All posts by Richard Cooper
Below are all of Richard Cooper's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Doug Fry: Hi Doug. I notice that the 562.0 MHz frequency from Sandy Heath carries the COM7 multiplex and that it is transmitted at roughly 1/3 of the power of the more powerful multiplexes which are transmitted at 170,000 kW from Sandy. It would be interesting to know how this channel normally comes into your receiver at your location. By the way, are you aware that there have been high pressure atmospheric conditions which have been affecting viewers' Freeview reception since the evening of Sunday 5th. June and through much of the day yesterday? If your channel losses are a consequence of the high pressure, all you can do is to wait until the atmospheric pressure lowers: you could study the weather forecast inbetweentimes! Richard, Norwich
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Mike: Hi Mike. There are no issues or engineering work specifically associated with the Bromsgrove transmitter at present. I wonder if you are suffering from the same problem that has been affecting thousands of viewers since Sunday evening which is co-channel interference due to high atmospheric pressure? This can have the effect of making your Freeview equipment 'think' that there is no signal and cause it to display a 'No signal' message on the screen. Assuming that you have checked all of the obvious things like aerial lead connections, etc., all you can do is to wait until lower pressure atmospheric conditions prevail again. If I were you, I would keep a regular check on the weather forecast in the newspaper or online if you're also experiencing radio interference, so you can gain some idea as to when you can watch Freeview from Bromsgrove again satisfactorily. I gather that in general, Bromsgrove has been a pretty good transmitter, although it's a pity it doesn't carry multiplex COM 7 which has extra HD channels on it. All the best, Richard, Norwich.
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The Turtle: Good morning to The Turtle. I am assuming you are using the Waltham transmitter going by your postcode. There are no planned engineering works for Waltham today and so I imagine your equipment is suffering from the high atmospheric pressure conditions that have been plaguing thousands of viewers since Sunday evening. You'll be able to pick up all your usual channels once we are under the influence of lower pressure conditions, hopefully later in the week. Richard, Norwich. PS I assume you have checked all of the obvious things, like aerial lead and plug connections, etc. Also, ask your neighbours if they have the same problem, as that would then eliminate your equipment from the enquiry!
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Betamax_man : Hi Betamax_man. Were you aware that the Idle transmitter does not carry the COM 7 multiplex, which carries the additional HD channels? Bilsdale does, but at lower power than the main 6 multiplexes, so your tv equipment may not be able to pick up the COM 7 multiplex from Bilsdale because it is transmitted at lower power. Richard, Norwich, 7 June 2016@ 10:45 a.m.
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mark: Hi Mark. Thank you for updating me on the situation with Kings Lynn/West Norfolk local DAB. I did not realise that Now Norwich has been expanded to cover the whole county, nor that the funding agreement only covered the first local FM areas to have gone on air back in the 1970s and early 80s. Of course, KLFM is more recent, not going on air until July 1992 and so not qualifying for funding as a heritage station area. I was also interested to hear you say that a DSO decision is expected in 2018, and was wondering what was your source of information that enabled you to be so precise, bearing in mind other people have been saying after the new BBC Charter is in place, or something as vague as "between now and 2020". Richard, Norwich.
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Mary Macer: Hi, Mary. The Mendlesham, Puttocks Hill and Manningtree DAB transmitters have no problems on them today, so if you are experiencing any issues, it's probably atmospheric in nature, like the issues we have had with Freeview tv since Sunday night. It will all be ok again in a few days. Richard, Norwich.
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JC: Hi, John. This is Richard in Norwich. For your information, Mendlesham has recently had the Norwich local multiplex added to it, so it does now have Norwich DAB on it, which helps listeners in the Waveney valley between Bungay and Harleston who were not receiving it very well from Stoke Holy Cross just South of Norwich.Richard, Norwich.
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Neil P: Hi NThere has been general disruption to Freeview or DTT reception since Sunday night owing to high atmospheric pressure causing co-channel interference (CCI) to the extent that some viewers cannot view any channels at all! The main thing to do is to wait until the current high pressure area over the UK subsides or moves away. The worst thing you can do under these conditions is a full retune because your tv receiver will forget all of the channels and frequencies stored in it. Everything should be back to normal in a few days. Richard, Norwich.
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jb38: Hi. Actually, switching from receiving Belmont to Wells is a little bit more complicated than you would think because the aerial used to receive Belmont is wideband, whereas the aerial you would need to point at the Wells transmitter needs to be a Group C/D or a Group E aerial, which is different from a wideband aerial, so if you do want to make the switch from Belmont to Wells, so as to receive local news relevant to Norfolk rather than Lincolnshire and Humberside, you'll need to invest in a Group C/D or E aerial, which you can get online for 25. Putting it up is feasible on a d-i-y basis as long as you don't mind heights and you carry out a risk assessment first. Don't forget that you'd have to disconnect the aerial lead from the Belmont aerial and connect it into your new Group C/D or E aerial and this would be easiest to do on the ground, after removing the Belmont aerial from its pole. Then, when fitting the Wells aerial to the pole, you must remember to arrange it so its little rod elements are vertical (straight up& down), not horizontal like the Belmont one was. You must obviously also point the new aerial to the Wells transmitter, which is actually between Cockthorpe and Langham, which is East -South-East from Wells town centre. Richard, Norwich.
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Tuesday 7 June 2016 9:18AM
Norwich
Gerald Cant: Hi, Gerald. In order for Radio Norfolk or KLFM to be on DAB in King's Lynn and West Norfolk there has to be a commercial company willing to run a King's Lynn and West Norfolk local DAB multiplex, such as Now Digital, who run the Norwich one and Muxco who run the Lincolnshire one and have been approved to run the Suffolk one. The company has to believe that the local multiplex will be commercially viable for them, then, when Ofcom asks, companies that are interested submit their proposals to Ofcom for approval. As a 'for instance' which might help with your question, Muxco applied to Ofcom for the Suffolk multiplex in 2015, didn't learn that they had been approved until the Autumn and it will be October this year before they go on the air with Suffolk DAB stations, so you can see that it's all a rather long, drawn-out process. The regulator Ofcom has not even advertised for interested parties to apply for a King's Lynn and West Norfolk local DAB multiplex yet as far as I know, although the eventual aim is for local DAB to achieve the same coverage as the primary local FM station in every area, which, in your case, is KLFM, so it should happen eventually, but when is an unknown at the moment. Hope this helps, Richard, Norwich.