All posts by Jack Luxon
Below are all of Jack Luxon's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Ken Campbell. Having studied Dave Lindsay's comments I thought I'd have a look at the Digital UK coverage checker using your postcode. Certainly you are only 1KM from the mast, but also the information is that you are likely to get 'Variable Reception' from the 'main' muxes, and the other muxes (COM 4,5 & 6) are not even rated. The information also states that the aerial group is AV. I always understood the 'V' to indicate polarisation, which in this cases implies Vertical, which is surprising as I always understood Vertical polarisation was only used by 'relay' stations. The information also refers to the Huntshaw Cross transmitter on a bearing of 192 degrees, but as you use an installer I would be reluctant to suggest you might see if you can pick up something from Huntshaw, not only as the aerial would need to be changed from Vertical to Horizontal and swung around to a different angle, but also the frequencies at Huntshaw are at the other end of the spectrum to those from Kilvey. Also the Huntshaw mast is only 538 ft high and Exmoor might be in the way. Have you asked your neighbours how they manage? You might find they are all with Sky or Freesat, very few terrestrial aerials can be seen using 'Streetview', I could only find one, it might be yours! You might like to use Sitefinder Mobile Phone Base Station Database
to see where your nearest mobile phone masts are, unfortunately it doesn't give information about 4G.
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I've just had another look at the Kilvey Hill details on Digital UK website, it only pumps out 2KW compared with 20Kw at Huntshaw Cross and 100Kw at Wenvoe and Mendip. In view of your neighbour's success with an indoor aerial I'm wondering if your problem may be with the co-ax cable from your aerial? Perhaps you might ask him if he would be prepared to plug his indoor aerial into your TV just to see what happens? Another thought: you say your problem is intermittent. Is there any possibility that rainwater is getting into the co-ax connection on your aerial? I once came across a case of the co-ax from an outside aerial insufficiently secured so that it was able to move around in the wind, this resulted in the co-ax wearing through where it was in contact with the edge of a roof tile allowing moisture penetration.
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Chris Stanford.
I have come across this website Sitefinder Mobile Phone Base Station Database
which indicates where mobile phone masts are located. Unfortunately it doesn't mention anything about 4G, probably because we don't have it around here. Can you please use the link at your location to discover if your 'new' 4G transmitter is mentioned and refers to 4G?
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As I no longer have to buy a TV licence I suppose I'm not qualified to answer, however having had a quick glance at a list of other European countries' licence costs I consider those of us who have to pay don't do too badly. Whether or not commercial TV can still work as well now that most people have some form of PVR may be of interest. I use two PVRs and record everything! This allows me to skip through adverts, which can't be good news for those paying to advertise, and also avoid party political broadcasts, seeing boring bits on the news such as any mention of football or footballers, etc etc.
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I enjoy watching these 'cops & robbers' documentaries where we see the Police breaking down doors in order to search premises which are often quite squalid but invariably contain a top of the range TV. Invariably the police find nothing. Perhaps just out of interest they might ask the occupant(s) to show their TV licence, which could be entertaining? I suspect having no TV licence is not considered a criminal offence, but if I was a policeman unable to find anything else I think I would enjoy the satisfaction of shopping someone without a licence.
Of course the dog may have ate it.
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Rob, I agree with Brian, sub-titles on BBC work fine for me but I'm not allowed to use them all the time as they irritate my wife. I suspect they don't work too well on a 'live' broadcast such as the news as they have to be created on the fly. I use headphones as well as sub-titles and found the titles very useful when watching 'The Wire' as most of the dialogue was unintelligible. At least the sub-titles come up in various colours to help one distinguish who is saying what, unlike Danish sub-titles (The Bridge, Borgen) which leave one guessing.
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Higher the channel number, fewer viewers? I don't think this is anything to do with the number of the channel. I suspect my viewing habits are not the same as others, however I only use an EPG to set up recordings. I record everything we want to watch, but that's another matter. When selecting programmes to watch I, probably in common with others, read the information provided in the Daily Mail free weekly guide, similar to Radio Times, but infinitely cheaper. It just so happens that very little of each day's programmes from the obscure (higher numbered) channels have much of description of what the programmes are about due to lack of available space hence one invariably chooses to watch (or avoid) programmes where there is a reasonably comprehensive description of what one might be letting oneself in for. If the Radio Times or Daily Mail guide could be persuaded to use more space letting potential viewers know what will be coming up with the higher numbered channels then probably more viewers would have a go with at watching something they would otherwise miss. Lets face it the paper guides use most of the space describing the usual guff from the main channels which is somewhat of a waste as we all know what's coming up anyway. It might also be worth considering 'habit', I ask my sister-in-law why she always watches Coronation St? Answer, " Because I always watch Coronation St." One thing I would like to see, which doesn't come up on EPG, for any programme, or paper guides for BBC4 programmes, is whether a programme is a repeat.
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Brian,
many thanks for the link. Not sure how you got into it as my attempts to do the same resulted in the schedule but without the 'R' indication, BBC iPlayer - Channel Schedule - BBC Four - Wednesday 22 October 2014 I've no idea how iPlayer got into the address, but never mind, the link you provided will suffice, I've changed the date in the address bar, bookmarked the page and can now select advance dates with no problem. When I get the week's Daily Mail guide I will be able to pencil in an 'R' where appropriate. This will save my wife and I from discussing, while watching a BBC4 programme, on the lines of " I'm sure we've seen this before".
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J
The next 50 things on UK FREE TV. What would you like to see?Thursday 23 October 2014 5:18PM
Weston-super-mare
Comment
1) why do we still use remote controls? I'm tempted to ask what's the alternative? I believe there is equipment that responds to voice commands, but is this worth the added expense.
2)Why do we watch so much when it is broadcast? Surely this must be old hat now we have PVRs enabling us to record everything and then skip through adverts, party political broadcasts, news of Shrien Dewani etc etc.
3) Solid State drives? I believe these have a limited life, and bearing in mind anything being broadcast is recorded to enable pause etc reducing it's life, would there be any benefit? SSDs are much faster but is speed an issue here? I guess my Sony PVR might not take so long to start up if it had a n SSD, but at least it usually starts, eventually.
Not listed. Might it be possible to describe the advantage(s) of having a TV with a curved screen?
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Sunday 15 September 2013 7:17AM
John Jillions: Your post brings back memories. I used to live in Pembroke from 1967-1971 (army service) obviously before the days of digital. Our nearest BBC2 transmitter was at Swansea. Hoping to find it I bought a double 18 element aerial, no luck however I was able to pick up BBC2 from Caradon Hill in Cornwall sometimes. Reception depended on weather conditions and also the state of the tide. I seem to recall that if it was foggy and the tide was high monochrome reception was just about watchable. If not we had to make do with BBC1 and ITV 405 line with some programmes in a strange language and no sub-titles.