All posts by Richard Sutton
Below are all of Richard Sutton's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Thanks Chris.
I do have an inline connector so will try the tests you have mentioned and report back
tomorrow.
Richard
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I've not yet done the further tests or made any changes, Chris, but today's update is that the wind has now dropped completely and C25 is back to its full glory of Strength 100%, Quality 90% and ITV 4 is therefore fully restored.
C29, the alternative ITV1 mux, is now at Strength 100%, Quality 30% which is where it normally is unless the wind is blowing. At this Quality level it is unwatchable as is usually the case.
C24, which I'm not so bothered about, is now at Strength 90%, as usual, but Quality is absolutely zero and does not register at all even when watching it for 30 minutes.
My tentative conclusion is that the very tall conifer a 100m from my house, when stationary because there is no wind, totally blocks C24 such that absolutely no signal is received by my aerial which is a high gain one on a high pole above my chimney stack. When the tree is swaying, some signal on C24 manages to get past it although, on average, it is always unwatchable.
When the tree is stationary, C25 is received satisfactorily but when it is swaying in the breeze it blocks the C25 signal intermittently such that the average signal is unwatchable and worse than its alternate, C29.
However, the converse is true with C29. When the tree is stable the C29 signal is blocked such that it is unwatchable but when the tree is swaying then the average signal strength goes up such that C29 actually becomes more watchable than C25.
The above does suggest that the actually channel transmitters on the Ridge Hill antenna are physically located in different places on the structure and that their positions/heights relative to the line of sight of the tree are causing the differences. Either that or it is something more complex related to different frequencies, albeit ones that are very close together, being affected very differently by either still or swaying branches and leaves.
Does any of this make any sense?
Richard
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Graham Seward:
Thanks Graham. In that case, I'll stop worrying about C29.
I've just checked again as there's still no wind and C24, which I should receive, is still zero quality and C25, which I need is now down to 60% quality but still watchable.
I've had these problems ever since I bought this house. I've tried different aerials and tried Sutton Coldfield but it has always been impossible to receive the all channels I'm supposed to receive.
I visited a TV retailer in 1998 which was in the Evesham town centre to buy a TV when we moved here in 1998 and all the display TV's were showing DVD content. There was a sign above the TVs which said something like "None of our TVs are able to show live TV content as there is no TV signal in this area". At the time I thought this must be nonsense, but 25 years of experience have shown me otherwise.
Richard
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I will do the tests you have suggested over the weekend, Chris.
I don't really know what the significance is, if any, but on my LG TV the listing which appears below the signal test graphic still says:
555 Accessible TV Guide
800 ITV1
802 ITVBe
803 E4+1
Richard
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No problem Chris. I would normally take a photo and post it on here but I can't see any way to do that. Anyway, here is the full info:
UHF Ch29 (538000 kHz)
Transmitter ONID TSID Network ID
Gloucestershire 0x233a 0x201d 0x3038
Code Rate Guard Interval Constellation FFT Mode
2/3 1/32 MODULATION_QPSK 8K
Frequency (kHZ) System Bandwidth
538000 DVBT 8 MHz
555 Accessible TV Guide: Service Type : 0xc (Data/Others), Service ID : 0x2199
800 ITV1 : Service Type : 0x1 (DTV), Service ID : 0x204c
802 ITVBe : Service Type : 0x1 (DTV), Service ID : 0x2094
803 E4+1 : Service Type : 0x1 (DTV), Service ID : 0x210a
I hope this is helpful.
Richard
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Oh dear. All my careful column spacing using the space bar (the tab key doesn't work) have come to nought. I've no idea why the forum software deletes all the space but hope you can still read it.
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I'd not tried that but your are right, Chris, 800 is showing ITV1 perfectly at the moment but 802 and 803 both say "Invalid Service" with no picture.
I'll do the blank rescan and the other tests tomorrow.
Richard
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Scan results between 17.00 and 18.00 Sunday 23rd April 2023.
First I performed a full scan with the aerial unplugged which resulted in no channels being received or stored.
This is then the first manual scan with no boosters in place:
C21: Strength 70%, Quality 100%
C22: Strength 66%, Quality 100%
C24: Strength 9%, Quality 0%
C25: Strength 38%, Quality 90%
C27: Strength 58%, Quality 100%
C28: Strength 90%, Quality 100%
C29: Strength 82%, Quality 70% (Appears to carry 800 ITV1, 801 ITVBe but Invalid Service, 802 E4+1 but Invalid Service, 803 Accessible TV Guide also Invalid Service)
The second scan with only the loft booster in place:
C21: Strength 96%, Quality 100%
C22: Strength 95%, Quality 100%
C24: Strength 58%, Quality 5%
C25: Strength 90%, Quality 100%
C27: Strength 94%, Quality 100%
C28: Strength 98%, Quality 100%
C29: Strength 97%, Quality 65%
The third scan with both the loft booster and the lounge booster in place:
C21: Strength 100%, Quality 100%
C22: Strength 100%, Quality 100%
C24: Strength 95%, Quality 0%
C25: Strength 100%, Quality 100%
C27: Strength 100%, Quality 100%
C28: Strength 100%, Quality 100%
C29: Strength 100%, Quality 60%
The conclusion I would draw from this is that the four strong signals, C21, C22, C27 and C28, have 100% quality without any booster at all. However, signal strength increases from around 70% with no booster to around 95% with just the loft booster and to 100% with both boosters. For these four channels I could omit the lounge booster as it is of limited impact.
C24 is, as of this evening, not receivable at all with or without any boosters. The signal is so poor that no programmes can be saved to the TV's memory on C24. Oddly, whilst the signal strength for C24 increases from 9% to 58% to 95% as each of the boosters is used, the signal quality goes from 0% to 5% with one booster but drops down to 0% again with two boosters but this might be within the limits of measurement. Either way, C24 is completely useless.
C25 is, as of the evening, working really well. Signal strength goes up with each booster, 38%, 90% and 100% and quality goes from 90% without any boosters to 100% with one or two boosters. C25 is the channel which carries ITV4 and which started this series of posts because of its very poor signal, and yet, as of tonight, I could omit the lounge booster and C25 will still be fine.
C29 can be disregarded as, for this evening at least, C25 is better whatever boosters are used.
My feeling is that whatever it is that is stopping me receiving C24 at all is also affecting C25 but in a much less severe way. I have no idea why I can't receive C24 from Ridge Hill at all but, if I knew the answer to that, I think I would understand why C25 is so variable from day to day but I would welcome your opinion Chris.
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Thursday 20 April 2023 11:57AM
Having spent a couple of hours changing cables and sockets and unplugging all devices which are not currently in use, none of which made any difference at all to reception on C24 and C25, I now suspect that the problem is caused by the high winds over the last few days and the trees between our house and the Ridge Hill antenna.
Is it possible that trees/leaves swaying in the wind could affect C24 and C25 so badly but not affect any of the other channels?
Richard