All posts by Richard Cooper
Below are all of Richard Cooper's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Keith Sheppard: DOGs for 1st. and last 5 mins. - brilliant idea, Keith. Richard, Norwich, Tuesday 14th. June, 10:50 a.m.
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S Riley: Hi, S Riley. In order to help you we need to know whether your tv aerial is pointing South/South-West towards Crystal Palace or East-North-East towards Sudbury, in order to ascertain which of the two you should really be using. We cannot advise whether you should get a sat dish until we have investigated Freeview tv through an aerial issues. Please reply and then we can provide some assistance, Richard, Norwich, Tuesday 14th. June at 11: 30 a.m.
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David: Hi, David in Petersfield. Your nearest DAB radio transmitters are Midhurst, Truleigh Hill (South Downs Way) and Chillerton Down (Isle of Wight). Of these transmitters, only Chillerton Down carries Radio Solent on the South Hants local multiplex, which is on VHF Band III Block ( or channel)11C. In Petersfield, you are 'expected' to listen to BBC Sussex rather than Solent, and that is on the Sussex local Mux, which is on VHF Band III Block ( or channel) 10B. If an auto-scan should fail to pick up Solent, you could try a manual scan on 11C. Don't forget that you can now get BBC Radio Solent on Freeview television now, on Freeview channel 722 in your area, although you might have to do a Freeview retune for it to appear on your EPG! Hope this helps, Richard, Norwich, Tuesday 14th. June at 5:30 p.m.
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David: Hi again David. I' sent you a reply at 5:30 p.m., but since then I've just checked the coverage area map for BBC Radio Solent on DAB, and unfortunately it just falls short of reaching the Petersfield area! If I were you, however, I would still carry out a manual scan of 11C, with your telescopic aerial up, just to chance your luck and see if you can get it ( or any other South Hants local DAB stations). Richard, Norwich, 5:50 p.m.
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Margaret Holmes: Hi, Margaret. Freeview channel 87 is one of a group of channels, called a 'multiplex', that needs a Freeview HD receiver to decode the signal into one which will decode the signal to render a watchable tv picture and audible sound. Are you sure that your tv setup includes an HD receiver?
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Roerbt: Hi, Roerbt, or should that be Robert? There are no reported faults or engineering works at Haslemere and atmospheric pressure is low, at around 995 millibars currently, so there is no obvious transmission issue that would affect reception of Haslemere. Are you absolutely certain that all of your aerial lead connections are sound? Sometimes it is simply a case of checking that all of your coaxial plugs are screwed up, but not over-tightened, and that they are plugged into the wall-plate and the tv firmly and not loosely. What readings are you getting for signal strength and for quality on BBC SD channels and for the HD channels that are breaking up? Could you reply soon, please, as I had intended to have an early night, so would like to return to you soon. Hear from you soon, Richard, Norwich, 9:20 p.m.
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Peter Toye: Hi, Peter. There haven't been any changes to the multiplex on channel 60 at the Salisbury transmitter. Are you sure you didn't do a retune when we were experiencing atmospheric problems last week? If you did, then you probably need to do another retune now, now that everything has returned to normal under low atmospheric pressure conditions? If I were you, I would take the PVR out of the equation temporarily, unless you are relying on it for providing the signal to your tv (as I am!). Assuming your tv has an in-built digital tv tuner, try a re-tune on it first, to ensure you can watch live Freeview tv, then worry about the PVR later, once you've sorted the tv out. Hope this helps, Richard, 9:40 p.m.
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Jordan woods: Hi, Jordan. I explained in a post to Margaret Jones yesterday why this is. I will re-iterate here. 'Keep It Country', channel 87, is now one of a group of channels that you can only watch if you have high definition (HD) receiving equipment. A standard (SD) television or any old tv connected to an (SD) Freeview box is unable to decipher the channel 87 signal into a watchable picture and audible sound. To get 'Keep It Country' nowadays, you need either an HD tv set or an HD-ready tv set plus a Freeview HD set top box. You can get an HD set top box online for 43 plus delivery. I f you do, make sure your tv is HD-ready, has an HDMI connection and that the new Freeview HD box comes with an HDMI lead included. One other thing: you need to be using a transmitter that transmits the 'Keep Country' group of channels, called 'COM 7'. Not all transmitters transmit it, which is why i'm telling you. Hope this all helps, Richard, Norwich, Weds 15th. June at 8:45 a.m.
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R Fulford: Good Morning Mr Fulford. Whilst there is a local DAB multiplex operator for Swindon and West Wiltshire, which is Now Digital Ltd, their published coverage area appears to stop short of Salisbury. The West Wilts transmitters are at Naish Hill and Crockerton. Whilst Crockerton is your nearest LOCAL DAB transmitter, it only has a power of 500 watts on VHF Band III Block (channel) 10D, and is designed to serve Warminster. The Salisbury DAB transmitter sadly does not yet transmit a LOCAL DAB multiplex, only transmitting BBC National DAB stations and Digital One National stations. If I were you, I would try doing a manual tune and try to get channel 10 D, which has a frequency of 215.072 MHz, which is the frequency of Crockerton, just to see if your DAB receiver can pick it up outside the published service area. I would also contact Now Digital Ltd, to see if they have any plans to extend their Swindon and West Wilts service to South Wilts, incuding Salisbury. Unfortunately I've been unable to find contact details for Now Digital Ltd. Iit is suggested that you contact www.getdigitalradio.com as an alternative. Hope this helps. Richard, Norwich, 15 June, 10:00.
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Monday 13 June 2016 12:42PM
Norwich
Keith Burrell: Hi, Keith. I can try to answer some of your questions. The majority of broadcast transmitters are run and maintained by Arqiva, which, has strategically placed centres from which engineers go out to attend to transmitter faults, one of these being 'Emley Moor'. Arqiva, as an organisation, seems to have what one might call a 'closed', 'opaque', 'high privacy' philosophy, seemingly unwilling to share information or make it public, perhaps because of terrorist threat worries? I would be surprised if Briantist could persuade an Arqiva transmitter maintenance engineer to explain his work to us, because the engineer would probably be breaking a confidentiality clause in his contract if he did so, and would be summarily dismissed! I think you will find that website owner, Briantist, is responsible for transmitter fault reporting on this website. The information is generally publicly available if you know what you are looking for and where to look, for example, the radio and transmitter investigation service website, run by the BBC, will tell you the transmitter status for all types of broadcast tv and radio, for every postcode in the UK where there is an available service. Other good sources of information are the digital uk website for Freeview tv and ukdigital radio or getdigital radio for digital radio. In answer to your question 3., you'll have to ask Briantist. The power levels and frequencies/channels are determined by international agreements and probably monitored by the UK regulator, Ofcom. Richard, Norwich.