All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Tim McDermott:
Sandy Heath had been on Planned Engineering and that work may not be complete. You should never retune if you are having reception problems due to weak/no signal or interference/weather conditions as invariably you end up just clearing the correct tuning and losing channels as you have now.
I suspect you'll have lost more than LCNs 7 & 11, LCN is on the Local multiplex and 11 is on the ArqA/COM5 multiplex. See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which channels are carried on which multiplex.
To compound matters current weather conditions may be causing issues, see the last paragraph of the post before yours. You'll have to try retuning (manual tuning of the affected UHF channels would be best) and may require several tries when signals are back to normal. If you continue to have problems after the weekend, please provide a full postcode so we can look at predicted reception in your locale.
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Michael :
Yes, sets in general have improved. However, how could an individual range of sets or makes of sets perform will vary. You are best going to a retailer that has sets operating on display and making a judgement based on what you see (and don't take too much flannel and BS from a salesman who may have his commission in mind!).
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Carl Lewis:
You should never retune when you have interference or loss of signal due to that, or Planned Engineering or transmitter faults that cause pixellation or no signal. In most instances this just clears the correct tuning of the affected multiplexes and you end up with nothing or tuned to the wrong (more distant) transmitter.
If you are correctly tuned, do NOT retune it serves no purpose.
The only instance where a retune may be suggested (usually advised by an on-screen pop-up) is where a commercial operator changes one of their channels on one of the COM multiplexes. If you happen to be in an "awkward" reception area then a manual retune on the UHF channel(s) for the affected multiplex(es) is usually the best suggestion.
Your predicted reception at your locale is not the best, although it could depend on where you are within your postcode as it could be variable, even poor or good! for some multiplexes.
This is because you might receive signals from other more distant transmitters (and there are several in parts of Devon, Cornwall, also parts of S.Wales) that use the same frequencies and in normal conditions it wouldn't be a problem. Matters will be made worse in weather conditions that enable the TV signals to travel a lot further than normal - we have had such conditions of late. When there is very strong "Tropospheric Ducting" even signals from Europe can be received (see How does good weather affect my television? | Help receiving TV and radio and the links on those pages for a simplistic explanation). Not all multiplexes will be affected at the same time or for the same lengths of time. A lot of aerials have "side-lobes" which can receive signals from directions other than the one the aerial is pointing.
Checking that your aerial is intact with no missing elements, is pointing in the correct direction (bearing 314 degrees - NW at your locale) with the rods (or squashed Xs) vertical.
The best thing to do will be to do a Manual retune for Kilvey Hill as follows - first, unplug the aerial and do a full automatic retune. This should clear all previous (and incorrect) tuning.
Plug the aerial back in, and in the TV's tuning section, do a manual for each UHF channel -
For Kilvey Hill it's C21, C24, C27, for the PSB1/BBCA, PSB2/D3&4, PSB3/BBCB HD multiplexes and C25, C22, & C28 for the COM4/SDN, COM5/ArqA & COM6/ArqB multiplexes, also C34 for the Local (Swansea) multiplex.
(C means UHF channel).
You may have to repeat that procedure a few times whilst/if interfering conditions persist over the weekend which some predictions suggest.
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Julian Taylor:
You are not predicted to receive any signals from the Idle transmitter. See my reply on the Bradford West page.
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Julian Taylor:
You are not predicted to receive signals from the Bradford West transmitter as it's a very low power relay. Your aerial should be pointing at the Emley Moor transmitter bearing 152 degrees (that's roughly SSE) with the rods horizontal.
Emley Moor is listen for Planned Engineering and so you may see problems periodically with pixellation or brief loss of signal.
As far as Radio reception goes I can't find any reported problems with DAB reception of BBC channels or FM Local stations. The Holme Moss transmitter is undergoing (and has been for some weeks) some aerial work, so Radios1-4 etc are on slightly reduced power.
There has also been some weather related interference which may have affected you periodically, that is predicted to clear up next week.
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Milan Navara:
Your predicted reception of all multiplexes is excellent, including COM7 on C55. Check that your aerial still looks intact and pointing in the correct direction - bearing 80 degrees for you - slightly N of due E (which is 90 degrees). The rods (or squashed Xs) should be horizontal. You could also do a comparison to neighbouring aerials.
Have you moved anything or introduced any new equipment? Make sure you do not have any HDMI leads close to poorly screened aerial or flyleads. HDMI has been know to cause interference especially to C55.
Check all aerial connections and swap any flyleads which can often go faulty with intermittent connections not necessarily affecting all multiplexes.
Since this started a couple of months ago, some other possibilities could be - any trees nearby on the line of sight which have come into leaf and/or grown taller, any close-by scaffolding or other building been erected or possibly a new mobile phone mast quite close by in the direction that your aerial is pointing.
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Ian:
The BBC have reported as follows for FM -
From 11:19am to 6:17pm on 27th Sep 2021 BBC Radio Cumbria Off the air due to a fault
From 9:56pm to 9:57pm on 27th Sep 2021 BBC Radio Cumbria Off the air due to a fault
but do not seem to have reported anything similar for the BBC National DAB multiplex 12B at Morecambe Bay.
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Phil:
Yes location can make a big difference to reliability of reception. Without a full postcode we can't say what your predicted reception would be.
Have you tried a manual retune on C55?
Other than that, see my previous reply to Milan Navara, now at the bottom of p134.
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Willie Bone:
CFM only have licences for Analogue transmission in Carlisle and West Cumbria, they have no digital licences at present according to an OFCOM list. If CFM have no idea about a launch date, I doubt anyone else will either other than Bauer.
According to OFCOM, Bauer were granted a licence for North and West Cumbria, and MuxCo were granted a licence for Morecambe Bay. All these were due to be operational by December 2020. Both multiplexes were to be transmitting BBC Radio Cumbria in addition to the various commercial stations.
At present I haven't located any updated information. I'm not sure if the DAB service from Morecambe Bay is yet operational as the mast there was struck by lighting on the 27th and the BBC only reported interruption to FM services with no mention of DAB.
If any there are updates, they will be posted when known.
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Friday 24 September 2021 11:45AM
jack:
As per the post before yours, Sutton Coldfield had been on Planned Engineering and that work may not have been completed. As COM7 operates as an SFN, dependent on your location, your reception could be affected by other main transmitters with COM7 eg. Oxford and Ridge Hill both on Planned Engineering.
Just to compound matters, current weather conditions may be producing some disruption to signals as a result of interference from distant transmitters.
If you are still having issues after the weekend, please provide a full postcode so we can look at predicted reception in your locale.