All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
MossMan:
It could depend on where the car wash is :D
Mendip is not the only transmitter in the area transmitting the BBC National mux on 12B.
I can't find any reports of other transmitters in the immediate Bristol region being affected, but I've not found the BBC Engineering list too reliable when it comes to just DAB Planned Engineering unless there an actual service interruption.
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Andrew:
This could be due to current weather conditions - temperature Inversion/tropospheric ducting to be precise, some of the predictions show there is currently some quite variable but strong conditions affecting parts of central England.
It sometimes comes with high pressure How does good weather affect my television? | Help receiving TV and radio & Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | Help receiving TV and radio
This type of ducting affects different frequencies by differing amounts in different locations, which is possibly why you are only currently seeing an issue with COMs 4 & 5. It can vary by the second or be stable for much longer periods. It can also affect FM & DAB radio & probably mobile phone signals but not to an extent that people have realised.
If you happen to use the Waltham transmitter, try a manual tune on UHF channels C29 and C37 for those two multiplexes as manual tuning will sometime resolve them when signals are suffering some interference as long as it's not severe at the time.
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Farrel Corcoran:
Al Jazeera English should still be available in SD at LCN235 in the Freeview EPG.
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Paul.:
There have been all sorts of stories on various websites (none of which are that reliable) about when regional HD is going to appear after the BBC said "by the end of 2022". A number of stories were completely untrue.
The most reliable information now comes from the latest statement by the BBC -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/med…land
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William Utley :
Well according to the Freeview Checker you should be getting very good signals from the Bilsdale Quarry mast.
Check that your aerial is still pointing the correct way - bearing 24 degrees ~NNE, in your locale. The rods (or squashed Xs) should be horizontal. Check that the downlead is secure and not flapping in the wind.
Check you coax plugs and leads are correctly plugged in etc.
Try a retune as follows - unplug the aerial and do an automatic retune which should clear all previous tuning as nothing should be found. Plug the aerial back in and repeat the process and hopefully all your channels will be correctly restored.
If you are still having problems, check in your TV tuning section that you are tuned to the correct channels for Bilsdale -
The UHF channels are C27, C24, C21, C43, C46, C40, C55 that's in the multiplex order
BBC A/PSB1, D3&4/PSB2, BBC B HD/PSB3, SDN/COM4, ARQ A/COM5, ARQ B/COM6, COM 7
Otherwise post back with more information about your aerial and any distribution amp/splitter etc.
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Tim:
It seems that Global - who own Capital UK have replaced it (as of yesterday) by Heart Xmas which they also own. I would imagine it will revert back after Xmas, but other than that you'd have to contact Global.
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Nicholas Anderson:
Well they need to improve coverage as well! The SDL mux is lacking in too many places as it is :(
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James Thompson:
You haven't said if all channels are affected, if not, which ones?
You've said the signals drops to 38% then the strength is 68%, it can't be both, is one of those the quality figure?
Is the problem continuous or is it something that only happens at certain times?
Have you checked that your aerial is still pointing in the correct direction, what direction is it pointing?
Check that your downlead looks undamaged (especially if it is old) and is secure and not flapping in the wind.
Is it pointing at the Plympton transmitter with the rods (or squashed Xs) vertical? A full postcode would show which transmitters you might receive.
Have you changed anything in your installation?
There haven't been any recent Freeview faults reported or Planned Engineering for Plympton if that is the transmitter you are receiving, if so check that you are tuned to the correct UHF channels as per the very top of the page.
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.
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P A PALMER:
I'm sorry you are incorrect - "licence payer and it cost's the same as the rest of the country is
paying for all the channels on Freeview "
The lLcence fee does NOT pay for all the channels on Freeview, it is your permission to watch LIVE tv whether it be on Freeview, Freesat, Sky or any online player or TV service whilst you are in the UK.
The Licence fee money only funds the BBC, all the other channels are commercial - that is - the operators make commercial decisions about what is commercially viable, what they have to pay in fees for the material they transmit, the fees for transmission of their signals to transmitters and fees for the multiplexes and transmitters that are used (note the situation with the PSB channels is more complex).
The fees for being carried on a given multiplex will depend on the multiplex operator and the specific multiplex and the bandwidth being used.
The multiplex operators have to make commercial decisions about how viable a given commercial multiplex might be on a particular transmitter as well as the capital cost of the equipment invovled (assuming there are available frequencies that won't interfere with frequencies used elsewhere etc) does the transmitter serve a large enough number of households that the advertising returns would be sufficient etc etc.
Sony who previously owned these (now "Great") channels made a commercial decision to move most of them to Local multiplexes in 2019 because of lower costs.
There is simply not enough frequencies available (never mind commercial viability) for Local multiplexes to be provided on all but the small limited number of main transmitters serving large urban centres of population, and those that do are lower power and beamed towards those centres of population.
As I hope you can now see it is not a simple straightforward matter. However there is a simple straightforward solution, the channel is available on Freesat. A lot of modern TVs have built-in satellite tuners (check yours), so all you need to add is a dish and LNB to receive Freesat.
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Sunday 17 October 2021 11:53PM
William Cook: & Joseph Gerard Mitchell:
Trying to find any source of information on Independent Radio transmitter faults is nearly impossible.
If this is still a problem, suggest you contact the station, try 0141 565 2200
In the meantime you could try DAB or online.