All posts by Mike Dimmick
Below are all of Mike Dimmick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Andrew P: Haslemere is a relay of Midhurst, rebroadcasting the signals it receives from Midhurst, so there is no advantage at all in having aerials pointing to both. The predicted coverage from Midhurst is excellent, with 99-100% of the locations in your grid square expected to get reliable results - this is actually better than Haslemere, which is expected to get worse next week after Crystal Palace goes full power on the same channels.
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Iderown: The map I pointed to suggests that the NIMM will cover Bangor. For the full range of UK services you will need to point the aerial to Divis. If you already get a good Channel 5 analogue service from Black Mountain, you're probably good for the NIMM.
We don't yet know which channel will be used, unfortunately, so you may have to gamble on wideband.
If you're the same Iderown on Boards.ie, you should be good to stick with your Group C/D on Clermont Carn. Saorview from there will be 160kW digital after analogue switch-off, which is approximately equivalent to 800kW analogue using the scaling factors that the UK uses to set the digital power level. The current analogue output at Clermont Carn is 250kW. Saorview signals are currently restricted to the north, that restriction is lifted on 24 October. It will replace RT One on C52, so if you have good reception of that already, you'll probably get good results from Saorview directly.
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Pauline: Do you mean Sky, through a satellite dish, or Freeview, through an aerial? When selecting BBC One, do you just press button 1 (which would be Freeview) or 101 (Sky, Freesat or cable)?
In either case the most likely explanation is a broken or disconnected cable, or a misaligned dish (for Sky) or aerial (for Freeview).
Sometimes the Sky box does need resetting: see What can I do when my Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice for how to do this.
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Cyril: I happened to notice about a week ago that they had moved to a different frequency. Sky boxes will automatically pick up the frequency change. Freesat boxes *should* pick up the change automatically, but a few need to be told to retune (complain to the manufacturer, auto-retuning is part of the specification). On some boxes, simply putting the box in standby and then powering back up is sufficient. On others, there is a retune menu option - check the box's manual.
If you're using a free-to-air box that isn't Freesat-branded, the new settings to enter are:
Frequency: 11680.77 MHz
Polarization: V
Symbol Rate: 27500 Mbaud
FEC: 2/3
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Tony: This site and all other documentation works on UHF channel numbers rather than frequencies. To convert from frequency in kHz to channel number, subtract 306000 and divide by 8000. Then round up or down to the nearest whole number - if you have to round up write a '-' after the channel number, if down, write a '+'.
Your list:
474000 = C21 = Reigate Mux 2
490000 = C23 = CP BBC A
498000 = C24 = Reigate Mux A
538000 = C29 = CP Mux D
578000 = C34 = CP Mux C
My guess is that you have a box with the naive tuning algorithm: just storing the first version of the channels found when scanning from lowest to highest frequencies. The list above is the lowest frequency that each service uses. (You omitted Mux B but most services now live on BBC A.)
If this is the case, after the second stage retune on Wednesday you're likely to get the commercial muxes from Reigate - but perhaps not reliably - and the PSBs from Crystal Palace.
See Digital Region Overlap for thoughts on how to fix this.
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tina: Poor analogue reception, as well as loss of digital channels, would suggest that the signal levels are too low. When this happens suddenly, it's usually because something has become disconnected, misaligned or broken. Check that the aerial is still in place and pointing the right way, that all elements are still in place, and that the aerial cable is still connected and intact.
The other cause of reception problems is increased interference from other transmitters, which changes with weather conditions. However, no such conditions are predicted for this week, nor were predicted for last week (see Tropospheric Ducting Forecast for VHF & UHF Radio & TV ).
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Alan: They have been available since 22 February throughout Hannington's former analogue coverage area (no aerial restrictions).
An 'HD Ready' TV isn't sufficient. See What does "Full HD Ready" actually mean? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice . I'm aware that there are some SD Freeview boxes that have an HDMI output - all they do is upscale the content. Check for the Freeview HD logo.
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JohnM: ITV plc have recently obtained broadcast licences for ITV1+1 West (terrestrial and satellite/cable), so hopefully this indicates they will be launching soon.
Each +1 service requires time-shifting equipment, capacity on satellite, and monitoring to ensure that any content that isn't licensed for timeshifting or can't be timeshifted for legal reasons (for example, the roulette games on The Zone overnight) are blacked out. If something happened in a live event that would cause compliance problems (e.g. a guest swearing) they would want to be able to block that.
The six original +1 regions were chosen to match advertising 'macroregion' boundaries. The limit was six because that's all they could fit on satellite at the time. Now that Astra 1N is in service, there's space for 10, one for all legacy English regions, except for Border which will still get the Granada service. Those regions that still have sub-regional news services, e.g. Meridian South vs Meridian South-East, will still have half the region getting the 'wrong' service.
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Amy: It's on the 'Split NIT' list at http://www.digitaluk.co.u….pdf . This states that some of the channels are stored in the 800s rather than at their proper channel numbers. It suggests emailing Thomson.Retail.STB.UK@technicolor.com for support.
To be honest, though, I'd suggest getting a new box. You should consider getting a Freeview HD box now, even if you don't have an HD TV, as future services are likely to use the newer technology - it may even be a requirement for the future of the services we already have.
Thomson/Technicolor have essentially pulled out of the UK set-top box market, so they may not offer that much help.
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Friday 13 April 2012 1:48PM
Alan: Check whether you have BBC Points West news on BBC One, or whether you're getting Wales.
If you're getting Wales, your box is probably one of those that stores the first version of the channels that it finds, rather than the best version, and therefore it may have stored the Pick TV service from Wales, which is predicted to be poor. See Digital Region Overlap for thoughts on how to fix this.
You could alternatively be getting the BBC Spotlight (south-west) news service from Stockland Hill. Though the prediction is better than for Wenvoe if the aerial is aimed that way, the signal strength of Wenvoe is more likely to be better if the aerial points to Mendip. Much the same applies.
If the BBC service is the West service, it's probable that you now have too much signal.