All posts by Mike Dimmick
Below are all of Mike Dimmick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Son in Law: The SDN multiplex, which carries ITV3, is at full power since last week's retune.
The prediction at SP8 4AD is much better than that at SP8 5PY, so I would expect something different in the receiving set-up.
C48 is in Group C/D, but only just. If the aerial is quite old it might not work very well down at that frequency - the groups were extended to squeeze in Channel 5 when it launched in 1997. It might be worth going wideband now, as there may be new services as far down as C33 (although this has not yet been finalized).
This frequency hasn't ever been used before at Mendip. If this is a residential block with a communal aerial - bird's eye view on Bing suggests it might be - it could be a channelised system and the system would require retuning to amplify this channel rather than the previous location. The levels might need to be recalibrated too, even if it isn't channelised.
The overall signal levels are substantially increased since last week, and that could push a system that was working into having too much signal. See Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice for more information. (SP8 4AD) (SP8 4AD)
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Mr. J Talboys: This can often happen if you use the 'automatic search' facility and the box has run out of permanent storage memory. Or, some boxes apparently don't overwrite the permanent locations with this facility.
At major retunes you are recommended to reset the box to a blank state, using the Factory Reset, Default Setting, 'Reinstall All Channels', Full Retune, First Time Installation or Virgin Mode options. Different equipment calls it different things. There are retune guides for some equipment, and full manuals for some others, at TV Re-tune .
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sam: If it's an oval-shaped mesh dish, it's probably set up for the digital satellite services targetted at the UK. If it's older than 2001, it could be aimed at the Astra 1 cluster of satellites that was used for analogue signals before 1998 (these were switched off in 2001).
If it is the right dish, you can just plug in a Freesat box and it should work.
A dish can always be moved to point at a different cluster, and some viewers - particularly in northern Scotland - were recommended to get larger dishes or fully circular ones, so this isn't a sure-fire test of being able to just plug in and go. You can adjust the dish yourself with the help of tools like UKSatelliteHelp.co.uk - Satellite Dish Alignment / Setup Calculator 2.0 , but you may need a meter for best results.
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Cavendish: Digital UK's postcode predictor gives you an excellent chance of getting a full service from the Belmont transmitter in north Lincolnshire. This transmits Yorkshire local news. The probability of reliable results from West Runton is shown as substantially lower and is expected to deteriorate after September 2012; it is your best option for BBC Look East and ITV1 Anglia, however.
You should actually be able to get four out of the six multiplexes from Belmont now; the other two are on low power to avoid interfering with services from Tacolneston. You would need a wideband aerial for all six once they power up, which happens after Tacolneston switches over.
Relay transmitters are usually directional, transmitting most of their power in one or two directions. Unfortunately, we don't know what the radiation pattern is. Given the distance between you and the transmitter, and the relatively high power level, I have to assume that there is quite a high restriction in your direction.
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John de Carteret: See Will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice for an explanation of why relay transmitters only carry some channels.
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Graham Booth: Lower quality values after DSO - assuming that it's a grade out of 10 - is often an indicator of too much signal. See Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice for more information.
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Looks like Channel 4 HD will be moving to Astra 1N when it gets into position:
News - SES.com
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Briantist: Sudbury has a retune on 16 November. To clear C50 for Tacolneston, ArqB moves to C63.
http://www.digitaluk.co.u….pdf
It will remain at 2,200 watts.
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Steve P: That information is out of date. It came from an Ofcom document (licensing section) that has been superseded and wasn't consistent with a different Ofcom document ('stakeholders' section). All sources now agree that ArqB has moved from C63 to C39, now that Emley Moor's early HD service is no longer in the way.
mycloud: Given you are practically on top of the Sheffield (Crosspool) transmitter, you probably do have too much signal. See Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .
Do be sure that you have done a full factory reset, exactly as you should have done at switchover; many boxes simply can't handle a multiplex moving to a different frequency using the 'add channels' function.
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Tuesday 4 October 2011 1:37PM
Brian: You presumably have a box that stores the first version of the channels that it finds. Due to the hot weather, the signals from distant transmitters have been coming through a lot more strongly and were - presumably - strong enough to be detected.
See Digital Region Overlap for tips on resolving this problem, although it may well go away if you retune once this spell has passed. For now, you may find the correct service somewhere else in the channel list, e.g. around 800.