All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
John:
As you haven't given a full postcode, we can't check your predicted reception or indeed if you might be vulnerable to interference from a new/upgraded phone mast.
Have you received a postcard from Restore TV?
Sandy Heath was on Planned Engineering in early August, but isn't currently listed, but we know sometimes the lists aren't 100% accurate.
As you mention your aerial is high gain and amplified, it suggests you aren't in a particularly good reception area, but without the postcode we are unable to comment further on that.
There's also been weather conditions at times during recent months that have resulted in Tropospheric Ducting where interference from distant transmitters can occur or indeed just disrupt reception of weaker signals.
If the aerial system is 20 years old then, there could be degradation at the aerial connections, or to the downlead etc. If water has penetrated then this will cause issues as well.
Where is your amplification? If it's in the loft then check it still has power and look at the coax connector on the end of the lead for the aerial and check for water or corrosion.
Check your aerial is still pointing correctly, again without the postcode, we can't give you the direction/compass bearing, but it's rods (or squashed Xs) should be horizontal.
We could probably advise further checks if we have a bit more detail about the aerial installation, amplification etc.
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liz tindal:
This obviously sounds like a transmitter fault or some work is being done and this should only be a temporary situation. As you haven't given a full postcode we can't be sure from which transmitter you might be getting your D1 DAB multiplex signals from (which carries LBC).
I assume by Mac, you mean streaming on a PC, so LBC is still working.
If the problem continues, the best solution is to phone LBC, give them your full postcode and tell them there seems to be a transmitter fault, could they pass it on to the engineers. We have no direct access to do this.
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Chris Simons:
Ridge Farm Camping and Caravan Park comes up with postcode BH20 5BG.
As Matthew Bell says, Rowridge VP - aerial rods (or squashed Xs) vertical should give you the best reception. The compass bearing is 89 degrees that pretty much due E.
There is a "Local" relay Light transmitter PSBs only, but it's still 21km away - compass bearing 332 degrees (also VP) and not predicted to be as good as Rowridge VP.
Mendip is no where near as good, compass bearing 329 degrees HP and Stockland Hill 281 degrees HP is much worse. All data from Freeview.
Apart from this slight rise in ground by you, it's clear line-of-sight to Rowridge. With HP the Rowridge COM muxes are at lower power, with VP they are the same as the PSBs 200kW as with the PSBs HP.
Whether VP gives you better reception (in theory it should) it's a case of suck it and see.
If you can get the aerial up a bit higher that will no doubt help.
BUT there's one big fly in the ointment at present - as noted at the top of this page, Rowridge is currently undergoing Planned Engineering -
"Meridian - Rowridge - Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels"
So it's going to be hit and miss at the moment, VP may not be affected at the same time as HP and/or visa versa or both might be!
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tony:
And there's Planned Engineering again (as noted at the top of the page) so things could change by the day or even the hour. Just saying. (I trust you read my previous comments back in July).
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Paul Simmonds:
Hmm. Interesting. Unfortunately without the Full postcode, it's impossible to check the predicted signal strength both from Crystal Palace or even maybe from other transmitters that use C30 (which of course can be a lot worse in certain weather conditions) the latter being extremely difficult to assess in any case.
This is the BBCB HD multiplex, so although you've said all channels on the multiplex are affected I'm surprised that you haven't mentioned that it's the HD channels.
Because of the transmission mode used for the T2 multiplex, it's slightly more vulnerable to reception/interference problems.
You haven't said how long this problem has been occurring and whether it's continuous or periodic.
As you've said every set connected to your system has the problem, you obviously have some sort of distribution system and the assumption is that it has some sort of amplifier.
So there are some things to point out.
Firstly, as you've had the aerial recently replaced, I hope it was a Group K, to reduce the strength or possibility of picking up 5G or 4G interference from any new/updated mobile masts near you using frequencies just above C48.
Secondly, I hope that the filters that you have are fitted BEFORE any amplification, otherwise it's rather defeating the objective.
Thirdly, Signal strength & Signal quality %. How do those figures for C30 compare to the other mux channels? The Quality should be 100% at all times with "normal" reception. Unfortunately, Crystal Palace is again having Planned Engineering and so reception might be affected but that can depend on factors like local buildings, trees and terrain in your fairly immediate locale. Not all multiplexes will necessarily be affected by these things which can be quite frequency dependant.
Finally, I hope the gain of your distribution system isn't so high as to be giving 100% Signal Strength across all the channels which can mean you have too much gain that can cause overload and lead to reductions in the Quality % with minor changes in signal.
If you have that situation, reduce the gain below 100%. Having 100% Quality is the important thing.
With some of the high pressure weather systems recently, there's also been the situation where interfering signals from a distant transmitter could be received, again not all multiplexes' will be affected as it will depend on the other channels being used by such a distant transmitter and the propagation can be frequency dependant in any event.
HTH. Post back with more details if you have any queries or need further information.
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Thursday 11 September 2025 1:08PM
Alan Peters: Click on the P50 page link before the comment box to see reply posts, there's currently a system bug affecting some transmitter pages.