All posts by Mike Dimmick
Below are all of Mike Dimmick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Michael R: I'm not certain, but you should be OK to keep using the existing viewing card. As far as I'm aware the card isn't actually paired with the box, instead the box's functionality is enabled by the card.
Sky do have the ability to disable recording and time-shifting on a box, if you stop paying the subscription, so it's worth checking first. You should be able to test recording by only connecting up the existing single feed, before installing a second feed. This only comes into play if you're recording from a different transponder than you're watching, or recording two channels on different transponders.
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Alan Bailey: Check that the cable insulation is sound, and all outdoor boxes are weather-proofed. Water penetrating into cable reduces the amount of signal that reaches the end, and this is worse at high frequencies than low ones. ITV1, C4 and C5 are on the highest frequency used in the UK.
Cables should not be able to move over bricks or tiles - this rubs through the insulation. The insulation also gets damaged over time by UV light exposure - plan to replace outside cables after ten years.
So far only the BBC services are on final power levels; the other multiplexes will reach final power when the remaining analogue services are turned off on the 28th. You will need to do a full retune to get all services back.
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Ryan: You're about equidistant from Sutton Coldfield and Emley Moor. Before switchover, these transmitters used each other's analogue channels for digital, so you were stuck with interference from either.
When switchover completes tomorrow morning, the problem goes away as each transmitter adopts its former analogue channels for digital services. Signal strength is expected to be very good. If you've been using a booster, remove it. See Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .
Your box might have decided to tune in the Ambergate relay as this is on lower frequencies than Sutton Coldfield. Check whether there is a more reliable version of BBC One elsewhere in the channel list, usually around 800. If so, see Digital Region Overlap.
Ambergate would provide East Midlands news, but it uses vertical polarization, is low power, and power is aimed more to the south-east of the transmitter than the north-east, though the restriction in your direction isn't that large. Digital UK's predictor gives a better chance of reliable reception from Sutton Coldfield, even with the right aerial pointing the right way.
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Super Saint: You will always get best results from whatever transmitter the aerial points to. If she's already receiving Tyne Tees programmes, the easiest thing to do is follow the Tyne Tees schedule.
If she would *like* to get 'Yorkshire' news, you could try getting a new aerial pointed at Emley Moor, but there may be a good reason why the old one was pointed at Bilsdale.
If the aerial appears to be pointing at Emley Moor, she may have a box that stores the first version found, rather than the best quality. See Digital Region Overlap for information on how to get around that.
If it does point to Bilsdale, it might be possible to get Yorkshire if you retune, but it will always be less reliable than if the aerial was pointing the right way, and was the right type.
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Scott: Only the first stage of switchover has completed at Oxford - the BBC channels moving to occupy the space left by C4 analogue (which has moved temporarily to occupy BBC Two's old analogue channel). The remaining analogue services are switched off on the morning of the 28th of September, to be replaced by high-power digital services.
Your prediction is excellent, so I would recommend checking for over-long cables, damaged outdoor cables, and weather-proofing, to ensure that as much as much signal as possible that is arriving at the aerial makes it to the box.
An excellent prediction can turn into too much signal if you have a booster. If you do, try it without.
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Briantist: For the relay times, it looks like you've used the times from Stage 1. The stage 2 times are:
By 6am EMLEY MOOR, Blackburn in Rotherham, Conisbrough, Cornholme, Edale, Elland, Heyshaw, Idle, Keighley, Millhouse Green, Wheatley
By 7.30am Beecroft Hill
By 9am Batley, Cop Hill, Copley, Grassington, Hagg Wood, Halifax, Headingley, Hebden Bridge, Keighley Town, Lydgate, Primrose Hill, Skipton, Stocksbridge, Sutton in Craven, Wharfedale
By 12 noon Armitage Bridge, Bradford West, Calver Peak, Cleckheaton, Cowling, Cullingworth, Holmfirth, Hope, Kettlewell, Luddenden, Oughtibridge, Ripponden, Shatton Edge, Skipton Town, Tideswell Moor, Todmorden, Wincobank
By 1pm Walsden
By 3pm Addingham, Cragg Vale, Holmfield, Longwood Edge, Oxenhope
By 4pm Walsden South
By 6am SUTTON COLDFIELD, Brierley Hill, Earl Sterndale, Kenilworth, Malvern, Queslett
By 9am Brailes, Bridgnorth, Cheadle, Edgbaston, Haden Hill, Hamstead, Kidderminster, Leamington Spa, Leek, Redditch, Tenbury Wells, Winchcombe, Winshill, Woodford Halse
By 12 noon Allesley Park, Bretch Hill, Gib Heath, Harborne, Ipstones Edge, Ironbridge, Kinver, Long Compton, Oakamoor, Perry Beeches, Rugeley, Turves Green, Whittingslow
By 3pm Gravelly Hill, Hartington, Repton
Seems odd that they would do things in a different order at Stage 2 compared to Stage 1, but that's what it says.
I suspect Walsden South is 4pm because it depends on Walsden, which depends on Todmorden, which has a retune on BBC A. Todmorden depends on Cornholme, which also has a BBC A retune. Nice big chain there!
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Edgbaston isn't auto-linking - it should point to Edgbaston digital switchover date | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .
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Richard James: You can't broadcast a message if you're not broadcasting the picture. The thing has to be OFF to change connections. The cables carry pretty high power levels.
Digital UK announced the works at
Digital UK - Planned Engineering Works , which is the extent to which anything is announced nowadays. Digital UK is primarily the broadcasters working together, so the news services essentially *had* the information, they just didn't bother to tell you.
The information suffixed by [BBC] comes from that BBC Reception Test page, and it reports *faults*. If the fault was caused by DSO work it says (DSO related) after the description of the fault. Any advance notices scraped from Digital UK's website are marked [DUK]. Both may be posted in the same message. 'Transmitter Engineering' is a completely automated service that scrapes these two websites and posts the results here for posterity.
It could be a bit smarter about detecting the words 'today', 'yesterday' and a date, and figuring out that nothing has actually changed.
The BBC fault system is based on both monitoring and on reports from viewers; at smaller sites, there is no direct monitoring.
JK: You don't need to retune - no configuration is being changed, I believe they are simply installing and testing the new transmitter equipment at ground level.
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Michael Murphy: See Will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .
If you can get a service from Whitehawk Hill now, it's pretty likely that you will continue to be able to after switchover. It should even be more reliable. Whitehawk Hill will get, relatively speaking, an increase in coverage over analogue - at most other main sites, digital power levels will be one-fifth of analogue to provide equivalent coverage, Whitehawk Hill's power level will be TWO-fifths.
There are occasionally some spots where a relay has been allocated the same channels as a main transmitter's commercial multiplexes. Bexhill and Rye will clash with some of Whitehawk Hill's commercial muxes, although Bexhill will be horizontally-polarized where Whitehawk is vertical.
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Tuesday 20 September 2011 2:46PM
russ: It'll be down to the length of cable from aerial to each tuner (card) and the amount of electrical noise picked up. I would expect the noise level within a PC to be quite a bit higher than inside a regular box. The longer the cable, the more signal is lost, and more signal is lost at higher frequencies than lower ones.
Don't forget to retune tomorrow - Fenton is slated to be complete by 6am.