All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
StevensOnln1:
Whilst I realise that's obviously the case, at present there are at least two separate lots of feeds to the transmitters and that is obviously costly. What we don't know is what changes are needed to rationalise all that and it could vary from transmitter to transmitter depending on what was installed (or even already there) at DSO. (Freeview Light transmitters could be a different kettle of fish as well depending on how they are fed, not all are off-air from the main transmitter).
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dave lord:
Alverton isn't listed this week, but any work last week may not have been completed and sometimes these lists are not 100% reliable if past experience is anything to go by! Additionally it's a relay of Redruth and that is listed again this week so any work there may be affecting Alverton.
What sort of problem is the customer experiencing?
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sy:
Using the Menu top LHS of the site page -
Was that using the Mast Locations link? All UK digital TV transmitters | free and easy that gives a list.
The Transmitters details link seems to go to Full service Freeview transmitters | free and easy now giving a map of the Full Service Freeview transmitters it seems.
On Radio, the DAB transmitters link All UK DAB radio transmitters | free and easy gives a list, the DAB mast list goes to the same page.
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dave lord:
Oh yes, quite right, I'd forgotten about that - Arquiva and Freeview could be more helpful in that respect, but maybe that's hoping a bit much. Freeview these days, now that the 700MHz Clearance has been completed, only seem to be interested in promoting Freeview Play and dumb help on how to retune when you haven't got a signal - one of the worst bits of advise going if you were correctly tuned, as it usually just ends up clearing the correct tuning whilst there's no signal!
It might be an idea for the customer to check in their tuning section that they are correctly tuned if using the Alverton relay UHF channels are C27, C24 & C21 that's in the order PSBs 1-3.
If they'd retuned at the wrong time they might be getting Redruth signals of the back of the aerial - it's UHF channels are C44, C41, C47, C48, C33, & C32 in the order PSBs1-3, COMs 4-6.
If the set has an auto-retune function on no signal, best to turn it off if possible, more trouble than it's worth - rarely need a retune these days, usually only when a commercial broadcaster has changed a channel on one of the COM muxes and there's usually an on-screen pop-up to advise that.
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Denise chafer:
I think a lot of people including those who are not "technically" hearing impaired will agree with you about the unnecessary so called music (noise) making it difficult to distinguish what is being said!
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Unfortunately the position of the mast is still showing incorrectly at the time of this post.
SP514685 is wrong, as some digits have been inadvertently typed in the wrong order it should be SP514856
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Chris.SE:
If I'm not mistaken that "update" is actually going to become part of next week's list (although it carries the last week's date atm). I've seen these changes several times now in recent months, totally confusing for the uninitiated!
What they are actually doing at Brierley Hill is anyone's' guess.
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Chris :
If you are still at the same postcode as you posted in 2017 then your predicted reception from Midhurst is not good, and could be quite poor in certain parts of that postcode.
In addition to what StevensOnln1 has said, what direction is the aerial pointing and are the Rods (or squashed Xs) vertical or horizontal?
Your 2017 postcode would get reliable reception from Guildford (nearby) but that is London region instead of Meridian.
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Pratap:
The number of channels Adrian is getting may include his Freeview channels - he hasn't given a postcode so he may only have a limited number on Freeview depending on the transmitter he can receive!
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Wednesday 4 August 2021 5:02AM
Michael :
Whilst Walthsm is no longer "listed" for Planned Engineering, doesn't mean that there isn't work going on or faults still present. Whilst I can still find no listing of any faults, experience has shown that the lists aren't always accurate. That said, it is rather curious that sometimes you've lost the HD channels on your bedroom TV and not on the lounge, and visa versa. I have difficulty believing this is down to transmitter work, but cannot rule it out.
Secondly, as one would expect, provision of the TV signals are part of your maintenance contract, I would NOT even be contemplating having my own aerial installation, any faults on the system need to be fixed. The fact that you've mentioned that the installation might be around 23 years old does suggest it could well have some faults especially cable and connection faults.
The fact that it was the HD channels that you initially had problems with is of no consequence to a communal system. The signals are RF signals the same as any other multiplex, being HD is irrelevant.
Communal systems will vary dependent on the particular circumstances, location and number of outlets required. "Typically", signals from an aerial (sometimes more than one aerial) may be fed through a pre-amp and then split to a number of filters and amplifiers each of which is tuned to the UHF channel for all the required multiplexes, and the gain of each adjusted so that all are at a similar signal level, they are then combined and fed through a distribution system which will have amplifiers with variable gain to provide the right signal levels at the various outlets. These systems are not especially cheap and are usually used in very large installations. Smaller installations may simply have an aerial and amplified splitters, and depending on the layout there might even be more than one. Routing of cables (maybe through ducts) will depend on how the "complex" was originally designed and built and what other "communication" requirements there are/were for such a complex (eg. alarm/help & telephone systems and so on).
How yours is done, with some buildings/bungalows not directly attached to another, is anyone's guess, and isn't really relevant, it's their responsibility to fix any faults on the system, which I strongly now expect to be the issue. In the instances where you've been losing signal, for example did it rain (maybe heavily) shortly before the signal loss? Water getting into a system, even afterwards when it is "drying out", can have strange effects on signals depending on the part and location of such water ingress. Some of the extreme heat that we've had of late could have affected joints that have been deteriorating.
Leaving all that aside, being in a bungalow means any individual aerial you might have will lower down and this will usually result in a poorer signal, especially if there are any nearby buildings on the line-of-sight between the aerial and the transmitter. In a communal system aerial location should be where there is a reliable and consistent signal.
Forget this idea of having your own aerial, the warden needs to get the "man" in to check out the system and fix any faults. A good professional "aerial man" would probably be CAI registered and would know if there were local transmitter issues (as clearly many other people will be affected) and should know about reception in a given local area. If your neighbours were also being affected, it would at least suggest that it's not your TVs or flyleads etc at fault.