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All posts by Chris.SE

Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.


David C Warner:

There are (to the best of my knowledge) NO plans for COM7 to go off-air in November. The updated licence runs until June 2022 with the proviso that when the 700MHz auction has taken place, IF any MNOs have bought the centre gap frequencies which are allocated for SDL (Supplemental Down Link), they may give 3 months notice to Arqiva that they want to use them.
The situation is essentially as I posted here Rebuilding Freeview High Definition from 2019 onwards | free and easy

I don't know who is spreading such rumours, I note there is some misleading information published on this site in various places. OFCOM have announced that bidding in the auction will start sometime in January 2021.
The 700MHz spectrum is being auctioned in 6 lots of 2x5MHz blocks with a reserve price of 100m per lot for the FDD (Frequency Division Duplexing) paired spectrum portions, and 4 lots of 5Mhz in the SDL(Supplemental DownLink) portion with a reserve price of 1m per lot. I think those reserve prices suggest the SDL portion is not likely to get the same amount of "interest" from MNOs as the FDD lots!

AFAIK base station equipment to use SDL in the 700MHz band would need to be developed (and installed) and similarly handsets needing to be developed and marketed. IMHO the earliest that this might be available could be mid-2021, but I suspect it will be later (IF anyone buys it!).


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Mike:

It might be more helpful if you were quite specific about WHICH channels that you had no signals for! AND provided a full postcode so that we can check the predicted reception for you location.
That said, Freshwater in general should have no problems receiving signals from Midhurst under normal circumstances.

There had been a lot of quite strong "Tropospheric Ducting" around causing interference, see Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | RTIS for a simplistic explanation. It can be quite variable, come and go within seconds, minutes or hours. It has been particularly strong recently which can wipe out your reception.

If you happened to retune when you had no signal or it was badly pixellated, all it may have done is just clear correct tuning and may have tuned to other weaker transmitters maybe Hannington or Haslemere. The advice is NOT to retune in these conditions as you then have to repeat the retune when signals stabilise.

I'd suggest you unplug the aerial and do a full automatic retune which should clear all previous tuning.
Plug the aerial back in and repeat the retune which will hopefully restore all channels.
It would be a good idea if you checked in the TV Tuning section that you are tuned to the correct UHF channels for Midhurst, these are C48, C35, C36, C29, C34, & C33 in the order PSBs1-3, COMs4-6.

For which channels are on which multiplex see Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview

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Divis (Northern Ireland) transmitter
Thursday 24 September 2020 4:10AM

john cunningham:

The short answer is no. Until such time as the current SD multiplexes are converted to T2 (HD) transmission - not likely in the foreseeable future due to the economic climate - then there is no space available. On 25 main UK transmitters it is currently broadcast on COM7 which is a temporary multiplex which is due to close by June 2022 at the latest. We live in hopes (some say cloud cuckoo land) that Arqiva might start by converting one of it's other COM multiplexes to T2, but this would no doubt take place progressively on the 80+ main transmitters that currently broadcast COM multiplexes. Freeview Light transmitters which only broadcast the 3 PSB multiplexes are likely to be last to be done and would probably require some government funding.
To put the whole thing into context for you, there are over 1100 TV transmitters in the UK!

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ITV 3 +1
Saturday 26 September 2020 7:11AM

Richard Dodd:

Whilst some listings on this site are not up-to-date, this one is, and you've also checked on Freeview's site.
When was the last time you retuned your TV?
It could be that even if you have retuned very recently, your set's memory has not stored the information correctly and needs clearing.

Unplug the aerial and carry out a full automatic retune, this should clear memory as nothing is found.
Plug the aerial back in and repeat the retune which will hopefully restore all channels correctly.
If for some reason that hasn't worked, try repeating the process BUT switch the set off for 15 minutes after retuning with the aerial unplugged.

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Lesley Reynolds:

It is! Some of Sony's channels including this one are broadcast on a Local multiplex which you may not be receiving. You need to provide a full postcode so we can check the predicted reception at your location.

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Upcoming Freeview transmitter changes 2017 to 2020
Saturday 26 September 2020 7:22AM

Leo Cedrola:

If you retuned when you had no signal, it will just have cleared the correct tuning and you will have to repeat the retune when the signals are back to normal. Retuning when you have no signal is generally a bad idea.
The signal loss may have been due to transmitter maintenance, but as you haven't supplied a full postcode, we haven't a clue which transmitter(s) you might be able to receive/or receiving!

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Winter Hill (Bolton, England) DAB transmitter
Saturday 26 September 2020 7:45AM

Anthony:

To add to the above that's LCN733 in the EPG, ArqA multiplex, UHF C31 554MHz.
It could be that your set's memory needs clearing if it's not storing information correctly. If so, unplug the aerial and carry out a full automatic retune which should clear memory as nothing is found. On some sets you may need to switch off for say 15 minutes after that and check memory is clear when you switch on again.
Plug the aerial back in and retune, manually if you prefer.

Winter Hill UHF channels after the recent 700 MHz clearance are -
The main multiplexes are C32, C34, C35, C29, C31, C37, C55 for PSBs1-3, COMs 4-7.
The Local ones are Local Manchester, Manchester GI on C24 & C27.
Liverpool Local mux on C21, Preston Local mux on C40.

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Winter Hill (Bolton, England) transmitter
Saturday 26 September 2020 7:46AM

All:

Just to repeat as it's now several pages back -
Winter Hill UHF channels after the recent 700 MHz clearance are -
The main multiplexes are C32, C34, C35, C29, C31, C37, C55 for PSBs1-3, COMs 4-7.
The Local ones are Local Manchester, Manchester GI on C24 & C27.
Liverpool Local mux on C21, Preston Local mux on C40.

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(45/3611210944)
Saturday 26 September 2020 7:57AM

Peter Willson :

Hi. This isn't the broadcaster's website, so we can't help (it's an independent technical help site).
You could try contacting Gold via twitter JavaScript is not available. @MyGoldMusic or see Contact Us at the bottom of their website page Gold Radio - The Greatest Hits Of All Time for other methods.

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Gareth Edwards:

As per the post previous to you, the transmitter isn't currently listed for Planned Engineering and I can't find any reports of current transmitter faults. However, if the problems have only recently recurred, there is some "Tropospheric Ducting" around causing interference, see Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | RTIS for a simplistic explanation. It's currently affecting the west of GB and It can be quite variable, come and go within seconds, minutes or hours. At times it can wipe out your reception.
You are not advised to retune when you have lost signals or they are badly pixellated as this usually just clears correct tuning and you have to repeat a retune when signals are stable.

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