All posts by Paul
Below are all of Paul's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Briantist: I don't know how you manage to keep on top of all these channel movements (temporary and permanent) on your website!
Mike Dimmick: Just out of curiosity what's stopping ArqA on Sandy Heath simply moving to C48 to remove the clash with Sutton Coldfield BBCB? Moving both ArqA and ArqB seems like a complicated way to go about it.
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Strange, I was going to ask the other day whether anyone knew when the switchover dates for the TTTV region would be announced as I used to live in Darlington. I think some people down there are a bit disappointed that they won't have full power freeview for the Olympics but we've known that would be the case for a long time now.
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Is the final DSO power level for ArqB only 20kW?? Why is it so much lower than the final power levels for the other muxes (180kW and 170kW?
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I can see one unfortunate issue with this. Many more people with grouped aerials will need to get a wideband aerial to receive all the muxes. There surely won't be that many of the main transmitters left that will transmit all 9 muxes within their old group. That could cause a headache for people who don't realise this.
The people who will be laughing are the ones who receive their TV from a group A transmitter (which continued to be a group A transmitter post-DSO). Fortunately, I am one of those people!
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I don't really know anything about the transmitters but is there capacity within the existing antennae and feeder cables to add an extra 3 high power muxes? I'd be surprised if there is unless this was considered prior to the modifications for DSO.
In other words, is this going to involve another analogue C5 style modification i.e. the installation of new antennae about 3/4 of the way up the mast which therefore provide less coverage?
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Fair point. I was forgetting that.
The old ITV VHF transmitter became the UHF transmitter here. The C5 antennae were installed fairly low down on the mast and transmitted at a lower power level (-7dB with respect to the other 4 analogue channels' power levels). This provided woeful, almost useless coverage. This set up was more of the exception rather than the rule though.
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Briantist: These DAB coverage maps are an impressive addition to the site.
I live in Aberdeen, well inside the D1 National coverage area surrounded by the thick line on the above map. I don't have a DAB radio however the Digital One postcode checker (http://www.ukdigitalradio.com/coverage/postcodesearch/) says that I cannot receive their DAB stations at my location.
I don't know how reliable this postcode checker is but I thought I'd point it out in case a few refinements to the coverage maps are required. It is difficult though considering all the variables that have an impact on the coverage area.
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I find it amusing that an advert for Sky HD appeared below this article!
I wonder if the 3rd party that delivers the ads scans the page for keywords!!
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Sunday 11 September 2011 6:03PM
Mike Dimmick: I had been scratching my head, wondering why they decided to carry out the switch over on two transmitters which each have high geographical and population coverage (Emley Moor and Sutton Coldfield) on the same day. Thanks for explaining. Even though it's pretty obvious, I didn't see the clashes that would've resulted otherwise.
It must have been a big drain on resources considering all the relays involved. Also, it must have been a nightmare for Digital UK's (normally unhelpful) call centre.