All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Michael townsend:
It's not "our" transmitter, this is an independent free helpsite. Arqiva own and maintain most UK transmitter sites.
I assume you mean those channels in your EPG (as 81 isn't a UHF channel) - both of those are carried on the ArqB/COM6 multiplex. You will no doubt have lost others on ArqB at the same time. Do NOT retune.
You may have them back by now.
See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview
for which LCNs (channels in your EPG) are carried on which multiplex.
I can't find any faults listed or Planned Engineering for Caradon Hill. It's quite possible that you lost them due to an isolated fault elsewhere, or more likely - if you've also lost other ArqB channels it could be weather related.
There is currently some predicted "Temperature Inversion/Tropospheric ducting" for parts of the SouthWest. This causes signals from distant transmitters in the UK and Europe to travel further and cause interference to some UHF channels. It doesn't affect them all at any one time, it can last for seconds, minutes, hours or sometimes even longer. As already advised, do NOT retune, you will likely lose your correct tuning, maybe end up incorrectly tuned to other transmitters' signals which will eventually disappear.
IF you've already retuned, check in your TV tuning section that you are correctly tuned to the UHF channels for Caradon Hill.
In the order PSBs1/BBCA, PSB2/D3&4, PSB3/BBCB HD, COM4/SDN, COM5/ArqA, COM6/ArqB, -
the UHF channels for Caradon Hill are C28, C25, C22, C21, C24, C27.
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Aytchgee:
Hi. I'm a bit baffled as to what your Freeview box "K" numbers are - not one in my experience, unless of course you mean kHz!
The "C" before the UHF channel number simply means "UHF channel". The only reason it is typed before the UHF number on THIS forum, is because if you hover over it, it will give you the channel frequency in MHz.
So go back to that earlier post and hover over each of those that I've listed, for kHz just put three 0s on the end!
My suspicion is that if you are allowing your box just to scan up through the frequencies (starting at 474000kHz) then there is a good chance that you may well be tuning to some/all of the PSB multiplexes from the Bramford relay transmitter and these will be weaker and less reliable as you aerial is set up for Sudbury.
If you box doesn't allow to scan specific frequencies one by one (manual tuning) then the "trick" here is if you can see the frequency that it's scanning at any one time, then leave the aerial unplugged until it's just gone passed 522000kHz and plug it in quickly as the first frequency you want is 538000kHz. Thereafter it can finish by itself.
I'll come back with another post about diplexers.
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alan meakin:
As you haven't provided a full postcode, it's not possible to know whether your predicted reception could be marginal under normal circumstances in your locale, and whether you'd be using the Nottingham transmitter or the Waltham one, both of which have been on Planned engineering this last week.
Two of us have already responded to your post on the Nottingham transmitter page. Have you followed the advice about NOT retuning or what to do if you already have?
Some information about your aerial installation would also be helpful and which way the aerial is pointing and whether the rods (or squashed Xs) are horizontal or vertical.
It might also be an idea if you check all your coax connections behind your TV etc. If you have weak signals due to the engineering then bad connections could mean you have no signal.
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MICHAEL JOHN HOUSTON:
The temporary COMs 7&8 multiplexes (which in any event were only transmitted from a limited number of main transmitters ~30 out ~80) were turned off at Calbeck when part of the 700Mhz Clearance programme was done in July 2019.
The reason was, the cost involved in transmitters and antennae to move the service to the new temporary frequencies of C55 & C56 was not deemed to be cost effective considering the size of audience it reached.
COM8 closed in June 2020 for commercial reasons and COM7's licence expires in June 2022.
No announcements have been made about any of the services currently on COM7. There has been lots of speculation about some of the other multiplexes being converted to T2 transmissions, so having room for some of these. But it is all speculation, Nothing has been announced to date.
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Jamie Burchell:
I will reply to your comment over on the Saddleworth transmitter page.
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Jamie Burchell et al:
Unfortunately the site owner has not has the time to update all the changes from the 700MHz Clearnace programme, so many of the UHF channel listings are not correct.
In the order PSBs1/BBCA, PSB2/D3&4, PSB3/BBCB HD, COM4/SDN, COM5/ArqA, COM6/ArqB -
the UHF channels for Saddleworth are C45, C39, C42, C33, C36, C48.
The final changes were made on the 12th August 2020.
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Paul Denning:
Have your signals returned? I can't find any reports of outages either by the BBC or Freeview and the transmitter isn't currently listed for Planned Engineering.
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AnnJones:
When you look up at your aerial and check it looks intact, that the rods (or squashed Xs) are horizontal and compare to neighbours if not sure it's pointing correctly. Check also your coax downlead looks secure and isn't flappimg in the wind.
As an aside, Beacon Hill has just been listed for Planned Engineering, so if the immediate problem is resolved you might see weak signals or interruptions during the week.
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Chris Fennell:
I'm sure you meant FreeSports (LCN64 in your EPG). FreeSports is carried on the COM7 (HD) mulitplex so your TV obviously has a T2/HD tuner.
See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which channels are carried on which multiplex.
You presumably don't get LCNs 70, 76, 86, 87, 91 or 96 on your set top boxes either.
I assume on your TV you'll be getting LCNs 101-107, but do you get LCNs 101-105 on either set top box? If not they probably don't have T2/HD tuners. If they do get 101-105 then where are they in relation to the TV? Are they indifferent rooms, or how are all the aerial connections done - what plugs into what etc.?
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Thursday 18 November 2021 3:15PM
Peter White:
In normal circumstances you should have no issues with reception from Waltham. As you have seen from the post before yours, the transmitter is having Planned Engineering (and has been for the previous two weeks as noted in previous posts). Exactly how such work affects anyone will depend upon location and aerial installation.
Advice as mentioned in many previous posts here, is never to retune when you have badly pixellated pictures or no signal.
Mostly this will just clear the correct tuning, you may even end up incorrectly tuned to very weak signals from another transmitter which may disappear dependent on weather conditions.
Arqiva never publish details of the work or when it will be complete, depending on the nature of the work, it could be weather dependent!
As you have already retuned and no doubt lost some of your correct tuning, your best bet will be to look in your TV Tuning section and check that the UHF channels you are still tuned to are the correct ones for Waltham and do a manual tune on the ones you aren't currently getting. You may of course have to try several times as we don't know which ones may/may not be affected by the engineering at any given time.
In the order PSBs1/BBCA, PSB2/D3&4, PSB3/BBCB HD, COM4/SDN, COM5/ArqA, COM6/ArqB, COM7, Local -
the UHF channels for Waltham are C32, C34, C35, C29, C37, C31, C55, C41.
You may/may not get reliable reception of the Local multiplex as that is lower power and beamed towards the main urban areas of Nottingham and Peterborough/Spalding.
See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview
for which LCNs (channels in your EPG) are carried on which multiplex.
It might be also worth advising that I've read elsewhere that Waltham seems to have had some more unusual issues with some Channel 4 and Channel 5 sister channels. This has been due to an incident several weeks back at the Red Bee Media Playout centre. I'm not sure all issues have yet been resolved as we are led to believe there was considerable damage.