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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
Thursday, 3 January 2013
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Viv Gunton11:50 AM
Dave Lindsay and jb38. Thanks for your help.
My aerial points around 285 so should be good for Hannington. I already have an aerial booster. I usually notice the problem when watching recordings so see no point in re-wiring.
I have the TV manual but missed the tiny reference to signal strength on P27. So I used the DVD and went throuygh all channels. I either got red "no signal" or I got green with signal strength 90+% and quality good or better. This was with below standard atmos. pressure.
Have now repeated using the TV. BBC1 gives orange - signal strength high and ITV3/C41 gives a black 75% bar with signal strength "good".
Now that pressure is up, I got a slight flecking on ITV3 so I checked again and got the same result but the bar wavered slightly as I watched.
I would welcome any further comments but I still consider this to be a shortcoming of digital TV.
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Paul Bishop12:13 PM
Fire blamed on arsonists blacks out TV in Bath
Bathampton TV mast fire | This is Bath
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Paul Bishop12:16 PM
Fire blamed on arsonists blacks out TV in Bath
Bathampton TV mast fire | This is Bath
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jb386:52 PM
Viv Gunton: The wavering bar that you refer to is, as you will most likely have sussed out the cause of your problem but unfortunately one that up to a point is outwith your control, although the more important aspect of the two indications seen is the quality, and if this is observed to fluctuate in a fashion that can be classed as "diving up and down" then even using a more powerful booster will not really get over the problem, and terrible as it might be to say but nor is it likely that anything else would either, as problems of that nature is nearly always caused by intermittent obstructions to the signal path from trees and such likes, even when bare, although reflective elements can also come into the equation because RF signals have elements of the unpredictable attached to them with regards to what happens once they leave the mast.
Just out of curiosity is the booster within sight? and if so could you give an update on the model number of the device, as these come in a wide range of gain ratings and it would be interesting to know what it is.
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Friday, 4 January 2013
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Viv Gunton3:49 PM
jb38. Thanks for the reply. Regrettably the booster is buried under many inches of insulation in the loft. I had to change it a year or so ago and have found the instruction leaflet. All it says is "Commtel Easy Install" and the only numbers refer to the connection diagram. Pretty useless.
I am fairly high up, AE is on the chimney and there are no trees nearby. Surely, if I have on obstruction in my signal path, won't it affect all or most of the signals?
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Saturday, 5 January 2013
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jb381:11 PM
Viv Gunton: Well although anyone who resides in a higher up location does in most cases (but not all!) have an advantage over someone who doesn't, but though this advantage does not always make that much of a difference when it comes to picture glitching problems on a particular mux, and which if viewed on the signal check screen coincides with wide fluctuations in the signals quality levels being seen, because "if" all of the other muxes are being received with reasonable levels of "stability" (not signal levels which can be different) then the problem has to be caused by either that the signal itself being intermittently interfered by say atmospheric conditions allowing the reception of another more distant station that uses the same frequency, or that the signal path from the mux in question is passing over terrain of a nature that can interfere with RF signals such as dense patches of trees (these not necessarily being local) or that the mux is question is only received via an element of signal reflection anyway and which due to conditions has changed.
Needless to say, and as you will no doubt have gathered, all of these things mentioned are basically outwith local control, although in some cases moving the aerial a few feet either way in the horizontal plane can sometimes help the situation, although NOT where interference from another transmitter is suspected as the reason for the problem.
As you have already observed this problem seems to be pressure related and that alone makes it outwith local control, although a visual check of your area and beyond reveals that its one with an abundance of trees located not that terribly far away, and with these being dense to the North West of Greywell right in line with your signal from Hannington, and problems of the nature such as yours are nearly always experienced in areas of dense greenery.
By the way, that particular brand of booster isn't very forthcoming in revealing its spec although it could be in the region of 13db, but though its inadvisable for it to be covered over with roofing insulation as this is liable to cause it to run on the hot side, not the best of things as far as reliability is concerned.
I also noticed some aerials in the area facing towards Crystal Palace transmitter, and although located at around three times the distance away (@ 40 miles) there is always the possibility that it might provide a more reliable signal.
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Sunday, 6 January 2013
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Viv Gunton12:22 PM
jb38. Thanks for all that. Looks as if i will have to live with it. Moving the aerial involves two men and scaffolding due to 'Elf & Safety.
(For info. one daughter once lived in the shadow of the Crystal Pal. mast but couldn't get a signal from it!).
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jb381:37 PM
Viv Gunton: I have to say that I fully agree that its not worth the expense and sheer inconvenience to do something that isn't really guaranteed to work as there is always a strong element of hit and miss about these things, as experiments of this type are really more in the domain of an able bodied enthusiast with some technical knowledge that doesn't mind spending a few hours trying an aerial out in various positions, because it can be a time consuming exercise!
I will also agree with a comment you made in an earlier posting re: > but I still consider this to be a shortcoming of digital TV < because it is, as should the level of fluctuations in signal that you are experiencing and which is causing the problem be of the same magnitude on an analogue signal, then the only effect it would have on it would be for the viewer to witness variable levels (sometimes rapidly) of a grainy picture being seen, and with this on occasions being accompanied by either an element of ghosting in the background of the picture or peculiar variations in its colour but at no time would it disappear, the problem with digital signals being that the "quality" of the signal is actually more important than the strength and any "wide" fluctuations in this has serious effects on reception, this not really applying to analogue reception which is far in a way more tolerant to signal problems.
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Mari 10:29 PM
Grays
I cant receive any FREEVIEW channels since the switchover. My TV has freeview built in. I had no problems before switchover, so what's the problem? Was I supposed to re tune the TV after? If so, how do I retune the TV to get the FREEVIEW chanels ?
Thank you
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Mari's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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jb3811:12 PM
Mari : You just simply go into your TV's set up menu / select tuning / auto-tune and press on whatever is indicated to start the search, although advice of a more precise nature could have been provided if you had mentioned the model number of your TV.
By the way, you are indicated as being able to receive Freeview from either Crystal Palace or Bluebell Hill, Crystal Palace having the edge, and if you still cannot receive anything after having carried out an auto-tune then this could be connected to an aerial problem, details of your aerial system being unknown.
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