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Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV For the last six years, I have answered many thousands of personal emails that you have sent to UK Free TV.
Sadly, I am unable to offer this personal service at the moment.
Until I can restore this service, please can you leave any questions you have on an appropriate page, where they will be answered as soon as possible, or below, if you can't figure out where to ask.
I look forward to your questions!
Help with TV/radio stations?
In this section
Saturday, 20 October 2012
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Stephen P2:23 PM
I vaguely recall that you cannot - but hope someone sure will confirm/correct.
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Tracy2:25 PM
Colchester
We used to be able to watch sky upstairs but since the digital changeover we can only pick up a very fuzzy picture. Any ideas?
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Tracy's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tracy: This could be caused by the UHF channel (frequency) that you are using to output the analogue picture to your upstairs TV now being used for digital in your area.
The Sky box puts out a signal on your aerial lead on a UHF channel (frequency). You need to use one that is not used by a Freeview transmitter that is being picked up by your aerial else the digital (Freeview) signal will interfere with the analogue picture from the Sky box, the effect on the analogue picture being that it will be more grainy.
You need to establish whether this is the likely cause. If you power on the Sky box and turn on the upstairs TV and select the Sky channel. Then remove the aerial lead going into the Sky box (the one that comes from the aerial). If the level of interference on the Sky picture on the upstairs TV reduces as a result, then this tends to suggest that it is interference from a digital signal.
Find out what RF channel number your Sky box is using by following the instructions here:
How do I change the RF output channel on a Sky Digibox? | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
If this appears to be the problem, then let us know which RF channel it is using and we can suggest which one(s) you might be able to use at your location.
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Tracy5:08 PM
Colchester
Tracy: Thanks for your help. I followed your instructions and the picture upstairs was perfect. The rf channel number was 60 and i tried changing it to 68 but this didn't help.Can i just leave the arial lead out of the sky box?
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Tracy's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Laura5:19 PM
Sowerby Bridge
Sorry to sound ignorant if you have already answered this but I don't have an Ariel for my house and the only thing I can get is Sky which has currently become a rip off. I would like to view channels for free using my sky box and satalite but how do I go about this? How can I find out what I will be able to watch?
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Laura's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tracy: The purpose of the incoming aerial being connected into the Sky box is to allow Freeview broadcasts to be viewed. If you do not watch Freeview on the upstairs TV, and you have no other TVs connected to the output of the Sky box, then the incoming aerial is surplus to requirements.
If the TV adjacent to the Sky box is connected to the Sky box and you only wish to have Freeview available on it (and not on the upstairs TV), then you could feed the incoming aerial directly into that TV.
Since 27th June 2012 the Sudbury transmitter which serves your area has been broadcasting on C60. If you change it, you will need to retune the TV. If it has manual tuning where a UHF channel can be entered, then you can enter the same channel number, else you will have to scan.
C51 might be available. You can use somewhere from C61 to C68 because it isn't used at the moment, but the 4G mobile networks are likely to use those channels so you would probably have to change it when they come on air.
Once you have changed the output of the Sky box to C51 and retuned the TV, if the picture is a bit grainy, unplug the incoming aerial lead to see if it is interference from something that is being broadcast.
If this proves to be the case, then 54 may be a possibility.
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John B9:15 PM
Having reception problems but only on the sd channels where the signal quality fluctuates between 20-60% and now and again goes to no signal,also the picture breaks up a bit, yet on HD channels it is perfect 100%.Seems worse at night and have tried redoing all connections, changed leads and is still no betterPoiting to hanninton transmitterThe aerial is about 8 years old and also has a masthead amp going in to o triax loftbox.
Any ideas of possible faults please before I call an installer
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John B: Being in the dark as to your location, it is impossible to have any idea as to what sort of signal area you reside in.
However, it could be the case that you have too much amplification, although this usually affects HD signals before the SD ones.
Whilst signal strength meters on receivers are in no way scientific, 100% strength could be an indication that the signal level is too high. The result is much the same as too low a signal level. As the signal level increases over that which the receiver can tolerate, the strength and quality will start to fluctuate and jump up and down.
At switchover the power of digital signals increased. In some cases, installations fitted for reception of the pre-switchover low power signals is OTT after switchover.
The strength of Hannington before switchover was restricted generally to the east so as to protect against interference with the Guildford transmitter. Consequently the difference between the strength of the pre-switchover signals and the current signals in that area is very big and an installation fitted to receive the pre-switchover signals could be boosting the current signals too much.
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jb3811:42 PM
Tracy: Are you sure that when you changed the Sky boxes output to Ch68 that you had scrolled down and selected "save changes", this action followed by retuning your TV whilst on analogue to pick up the new RF output channel used by the Sky box? as what you have said suggests that you haven't as Ch68 is clear of interference from any Freeview transmitter in the UK.
By the way you do not require an aerial to be connected into a Sky box unless you want to feed normal Freeview to other rooms along with the Sky boxes signal, if you do not require this then couple the aerial directly into the jumper lead that would normally be connected into the Sky boxes RF1 or 2, this enabling Freeview in other rooms minus the Sky signal.
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Sunday, 21 October 2012
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becky1:33 AM
help please
i have sky+ hd box. no hd subscription. fed up of paying £26pcm for discovery channels that now show unrelated stuff. i'm now out of contract. and am loath to pay £279 for humax 1000s freesat box.
can i use sky+hd box to the same (rewind tv guide excluded) ie. p, rw, record etc?
cheers
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