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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.


Celia Strain:

Hi Celia, unfortunately you've posted on the DAB radio transmitter page rather than the Freeview transmitter page, not that it will prevent you getting any information, but you have probably already seen the warning about transmitter engineering -
"Cambret Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 18/10/2021 Screen may go black on some or all channels"
It seems the Pinwherry transmitter is fed by an off-air feed from Cambret Hill and so is affected by any issues at Cambret Hill (as well as weather affecting reception from Cambret Hill - there was a warning a few weeks ago about the then weather conditions possibly affecting reception).
Unfortunately according to a list I've just seen, the Planned Engineering is likely to continue next week.

If you retuned at all when you had no signal, it will most likely have just cleared the correct tuning, so you'll need to retune again to get the tuning back when signals are there, so you may have to try several times.
Once you have them back, do NOT retune again when the engineering results in no signal, just be patient and the channels will be there when that part of the engineering completes.

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john burnham:

What made you "rescan"?
If you are getting ITV+1, then you should get ITV as they are carried on the same multiplex.
As a general rule, you should never retune/rescan if you have pixellated pictures or no signal, it will normally just clear your correct tuning and you end up having to retune again at some later point when your signals are normal and as you don't know when that'll be, you may need several tries.

The reason you've lost some channels is probably because Emley Moor is on Planned Engineering -
Emley Moor transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 18/10/2021 Possible Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels.
It seems this work is supposed to be continuing next week.

As you've retuned and have missing channels it's also possible that some of them could have ended up in the wrong positions on your EPG.
Another possibility is that weather conditions a few days ago might have caused you to get another transmitter whose signals have now disappeared if you happened to retune then.

These days there is no need to retune except if prompted by an on-screen pop-up message which may happen if a commercial operator changes one of their channels on the commercial multiplexes COMs 4-7. Even when some might change to a "seasonal name", a retune is often not needed.

To deal with the possibility of the set have stored some channels incorrectly, the best way to proceed is to unplug the aerial and do a full automatic retune, which should clear all previous tuning as no signals should be found (this doesn't always work on some set-top boxes / recorders).
Then plug the aerial back in and repeat the automatic retune and hopefully all channels will be correctly restored. Whilst it's possible some engineering might continue over the weekend, you should have a better chance retuning over the weekend.

If that didn't work well and you want to try manual retuning, Emley Moor's UHF channels are as follows in the multiplex order -
PSBs1/BBCA, PSB2/D3&4, PSB3/BBCB HD, COM4/SDN, COM5/ArqA, COM6/ArqB, COM7 HD, & Local
C47, C44, C41, C33, C36, C48, C55, & C39. Whether you get satisfactory reception of COM7 or the Local multiplex will depend on location.

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Roger Hayes:

See my comments about retuning in my previous post above to john burnham.

Are you sure you got tuned to Hastings and not Bexhill or Heathfield? Which transmitters you might receive will depend on your full postcode. Whilst Hastings isn't listed for any engineering, Bexhill is, as is Heathfield and it is perhaps possible that Hasting might be affected by work at Heathfield.

Check in your TV's tuning section which UHF channels your set is tuned to.
Bexhill only transmits the PSBs - UHF channels are C33, C36 and C48.
Hastings has the 6 main multiplexes -
PSBs1/BBCA, PSB2/D3&4, PSB3/BBCB HD, COM4/SDN, COM5/ArqA, COM6/ArqB -
UHF channels C25, C28, C22, C23, C26, C30
Heathfield also has the 6 main multiplexes on UHF channels C41, C44, C47, C40, C43, C46.

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McDonnell :

As you haven't given any information about which channels are affected, or given a full postcode - you could be receiving any one of 1100+ transmitters in the UK a number of which could be having Planned Engineering, some may even have a fault.
You may even have a fault on your aerial, downlead or any splitter/distribution amp.
Please provide some more detail and a full postcode if general comments are of no help.

You should check that your aerial seems intact and pointing in the correct direction and that your downlead looks undamaged (especially if it is old). Also check all your coax plugs, connections, flyleads etc, unplug connectors check for corrosion or other problems and reconnect them. Flyleads are a common problem, try swapping/changing them. See what signal strengths and quality you are getting for the multiplexes (groups of channels) shown in your TV's tuning section.
Problematic connections, water ingress etc. can seem to affect reception of just an individual or several multiplexes.

Have you changed anything in your setup at all?
Make sure you don't have any HDMI leads near unscreened/poorly screened flyleads/aerial leads as HDMI has been known to cause interference.

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Andy Clark:

Are you talking about EPG Channel 51 "Great Movies Classic" (temporarily renamed by the owners to "Great Movies Christmas") if so, this is carried on Local Multiplexes along with a number of other "Great" channels, moved there by Sony (previous owners) in July 2019 because of lower transmission costs.
See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which channels are carried on which multiplexes.

Local Multiplexes were created for a limited number of main transmitters with lower power and signals beamed at large centres of urban population (partly due to the limited availability of UHF channels).
The Local multiplex at Mendip is beamed towards Bristol and is on UHF Channel 30 (Not UHF channel 51 as incorrectly listed on the Mendip transmitter page here). I doubt very much that you will get any signal at all in your locale, but you could try a manual tune for that UHF channel to see.
However, in your location and depending on the beamwidth of your aerial pointing at Mendip, you may well get usable signals for most of the time from Wenvoe (although I'm doubting it, again because it's not beamed your way). The Local multiplex at Wenvoe is on UHF channel 37, you could try a manual tune for that UHF channel.

A lot of these programme channels are available on Freesat. A lot of modern TVs have a Satellite tuner built-in and if yours has, all you need is a Dish and LNB.

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Sunday 24 October 2021 2:33PM

James Greenhorn:

BBC Radio Five Sports Extra is only broadcast on DAB Block 12B BBC National.

Radio Clyde 1 is broadcast on FM on 97.0/102.3/102.5/103.3 MHz depending on your locale, and Radio Clyde 2 is on MW 1152 kHz. Radio Clyde is also on DAB mutliplex Block 11C: 220.352 MHz
The general Broadcast area is Glasgow and West Central Scotland.

Radio Forth 1 is broadcast on FM on 97.3/97.6/102.2 MHz depending on your locale, and Radio Forth 2 is on MW 1548 kHz. radio Firth is also on DAB multiplex Block 12D: 229.072 MHz
The general Broadcast area is Edinburgh, Lothians and Fife.

Of course many stations can be listened to on-line, there is a selection of on-line Radio players.
What broadcasts you may receive will depend on where you are.

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Malcolm:

Have the channels returned?
I can't find any faults or outages listed for the Peebles Relay Transmitter either by Freeview or the BBC.
Was it a case of the channels disappearing but signal was still present, or did the No Signal message pop-up?
If it was the latter, I hope you didn't retune!

Retuning when you have no signal or badly pixellated pictures will usually just clear the correct tuning. There should be no need to retune these days unless a commercial operator has made some changes to their channels and you'll usually get a pop-up message to that effect.

If you did retune and you haven't got the channels back, you'll need to repeat the retune when signals are normal, you may have to try several times as you won't know when that will be.

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Susan Louch:

The Waltham transmitter had been listed for Planned Engineering a few weeks ago for several weeks. It's possible that some work still needed to be done although the transmitter isn't currently listed. I can't find any faults currently listed either (there could still have been one!).

Do NOT retune, this will most likely just clear your correct tuning and you'll have to repeat the process when signals are normal.

Check with neighbours if they have the same issue, if not, do check your aerial looks intact and is still pointing the correct way, that your downlead looks intact and is not flapping in the wind, and check your coax plug connections etc behind the TV.

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Liz clayton :

Have a look in your TV tuning section at the signal strength and quality figures for UHF channels C27 and C21 those are the two for the main BBC SD and HD multiplexes. Are you getting the HD versions of the channels at 103,104 & 105?
If the signals is not very high and the quality not 100% that could be a reason that you aren't getting UHF channel C24 which is the one for the D3&4 multiplex which is carrying the ITV, Ch4 & Ch5 channels.

Try a Manual tune for UHF channel 24, it could be that Auto-tune is missing is for some reason, it could be weak and a manual tune may get it.
If all that fails then try the dedicated helpline on 0800-121-4828 and tell them you can't get ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 and that you'd like to speak to the dedicated "Project Restore Home Support team".

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