All posts by Mike Dimmick
Below are all of Mike Dimmick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
The list of FM transmitters carrying BBC Radio nan Gaidheal is at BBC - Help receiving TV and radio - Transmitters and you can find FM coverage maps at mb21 - Transmitter Information - VHF Analogue Radio Transmitters - BBC National Radio - again, main transmitters only. Power for the Gaelic service is often lower than for the BBC National Radio services, so the coverage areas will be smaller for some transmitters.
Do also note that the population is more sparsely distributed in these areas, so absence of coverage of land area may not indicate that there is any population that is not covered!
| link to this comment |
Nick: HD services start at switchover, apart from the few transmitters providing an early, temporary, HD service. These are large population centres where the HD signal could be crammed in, usually at lower power than the other multiplexes. The temporary service is replaced by the permanent service at switchover.
Early HD services are available from:
Lichfield, for Birmingham
Crystal Palace, for London
Black Hill, for Central Scotland
Pontop Pike, for Newcastle
Emley Moor, for Leeds
Winter Hill (for Manchester and the north-west) gained HD services at switchover, as have all transmitters which switched over from March 2010 onwards. Those that switched over before this were gradually upgraded between March and November last year.
No more early HD services are planned. HD services from Sudbury, and its relays, will start on 20 July, a little over a month away.
| link to this comment |
Ian: Channels can choose to be 'free-to-view', though, only requiring the one-off purchase of a viewing card ('Freesat from Sky'). Dave is a subscription-only channel on satellite, you must subscribe to the appropriate Sky channel package and keep paying every month to keep the channel.
Sky distribute a (small) proportion of subscription revenue to the channels in the package, and the cost of carriage in the EPG is believed to be lower. Sky may also have offered to 'help' the channel with transponder space or rental costs.
| link to this comment |
Speug: Brian went to a lot of effort to add those and is now being stubborn about removing them.
In short, they are wrong. They only ever appeared in an appendix to an Ofcom consultation about what to do with 'interleaved' spectrum, possible frequencies that could possibly made available, to cover a limited part of the transmitter's coverage area.
There has been no auction to licence these frequencies, and there is no date set for any auction. They might form part of the Culture Secretary's pet Local TV project, but that seems to be mired in disagreements over the scope. Even if local TV does get off the ground, it might not use the frequencies shown, as it may be better to use other frequencies for the job (for example, the Channel M multiplex in Manchester was actually allocated C56 where 'NEW7' was shown as C57).
To sum up, you're not missing anything now and you're not that likely to get anything in future.
| link to this comment |
Ann Tait: Is there only one aerial on the building, or is there an aerial for each flat?
Your mother's situation may be like mine, that there is one aerial, the aerial cable comes in to one flat and is then split via an active splitter between the TV in that flat, and a cable running to the other flat. (I rent a converted terrace.) If that's the case, ask the upstairs neighbour to check that the powered splitter is still plugged in, and that it's working.
Some powered splitter equipment automatically reverts to bypassing on the first socket if the power supply fails or is unplugged. If this equipment does this, the neighbour may still have excellent reception.
You're only 5km away from the transmitter and it's fairly powerful for a relay, so signal strengths could still be high enough to use a passive, unpowered splitter instead. They could be high enough to get a distinguishable, though not perfect, picture without the aerial.
If there is one aerial per flat, or the splitter is passive or a powered splitter is definitely working, check that all cables are properly connected and that the cable is making proper contact with the connector. If there is a separate aerial, ensure it is pointing in roughly the same direction as the other and that it appears to be intact.
| link to this comment |
steven wallace: At 20km from Winter Hill, with clear line of sight, too much signal is the most likely explanation. If there is a booster or amplifier, try removing it.
If that doesn't help, and this aerial was fitted by an installer, get them to come back and reduce signal levels, or otherwise do what's necessary to sort it out. If it was DIY, try adding an attenuator, and/or swap for a smaller aerial such as a log-periodic type, e.g. Online TV FM DAB Aerial sales .
| link to this comment |
Green Gordon: OFcom have a map of licensed DAB areas at Ofcom - Digital Radio Coverage Map (DAB Primary Protected Areas) .
| link to this comment |
Lisa: PSB, Public Service Broadcasting multiplexes. PSB1/BBC A carries all the BBC's SD channels, interactive services and radio stations. PSB3/BBC B/HD carries BBC One HD, BBC HD, ITV1 HD and Channel 4 HD.
PSB2/D3&4 carries ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5, and whatever else the ITV companies and Channel 4 decide to carry on their respective halves of the remaining capacity. At present that's ITV2, C4+1, More 4, E4, and ITV1 +1.
Digital UK's predictor shows you have a good chance of reliable reception on all six multiplexes from both Sudbury and from Crystal Palace after their respective switchovers are fully complete. You aren't expected to get reliable service from Sudbury COM5 and COM6 (Arqiva A and B) until the final channel change in June 2012.
| link to this comment |
Nick: Challenge is carried on Mux A/SDN. At switchover step 1, 6 July, this takes over the current main BBC multiplex's channel. It is due a power increase to double the current level, 14kW, but it's not clear whether this happens at step 1 or step 2 - Digital UK's predictor for Lisa's postcode shows the same (poor) prediction for 6 July as it does now, increasing to good at step 2 on 20 July.
| link to this comment |
Thursday 16 June 2011 1:29AM
Green Gordon: You can find a map of Scottish Gaelic speakers at File:ScotlandGaelicSpeakers2001.gif - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . The highest percentages are in north and west Scotland, particularly the Western Isles.
Radio nan Gaidheal is available on FM. It is also available on the Central Scotland regional DAB ensemble, and on a number of local ensembles, but it is not on the BBC National Radio ensemble. The ensembles have to be identical on all transmitters that carry them, and BBC National Radio (12B) is carried across the entire country, from Dover to Eitshal on Lewis.
The local ensembles:
Aberdeen, run by Switchdigital Scotland (UTV). Broadcasts from Durris, Meldrum and Mormond Hill.
Ayr, run by NOW Digital (Arqiva). Broadcasts from Darvel, Brown Carrick Hill and West Kilbride.
Perth & Dundee, run by Score Digital (Bauer). Broadcasts from Angus, Purin Hill, Kirkton Mailer, Faire Mhor, and possibly Kinross.
Inverness, run by Score Digital (Bauer). Broadcasts from Mount Eagle.
You can get an idea of the Freeview coverage from the *main* transmitters at mb21 - Transmitter Information - Analogue Television Map , though this is really an analogue TV map. It doesn't show the coverage of the relays, which - in the difficult terrain of north-west Scotland - are numerous.