All posts by KMJ, Derby
Below are all of KMJ, Derby's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
ads: BBC engineering information reports that the Cane Hill transmitter returned to service at 9.56am yesterday, 17th December 2013.
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Trevor: I well remember the Light programme carried The Archers, also Listen with Mother and Woman's Hour which later transfered to the Home service. Before Waggonners Walk was introduced on Radio 2 there was a serial called The Dales, formerly Mrs Dale's Diary. In the evening at 7pm on the Light programme there was Radio Newsreal, the start of which triggered a quick tuning in of Radio Luxembourg for some decent music!
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Alan: The BBC status report for Chartham shows Freeview restored at 11.47am yesterday (24th December 2013) and DAB restored at 6.45pm. Check that the services are still stored in your respective tuners, as sometimes they are lost during re-tunes which are prompted automatically by certain receivers upon detecting "no signal" or carried out erroneously by viewers/listeners in an attempt to restore reception.
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Derek Carpenter: The purpose of COM7 (and COM8, if it materialises) is to encourage viewers to purchase receiving equipment that supports DVB-T2 and where necessary, a new aerial suitable for reception of group "A" frequencies in readiness for a planned change in about 2018 to the arrangements for transmitting the existing COM muxes. This involves using C22, C25 and C28 running as SFNs for the COM muxes which would be required to use DVB-T2 to achieve this. Transmitters which use frequencies above C48 for the PSB muxes would then be allocated new frequencies (often in group B ) so that the C49 to C60 section of the UHF spectrum can be sold off for 4G/5G. Beacon Hill would therefore become a group K transmitter. Stockland Hill could still use C33 as SFN with Beacon Hill in the (unlikely) event that COM 7 is extended to other sites.
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gtibb: There is only room for five HD channels on a single DVB-T2 multiplex at present, so even allowing for BBC Parliament remaining in SD (which would seem sensible as a cost saver) the capacity would have to increase somewhat to fit in 10 radio stations plus red button HD alongside all the other BBC HD channels. It will be interesting to see if PSB3 continues to carry BBC1&2 HD plus ITVHD and Channel 4HD. This would actually be more sensible as there would then be one multiplex for regional content, allowing PSB1 to be a national service on fewer frequencies than at present, also only one multiplex (PSB3) would then need to be transmitted from regional correction stations. It is possible, however, that only the COM muxes will switch to DVB-T2 in 2018 since if the level of DVB-only equipment remains too high at that time Ofcom is likely to require PSB1 and PSB2 to continue in SD as at present until some later date in order to maintain a service to viewers with older equipment.
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Steve Mak: At your location using the Freeview light mast is pointless as both Waltham and Sutton Coldfield offer stronger signals and the full Freeview service. It is intended to serve a small corner of South Leicester that (possibly) is screened by tall buildings or suffers from reflections to the signals arriving from the main transmitters. It is likely that there are relatively few viewers who actually use that transmitter.
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D Grist: Do you still have BBC1 &2 and ITV in the channel list? Or do they now appear in the 800s as working channels? The Tunbridge Wells transmitter was off the air for a short time yesterday, it is possible that if a re-tune was carried out ( automatically prompted upon losing signal with some receivers) the services were either lost from the channel list or alternative frequencies were stored, which might deliver signals below the threshold for reliable reception. Try selecting the manual tune option, if available and insert C52. If good signal strength and quality are showing this will confirm that the correct signal is available to your receiver, so this should be selected and stored. Repeat for C49 for ITV.
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MikeP: Time flies! DTT was on air for 10 years prior to the start of DSO. Regarding satellite, the BSB squarial lasted from 1989 to 1991. as Sky merged with BSB in 1990.
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Wednesday 18 December 2013 2:18PM
KEVIN GARDINER: The suggested plan for 2018 is for the COM muxes to run as SFNs on C22, C25, C28 using DVB-T2. Some services on each mux might be HD, but others could opt to remain SD in order to fit in more services and save on transmission costs. PSB1 and PSB2 might, depending on the proportion of viewers still using DVB-T only receivers, continue in SD as at present but in some areas they would be allocated frequencies vacated by the COM muxes where this is necessary in order to clear C49 to C60.