All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Andrew:
Just to add the aerial rods (or squashed Xs) should be horizontal polarisation.
| link to this comment |
julie davies:
Can't find any reported faults at present for the Mynydd Machen transmitter.
Have you checked your aerial still looks intact and is pointing correctly and that the coax downlead isn't flapping about in the wind?
Also check all the connections behind your TV.
Have your nearby neighbours got no signal?
If neighbours don't have signal either, try phoning the BBC.
| link to this comment |
julie davies:
There is also this -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/work-warning/weather-warning/waw-high-pressure
Do NOT Retune if you have No Signal - you cannot tune to signals that aren't there (whatever the cause), the usual result is to clear the correct tuning you had.
If you have already retuned and still have no signal, try a manual tune on the following UHF channels for the Mynydd Machen transmitter. UHF C23, C26, C29.
| link to this comment |
Leila Andrew-Haskins:
True, but then the site owner doesn't appear to have done any updates of late (not that we've noticed anyway!). The spam filtering has gone down the drain, the "Your comments" page is over-burdened with spam posts, you miss any real ones, and my weekly emails regurgitate posts I made yonks ago, I don't really bother to read them any more. Shame. This was an excellent site.
| link to this comment |
Leila Andrew-Haskins:
The Spam bots didn't used to be that much of a problem, it's ever since a site server software update (upgrade?).
There are two of us friendly people that tend to respond regularly on the site, you've just had a response from the other one :) and there's an occasional third who's very good on terrain plots and the likes.
I've not been able to contact the site owner in recent times through channels that used to work, but I also know he had some health problems, so maybe that's why some rather obvious things haven't been resolved. We muddle through as best we can.
I've started looking at the "Can you help" section of the menu in case I can spot a post we may have missed due to the sometimes very long list of spam on "Your comments", but what appears there is an automated thing and often depends on whether someone (maybe us) asked a question - which may have already been dealt with.
The disappointing thing is often, those that had a problem and asked a question, don't always come back and tell whether our reply helped or answer further questions because we need more info. Maybe they just forgot where the posted sometimes so don't see the response, but that isn't uncommon, I've seen it elsewhere as well!
| link to this comment |
Leila Andrew-Haskins:
Just to add that the TV transmitter is a "line-fed" relay of Wenvoe.
| link to this comment |
Mike Sanders:
Steve has addressed most of what I'd already been thinking before I read his post.
I'm not certain from what you've posted whether your reception conditions are still the same now as they were in the past week, as we've not long had a period of tropospheric conditions and there is still some variable residual such conditions still about. As Steve points out you could be getting co-channel issues from other transmitters Crystal Palace being just one. I hadn't/still haven't looked at Stockland Hill, but from the many other surrounding transmitters, Oxford is the only one where you don't have a direct line-of-sight and so might receive signals from especially under tropo conditions.
Your antenna will have rear and side lobes that would receive signals (especially with amplification) so none of the other co-channel possibilities should be ruled out in these conditions even from other transmitters in the UK further afield.
As Steve has suggested, changing your aerial to VP could solve the co-channel issues but maybe at the sacrifice of the Local mux on C37, it would be a case of suck it and see. If you didn't get a good enough signal with VP from the local mux and you really wanted it, you could considered a separate HP antenna with a C37 filter connected into your system, but that will of course come at a cost.
BUT One thing that seems to have been ignored, is the possibility of interference from new/upgraded mobile phone masts using the 700MHz band. There are at least 4 masts within a 1.5km distance from you, and I'm not sure how up-to-date that information is, there could well be more!
Your postcode should have received a postcard from Restore TV, see - https://restoretv.uk/postcards-not-sure/
We have seen a number of cases where channels like C25 and C28 have had such interference where others don't appear to have, and the Free Filter from Restore TV has solved the problem.
If your first amp is a masthead, and you personally don't have easy access to it (to even consider changing to VP as well) then if you advise Restore TV they should send an engineer Free of charge to fit an External Weatherproof Filter, and from reports we've seen in the past they have generally done other things that could be needed to resolve the reception problems.
Any filtering has always to go BEFORE any amplification. If your amp is internal and you have easy access then make sure the filter you get has the relevant connectors, coax or f-connector.
Try the filtering first, then consider the change to VP if the problems aren't resolved.
HTH.
| link to this comment |
Wednesday 17 December 2025 11:35PM
Andrew:
Hi. Sandy Heath is 18km from you, compass bearing 81 degrees (9 deg short of due E).
You should get excellent reception.
Ideally you need a Group K aerial, though a wideband would do, but might leave you vulnerable to interference from any new/upgraded mobile phone mast using the 700MHz band. There's at least 9 masts within 1.5km of your postcode.
If you suffer interference, you may need a Free Filter from Restore TV, you should have had a postcard from them.
Sandy Heath Grid Reference is TL 20472 49446