All posts by KMJ, Derby
Below are all of KMJ, Derby's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Peter Sunderland: Before you re-tuned, did you have good reception from Stockland Hill, or were you receiving signals from a different transmitter, such as Mendip? Are you using preferably a group A aerial for Stockland Hill? This would usually be identified by a red plastic stopper in the end of the boom. Whilst reception as you have described can be caused by trees growing in the signal path and selectively blocking random frequencies it is also the kind of results that may be seen when using a group C/D aerial which could have originally been intended for use on Mendip frequencies. Not surprisingly the use of a booster does not improve reception of a poor quality or non-exiatant signal!
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DavidB: Even though more efficient transmitting antennae have been designed, which limit the amount of signal wasted skywards there is no way (at least as yet) of changing the laws of physics. Notably it was the traditional night time reception via the ionosphere on medium wave (which was put to good use by Radio Luxembourg for their English service) that put a spanner in the works, so to speak, with the Digital Radio Mondiale trials that were made on BBC Radio Devon, as the transmissions from abroad caused so much interference after nightfall.
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Floyd: With the current weather conditions the poor quality reception being experienced could be the result of interference due to signals being present from out of area transmitters. Have a look periodically over the next few days to see if the quality improves as conditions change. It would be quite normal for good reception to come and go ramdomly on the available frequencies until the conditions return to normal.
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John: For regular reception in the UK of German TV channels you need a generic satellite receiver with the dish set on Astra 19.2E. If your query refered to reception on Freeview equipment via a normal TV aerial, the answer is normally NO, however over the past few days German TV and FM radio signals have been received in a number of locations due to the inversion effect.
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Carol: If you were able to receive BBC3 on an alternative frequency, you would have been able to receive all the standard definition BBC tv and radio channels which are carried along with BBC3 on the working multiplex. You might find it useful to note which alternative frequencies you are able to receive, then when your normal signal is blocked by interference, try the alternatives to see if they are also affected or continue to give service.
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John Spillett: The William Hepburn's tropospheric ducting forecast chart currently shows that ducting could be affecting South Wales and Southwest England, with Devon and the Bristol Channel areas showing as the most likely to have TV and VHF radio reception affected by out of area signals.
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conor: As long as ITV2/3/4 are on Freesat in SD, which they need to be for the forseeable future in order to satisfy viewers with SD boxes, the HD channels on satellite will be subscription services. After all, they would not gain any more viewers, just lose subscription revenue if the HD services became free-to-air. This is also the situation in Germany, where the commercial channels are available free-to-air in SD, but the HD services are encrypted. As in the UK the public service channels are available to all in both SD and HD. Sky and Virgin will offer whatever services they feel will be attractive to customers whilst also being profitable in the long term.
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Roger Bennett: HD transmissions are already available from Midhurst on C58 (Mux BBCB) This carries HD versions of BBC1, BBC2, ITV(Meridian) and C4. BBC3HD and CBBCHD are to be added in due course. You will need a receiver fitted with a DVB-T2 tuner to receive these services. Satellite offers a few additional free-to-air HD channels, however most HD services from commercial broadcasters are subscription services on the Sky platform.
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Gary: Does your TV have a DVB-T2 tuner? It is necessary to use such a tuner to receive Freeview HD transmissions. If the TV is marked "HD ready" this indicates that the screen will display an HD picture, when fed via an HDMI cable, from a suitable HD source, such as a blu-ray player, a Freeview HD box or HD satellite receiver. If the tuner is DVB-T2, try doing a manual tune to C54, remembering to select DVB-T2 if requested to make a choice.
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Wednesday 10 July 2013 8:34PM
Correction to above. Enter http:www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_eur.html