reports, at the time the new antenna was fitted, that this is the case.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

Saturday, 16 June 2012

Corin

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

12:35 AM

Mike Dimmick: Thanks for the technical details and link for the helicopter installation.

It only shows how far the UK has fallen behind in skills when Arqiva (majority owned by the Canada Pension Plan, followed by the Australian bank McQuarrie) has to use a Swiss company to do the heavy lifting.

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Corin's 91 posts LU flag

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

john stead
3:04 PM
Margate

no bbc or 2 onany of my 5 tvs all other okay will this recify in time. thanks

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john stead's 1 post GB flag

john's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Mark Fletcher

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

3:10 PM
Lytham St. Annes

John Stead,.Try rescanning the affected as such or there is the possibility of a short term atmospheric or in your locality right now.