By providing a full postcode (such as W1A 1AA), national grid reference (for example SE123456) or latitude, longitude pair (like 54, -0.5) this page will provide a map, terrain plot and detailed information of the location showing the UK and RoI television transmitters that it is possible you receive Freeview, Freeview HD, Youview, BT TV and Saorview from.
(Don't know your postcode? Find it at Post Office Postcode finder).
UK Free TV uniquely shows you transmitter coverage maps, aerial to transmitter terrain plots, the closest 10 mobile phone masts (for possible 5G-at-800 interference) as well as tabulated information (sorted by direction, by received signal strength, by frequency, by service names or by transmitter name).
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See sample prediction pages
Click on these links to see how this page looks with these sample postcodes: AL55NP, SE266EZ, WD187DH, CT103SF, HR28BE, BH49AY, SO225HJ, W1W8SN, LA96PZ, NN66LJ.
Please note
These predictions are based upon a rooftop aerial and depend on the suitability of the aerial, the distance to the transmitters, the power of their signals, the postcode area, and local terrain.Saturday, 29 June 2013
K
Keith4:12 PM
Chinnor
Hi,
I am at my wits end with digital TV reception. A bit of background info: my location is OX39 4DT, so Oxford is the nearest transmitter. I have a high gain aerial (or so I am led to believe) suitable for the Oxford frequencies. For the last few years it's worked fine with my Sony Bravia KDL-40W2000 TV of 2007 vintage with built in freeview and also a Sony RDR-HXD560 DVD/HDD recorder. There was occasional breakup on some of the ITV channels, but nothing serious. The antenna has a cable down to the garage where there is a splitter/amplifier that feeds sockets in the living room, two bedrooms and a family room. In one of the bedrooms I have a Technica TV - bought last year from Tesco.
About 4 weeks ago the reception became very bad on the Sony TV, and a bit patchy on the Technica one. It deteriorated to the point where I could only get BBC1 and 2 reliably on the Sony.
So I called in a local TV aerial guy and asked him to sort it out. He said the signal strength at the amplifier was poor, so he went to the aerial which is is on a 1m or so mast at the top of the eaves of the house. He claimed that the problem was that there was a tree in the way - indeed my opposite neighbour has a large cypress tree - and this was the problem. Said he would move the aerial to the other side of the house and fitted onto the chimney, extending the cable back to the original side. I should point out I live in a chalet-style bungalow, so there is no loft access, and hence the cable has to stay where it is...
The result was not good - the Sony could tune into a somewhat smaller number of channels, but no picture - just sound (with a few bits of interference) but NO picture on any channels. Trie a factory reset, etc, no luck.
The strange thing is the cheapie Technica set in the bedroom works fine there, and also works fine plugged into the same aerial socket as the Sony. It reports the signal strengths much the same - BBC about 64% and some of the ITV channels about 55%.
The TV guy (who had spent 3.5 hours by that time) blamed my Sony TV and said I needed a new TV. I'm not so sure though - it seems the signal strength has been degraded by moving the aerial and adding an extra length of cable.
What are my options? Could the signal strength be just too weak for terrestial TV, or is it likely still to be an aerial problem? I am loath to buy a new TV in the hope that it will work better, when the old one did... and the cheap one works fine!
thanks for any help/advice
Keith
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Keith's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb387:14 PM
Keith: As you are located at only 13 miles away from the Oxford transmitter and with according to the terrain indicator a clear line of sight, then in theory anyway you should have good reception.
The point I did wonder about though is when the aerial installer checked out your aerial did he verify that the powered splitter was operating OK? because if he didnt then you should connect the downlead from the aerial directly into one of the room feeds and see if the situation improves, you may of course require a back to back coupler to try this as both connections into the splitter will be male pins.
If convenient though you could temporarily move one of your TV's into the garage and couple the aerial downlead directly into it.
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J
Jenny9:02 PM
Wirral
I live in the Wirral area, (ch62) and all my freeview tvs are not working. I have turned them off for 30 second and turned them back on but that hasn't worked. When I did a manual retune I was receiving channel 63, I searched channel 59 which is on the highest frequency I should be receiving and no channels were found. A message says to check our antenna which has a booster but it is fairly new so shouldn't be having any problems. I was wondering if there has been work on the Winter Hill or Storeton transmitter? If that isn't the case does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this.
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Jenny's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
MikeB10:22 PM
Keith: Your TV is perfectly fine, and frankly, a new TV might have the same problems as the old! Sony tuners are fairly sensitive, yet stable - I've got the HX860 and its OK even at high signal strength. Technica isn't a brand known for its tuners, but different tuners react in different ways.
Obviously the change in channels after the recent retunes has had an effect, which we've seen for a lot of people. Even though it was OK before, the retune has just tipped things over the edge. Check what channels your Tv's are tuned into - 53 for Oxford, and 27 for Sandy heath (both have a retune soon, but the channels will the same).
Have a look at A.T.V (Aerials And Television) FM DAB TV Aerial, plus poles and brackets - what is your aerial like, and what is the cable like(poor cable can really make a difference) on your old setup, plus whatever the chap put in.
Your signal strength isn't bad - not perfect, but doable, so a check to make sure that all the connections are OK might help.
JB38 put his finger on the point about the amp - does its work? In fact it could be making things worse, so just bypassing the amp to check might help.
What I cant figure out is why the aerial had to be moved - at least he could have moved it around to face Sandy Heath, and see what happened.
(PE12QN)
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M
MikeB10:27 PM
Peterborough
Jenny: Winter Hill is on channel 50, not 62. Try a factory retune and see what channel you end up with - if it ends up with another transmitter, then try a manual retune.
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MikeB's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 30 June 2013
J
jb3812:17 AM
MikeB / (Keith): Although DUK's reception predictor would suggest Sandy (@ 41 miles) as being a possible alternative to Oxford, that seen indicated does not fully take into account the existence of multiple obstructions to the signal path between the source of the signal and the receiver, this being very applicable in the case of the signal path between Sandy and Chinnor as seen demonstrated on the link provided, and being the reason why I did not recommend this being attempted.
Keith: If by-passing the powered splitter does not improve the situation then it would be prudent to make a few local (nearby) enquiries for the purpose of determining if the problem is also being experienced by others, as its essential to know whether it is or not before needlessly spending time trying to effect a cure that's almost guaranteed to end in failure.
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
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K
Keith1:37 PM
Chinnor
Thanks for the advice so far...
J: The aerial guy did measure the signal before and after them amp/splitter, and said it was working. I believe him as that was my first suspect, and I bought a new one, which made no difference, so I took it back.
Mike: Indeed the TVs are tuned to channel 53 (oxford), I don't think I could pick up Sandy as there is a large hill (part of the chilterns) in the way. My neighbour opposite and next door both have TV aerials and seem to get reception OK.
I'm wondering if it could be the cable from the location of the old aerial into the garage, as the signal strength is poor at the point the cable plugs into the splitter/amp there. There is no access to this cable but a new one could be re-routed down the eaves (this is a chalet-style bungalow) and then straight into the garage.
I'm pretty sure the problem started when they did the re-tune at Oxford on 29th May, if that helps?
The aerial is a DY14WB from ATV aerials. Why did he move it? Well he claimed the poor signal was due to a (very large - about twice the height of houses round here) cypress tree that was 'in the way'.
| link to this comment |
Keith's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
Keith1:49 PM
Chinnor
Just noticed that the nearby mobile phone mast (1.2km south of me) has EE, which as I understand it runs 4G at 800MHz. Not sure when that started operating but it must be fairly recent.
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Keith's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Keith: Some of the 4G services will run at 800MHz. However, EE was permitted to use some of its 1800MHz allocation for 4G services.
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J
jb384:33 PM
Keith: With regards to the May 29th event, I feel that your problem having apparently started around then is purely coincidental, as the only change that was made at Oxford was to the SDN transmitters (ITV3 etc) operating frequency which moved from Ch62 down to Ch50, nothing else having been altered.
With regards to aerial having been moved, I fully agree with this action if indeed the previous position resulted in the aerial facing into a large tree, as trees can have a serious effect on RF signals and especially so if located at close range, and so this possible reason for your problem had to be eliminated from the equation.
The only point I am not clear about is by you having mentioned the cable from the location of the old aerial into the garage, insomuch when the installer moved the position of the aerial did he not run a new cable from the aerial down to the splitter? or was the old cable of sufficient length whereby it was just diverted? because judging by what you have said with regards to your neighbours reception being OK then the pre-splitter feed from the aerial down to the garage must come under suspicion, such as water having seeped into it at the aerials termination point
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