All posts by Mike Dimmick
Below are all of Mike Dimmick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
ginny: I think Briantist may mean Section 274, "Securing reception of must-provide services in certain areas". Communications Act 2003 . As ever, legislation is hard to read but to me it implies that the council must make *some* arrangement to provide all the BBC services, ITV1, C4 and C5, free of charge.
There are some suggestions for tenants at PARAS - Professional Aerial Riggers Against The Sharks .
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dave: It looks like this box is a rebadged Vestel T845. There should be a sticker somewhere on the back or underneath that says T845.
Unofficial Vestel PVR Information (UK) - T845 Top Up TV
You should be able to use the instructions for any T845-based box. See http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/usermanualsdatabank/_imports/manuals/Luxor%20PVR%20Re-tune%20Guide%201.pdf
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Bob: It's probably because this is the first time you've retuned since the BBC services at Ridge Hill went high-power, and moved to a much lower channel. I'm afraid a lot of boxes store the first version of the channel that they find, rather than the best version. Signals are now loud enough from Ridge Hill to be decodable, but not usable.
The problems are likely to increase next week when the other multiplexes at Ridge Hill go to high power. The predictions are actually reasonably good for service from Ridge Hill *if* you have the right aerial, oriented the right way. As it is you're clearly getting just barely decodable results.
Rotating the aerial slightly away from Ridge Hill may help, but it's then reasonably likely to pick up The Wrekin instead. This is on a lower frequency even than Ridge Hill.
(The angles are Ridge Hill at 210°, Brierley Hill at 228°, The Wrekin at 300°.)
All we can really suggest is deleting all channels and manually tuning the frequencies you want. See the Brierley Hill page for details. Another approach is to unplug the aerial connection before starting a scan, and only plug in once it gets past half-way.
The only permanent solutions are to replace the box with one that stores the best quality signals, or for the communal system to filter out the unwanted transmissions.
Some advice for tenants can be found at PARAS - Professional Aerial Riggers Against The Sharks
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KMJ,Derby: I assume you can see the Waltham transmitter? Can you check that it is actually running at 8 kW (i.e. similar signal strength to Mux A and B) and they haven't set it to post-switchover power level?
There was a report that pre-switchover HD services weren't working at Crystal Palace, which also use C31.
The interference level should have gone *down* on C31 because Nottingham C4 and Sandy Heath BBC One are no longer using the channel. Sandy Heath SDN has a pending move to C31 but that's supposed to happen at the end of August when Waltham stops using it. It feels like there's a cock-up somewhere.
The slight increase in frequency means that the received signal level would be slightly lower, but only around 1 dB. Aerials usually have more gain at C31 than at C23, at least 0.5 dB more. Most installations would have more headroom than this, and I'd expect people to be having problems with Mux C and D before and after these changes.
I'm not sure how to report the problem. Perhaps contact the BBC, or ITV's duty office? Broadcaster complaints details | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
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Roydonian, A Decore: These channels are carried on the ArqB multiplex. This is using the channel that Multiplex B used before switchover, so if you had problems with that (BBC Four, CBeebies, BBC radio stations, Sky Sports 1 & 2) last month, it's not surprising you're having trouble with ArqB now. In addition, ArqB requires about twice as much power to work as Mux B used to, so if Mux B was marginal, ArqB is likely to not work.
If you provide a full postcode we can see if this temporary location is expected to work for you, and therefore you have a problem with your installation, or if it's just not practical to receive it at the moment.
The multiplex can't move to its final location, C48, as that's being used by low-power digital services at Sudbury until mid-July, Belmont until mid-August and a number of Sutton Coldfield's relays for BBC Two until 7 September.
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The signal strengths have got a bit muddled up here. Rosneath has both HP and VP components, in different directions. Rosneath HP wasn't actually documented previously.
VP signals are currently 10 kW for analogue, 200W for digital. HP is 0.8W for digital. After switchover all VP multiplexes will be 2 kW, all HP multiplexes will be 8W. All six multiplexes will be broadcast on both VP and HP.
Source for current HP digital power: http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/transmitternetwork/tools__and__resources/almanac/installer_newsletters_transmitter_groups2009_pdfs/Darvel_and_Roseneath_1_MO_final.pdf
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Briantist: Digital UK have published the installer newsletter for Darvel and Rosneath at http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/transmitternetwork/tools__and__resources/almanac/installer_newsletters_transmitter_groups2009_pdfs/Darvel_and_Roseneath_1_MO_final.pdf
It notes that temporary channels will be used for Girvan, Troon, Claonaig and Catrine BBC A between DSO 1 and DSO 2. These channels have all been allocated C61 or C62 in Ofcom's latest documents. No indication of the new channel in the ALmanac document though.
DUK's postcode checker shows C50 for Girvan, Claonaig and Catrine and C49 for Troon.
Rosneath will start up on C61 at DSO 1. No indication of channel changes yet.
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trudy: There was engineering work at the Brierley Hill transmitter on Tuesday and Wednesday. It's supposed to be finished but may have overrun.
You might need to retune again, because the recommended procedure is to delete all the channels, so the box now doesn't know where anything is.
The works were supposed to be finishing at 6pm so perhap try retuning this evening?
Otherwise go to BBC - Reception problems and report the problem.
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Mat W: If you're using a communal aerial, your building management may need to get the system reconfigured to take account of Mux A moving two weeks ago (carries 5* and 5 USA among others) and Mux 2 moving yesterday (carries ITV1, ITV2, C4, C5). These multiplexes have changed channels.
They will also need to take account of the many other moves going on at Waltham both before, on, and after the published 'switchover' dates.
The list of dates, and reasons, are at
http://www.digitaluk.co.u….pdf
There are suggestions for users of communal systems at PARAS - Professional Aerial Riggers Against The Sharks .
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Wednesday 13 April 2011 6:25PM
Eric: Is the one that's working connected to a longer run of cable from the aerial than the one that isn't?
If so, you probably have slightly too much signal. Try adding an attenuator to the TV that isn't working. Or, if you have a separate amplifier rather than an amplified splitter, try disconnecting that.