All posts by Nicholas Willmott
Below are all of Nicholas Willmott's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Circa 2005/ 2006, Bath was on a list of 120 then analogue-only relays that was expected to get all 6 muxes at DSO.
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Why another 1 series Astra satellite? I thought Astra 1 series was the old Analogue, and that the Digital Astra satellites were numbered in the 2 series (as of 1998).
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Circa 2005, somewhere on the internet, I found a list of 120 then analogue-only relays earmarked to get the full Freeview service (all 6 muxes) at switchover, and Weymouth was one of the 120 such listed relays. It's such a shame that Weymouth ended up getting just the 3 PSB muxes.
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Any chance of a full list of those 120 relays being posted somewhere on here Briantist?
Anyway oOn Wednesday 28 September 2011, I suddenly started getting SDN (ITV3, QVC, 5*, 5USA, Quest, etc.) on UHF 48, albeit low power (circa 3 to 5 out of 10), but they have generally worked since, with some drop outs that I can live with. This contrasts with what I was already getting from Bath relay: BBCA UHF 25 almost 10 out of 10 strength; D3&4 UHF 28 almost 10 out of 10 strength.
I know SDN is not available on Bath relay, so my conclusion is it must have been coming from Mendip. The rooftop aerial is vertical (wrong polarity for Mendip), about 10 elements (fine for Bath relay, surely inadequate for Mendip at my address), and facing Bath relay (wrong way for Mendip). Also it's almost certainly the wrong group for Mendip, so I'm amazed I was suddenly able to get SDN from Mendip.
Bizarrely, since 28 Sep 2011, my Panasonic DVD recorder has also tried desperately to lock on to UHF 52 (which is Arq B), but not quite succeeded. I shall wait and see whether or not my DVD recorder picks up Arq B when it's boosted to full power at Mendip on 28 March 2012.
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The pictures on the 625-line analogue terrestrial channels (BBC2 1964, BBC1 and ITV1 1969, C4 / S4C 1982, C5 1997) weren't actually 625 lines anyway. Circa 25 lines were not used for the picture, which is why some of those spare lines were used to carry teletext data. 1970s black and white TVs tended to have height controls (whereas colour sets tend to lack them); if you mis-adjusted the height to display all 625 lines you'd have got dotted lines at the top; those were the non-picture lines. A correctly adjusted TV would have had the height set such that those non-picture lines would be omitted and only the picture lines would show top to bottom; i.e. not all 625 lines would be visible.
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They could replace ITV1+1 / STV+1 with ITV3 on the D3&4 mux UK-wide.
Isn't SDN nation specific, i.e. variants for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? If so, why not put ITV1+1 London on SDN on all transmitters in England, ITV1+1 Wales on SDN in Wales, STV+1 in Wales and UTV+1 in Ulster?
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What I meant was they could dispense with regional variants of ITV1+1 in England and just transmit ITV1+1 London on every transmitter in England. I'm sure people in Northumberland, Birmingham, Manchester or Cornwall wouldn't mind getting ITV1+1 London instead of their correct regional ITV1+1. Long gone are the days of considerable variation in ITV1 regional schedules (different for Westward, Southern, HTV West, ATV, Granada, Yorkshire etc). About the only thing these days that varies is the early evening main regional magazine, and short regional news bulletins at other times of the day. I for one wouldn't mind getting the London regional magazine at 7:30pm on ITV1 in Bath; if I wanted to watch The West Country Tonight (with the HTV West variation in the first half), I'd watch it at 6:30pm.
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re: Dave Lindsay - circa 2005/06 I saw a list of 120 then analogue-only relays earmarked to get all 6 digital muxes at DSO, in addition to the existing 80 DTT transmitters at the time. Bath, Weymouth and Poole were on that list. Briantist has since told me it was only a planning list.
re: jb38 SDN is already high power at Mendip, on Wed 28 Sep 2011 it moved from UHF 62 low power to UHF 48 where it was increased to high power. Interestingly that same day, where I live in Bath, I could suddenly get SDN on UHF 48 (albeit marginal 3 to 5 out of 10 signal strength), in addition to almost 10 out of 10 signal strength reception of BBCA (UHF 25) and D3&4 (UHF 28) from Bath relay. My guess is SDN on UHF 48 must have been coming from Mendip; bizarrely with the aerial a) facing Bath (wrong way for Mendip), b) vertical (correct for Bath, wrong for Mendip), c) about 10 elements (fine for Bath, almost certainly inadequate for Mendip where I live). I concluded suddenly getting SDN from Mendip that way could only have come about due to it being at its new high power on UHF 48 at Mendip.
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re jb38: thanks for your info about the COM muxes at Mendip. If SDN (UHF 48) is currently running on 70.7Kw at Mendip, that's still considerably higher than its much lower power on UHF 62 prior to 28 Sep 2011.
I've been led to believe that SDN (UHF 48), Arq A and Arq B will all be 100 KW at Mendip from 28 Mar 2012. It'll be interesting to see if my Panasonic DVD recorder can tune into any / all of those with borderline / adequate signal strength with the aerial setup where I live in Bath as of 28 March 2012.
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Sunday 28 August 2011 8:59AM
john phillips: Just be patient, your turn for Freeview Lite will come by the end of next year. As for giving away the digiboxes, why didn't you hang on to them and start using them again at the end of next year (that is, assuming they are compatible with post-DSO 8K mode)?