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
Friday, 2 March 2012
J
jb3812:22 PM
Roger Tinner: It should also be noted that although on occasions reception predictors (even trade) can be a bit iffy in their forecasts as they cannot really take into account any local reception black spots that may exist in an area, but as far as Hannington (@ 13mls / 218 degrees) is concerned the reception forecast for your particular code area suggests that it will never at any time be anything more than variable, and this is right across all six multiplexes.
On the other hand though Crystal Palace (@ 42mls / 92 degrees) does even presently show as being more promising, something which I admittedly do have reservations about as the forecast also includes the very lower powered commercial muxes, however I don't have these reservations from April 18th when switchover stage two has taken place and the ERP rises at a massive 200Kw, so unless there are any dastardly local obstructions that you might know about which could possibly restrict its reception then I would be more inclined to concentrate on using that station rather than Hannington.
Of course your problem could be that of a signal thats slightly on the verges of being excessively powerful and which can cause problems in certain tuners, plus the other misleading aspect of this being that this type of situation can produce almost exactly the same symptoms to that of a weak one, however should an excessively high signal not be the case then the aforementioned is what DUK has forecast for your code area.
| link to this comment |
Roger Tinner, jb38: This plot from Megalithia suggests that Roger has (or is not far off) line of sight to Hannington:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
| link to this comment |
J
jb384:56 PM
Dave Lindsay - Roger Thinner: Well on having a look at the chart I certainly cant see anything of an immediately obvious nature that would jump out as being suspicious, albeit of course it doesn't mean that there isn't, but though as touched upon in my posting regarding predictors and the fact that they can in many instances be quite inaccurate, but for DUK to predict the reception at the given code area as being almost on a permanently variable status across all six muxes is inclined to indicate that its either them that are totally way out with their interpretations of data being used, or its a case of them knowing something we don't.
But though, I did notice concerning Rogers location that he is in a roughly a North Easterly direction from the transmitter, and since the recent switchover I have observed that many of the other complaints being made of a similar nature on this site (and elsewhere) are frequently from viewers also located in Eastern areas, and having plotted a few of their locations I noticed a pattern of low signal problems occurring at certain angles from the mast, this making me suspect that there might still be a problem with some of the aerial panels that radiate towards these areas, as I believe it was difficulties with a combiner that caused the initial problems during switchover, and whether it be admitted or not this might still be causing problems, as it will result in weaker signal lobes being received when in these points of the circle.
| link to this comment |
jb38, Roger Tinner: If there were to be a fault that is causing issues in a particular area, then surely it wouldn't be reflected in the predictions given by Digital UK Tradeview.
jb38: Could the "variable" prediction be as a result of another transmitter being co-channel and Roger being in a spot that has (pretty) good line of sight with another transmitter(s)?
| link to this comment |
Saturday, 3 March 2012
J
jb3810:52 AM
Dave Lindsay: Regarding the predictions given on DUK's trade view, I wasn't in any way trying to infer that should what I suspect actually apply then this fact would be taken into account in the composing of these predictions, simply because of it being something that wasn't planned and as such classed as a fault condition.
The only point I was making is one of stating what's been officially predicted for reception in that particular post code area from a transmitter with an ERP of 50Kw (only on PSB) located only 13 miles away, as under normal circumstances I would look at these predictions as being totally incorrect, which of course they may well be! but the number of post switchover complaints being made from the aforementioned areas is inclined to suggest that something "might" be amiss somewhere, especially as power had previously been restricted in that particular direction and still is as far as the COM muxes are concerned until April 18th.
That said, I fully appreciate that in many of these cases signal overloading problems could well be the cause, but its still rather coincidental how virtually all of these problems seemingly originate from a certain Eastern sector, unless of course its just that people residing in these areas have in the past went slightly "over the top" with their aerial systems in compensating for a poor signal, hence they are now suffering problems from the complete reverse of the situation, although the inclusion of say a 6db (max) attenuator in line with their aerial sockets would soon prove if this is the case, or of course not!
But though come April 18th I will be closely watching to see if PSB complaints from the East magically vanish, as I have a sneaking suspicion that they might well do, but one never knows!
PS: I don't think the status of "variable" would be made with any considerations whatsoever should the possibility of co-channel be in existence from anywhere
| link to this comment |
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Malcolm H
8:28 PM
Hook
8:28 PM
Hook
Bah. I give up. All those Hannington services I have managed to pull in are pixellating like crazy this weekend, amp or no amp, and are driving us bonkers. I have disconnected the Hannington aerial and have reverted to CP.
Goodbye BBC 1 South and ITV Meridian although only 12 miles away...DSO indeed...waste of space...
| link to this comment |
Malcolm's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 5 March 2012
I
Ian7:58 AM
C47 unusable then disappeared completely on Sunday. It's back now. Has there been work on it this weekend? Fleet, Hants
| link to this comment |
R
Roger Lavery1:37 PM
Our Meridian changes went well but for one exception. I have a Bush DFTA 1000 freeview adapter that seemed to re-scan OK but when it is on the BBC multiplex it is very slow to respond to the remote control - 30 seconds or so. I tried the company that is the Bush support company and they say that they do not cover that model. Any advice info or comments appreciated.
| link to this comment |
Saturday, 23 June 2012
T
Terence7:46 PM
Hungerford
Why after a successful retune and good reception has ARQB disappeared and rescans do nothing?
Hannington is reported as operating normally so with all other MUX giving first class reception why has this MUX failed?
| link to this comment |
Terence's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 26 July 2012
Terence: If you are still having problems, can you please see Single frequency interference | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice .
| link to this comment |
Select more comments
Your comment please