All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
SteveK:
Hmm, is it the same fitter that installed it or a different one? Where is your aerial?
What precise checks did he do?
You didn't reply to my previous response, and didn't post any signal strength and quality (or error) figures as suggested. Has the problem been continuous or has it been OK on some weeks or even days during some weeks? Has any good reception been consistent with good weather? How is it now?
I've just done some further checking and the Heathfield transmitter was on Planned Engineering for some extensive periods, and is currently listed AGAIN w/c 21/03/22 ! so I'm not necessarily convinced all is well at the transmitter, but again it could depend on what checks the fitter did!
Did the fitter make any comment about Planned Engineering/Transmitter maintenance?
Previous listed dates are w/c 17/01/22 to w/c 07/02/22; and w/c 28/02/22 to w/c 07/03/22, and now w/c 21/03/22. The listed possible effects are "Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels" which can mean reduced signal.
But without further detail, I'm not sure what further constructive suggestions I can make.
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Malcolm Roebuck:
What was the reason you rescanned in the first place? Were you not correctly tuned?
Please see my reply to steve phillips in the post immediately before your first one (with the exception of the last paragraph specific to his location).
You are so close to Emley (13km) and are predicted to get excellent reception, you should have no trouble receiving it. Your aerial should be pointing at bearing 310 degrees (5 degrees W of NW) with the rods (or squashed Xs) horizontal. Have you looked at your aerial, is it still pointing correctly and does it appear intact?
Emley Moor local news is based in Leeds, so this is the one you should select if using an automatic rescan/retune, otherwise a manual scan using the UHF channels as listed in that post before yours.
The Yorks option could possibly be the Belmont transmitter which although some considerable distance away is still predicted to give good reception and this could be being picked up by your aerial off a rear sidelobe. You might get some signal from Bilsdale but this is less likely.
Emley Moor is currently listed for Planned Engineering with possible effect "Screen may go black on all or certain channels" which can mean a service interruption. It's unusual for those to last any length of time. To repeat, Do NOT retune, it will likely just clear your correct tuning.
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Dave Williams:
How old is your aerial installation? If it is several years before the final 700MHz Clearance retune in August 2020, it may well be an old Group C/D aerial which isn't deigned to pick up the lower channels now used by Winter Hill very effectively. COM4/SDN is the lowest.
You say no other channels are affected but unless you've looked in your TV tuning section at the signal strength and quality for each multiplex, they may be also suffering a reduction in signal but not sufficient to appear as a problem and this of course can vary with the weather especially when water is getting into the aerial connections or coax.
In the multiplex order BBCA/PSB1, D3&4/PSB2, BBCB HD/PSB3, SDN/COM4, ArqA/COM5, ArqB/COM6, COM7
Winter Hill UHF channels are -
The main multiplexes are C32, C34, C35, C29, C31, C37, C55
The Local ones are Local Manchester, Manchester GI on C24 & C27.
Liverpool Local mux on C21, Preston Local mux on C40.
You are predicted to get good reception of the main multiplexes, but variable recption of the Preston Local mux. You aren't predicted to get the others. As you've discovered you're predicted to get some (good) reception from the Moel y Parc (Wales) transmitter.
Look in your TV Tuning section for the Signal Strength and Quality (or Error/BER) figures for each UHF multiplex and post the figures. It should give us a feel for what is going on.
Be careful with signal boosters, too much signal can appear to give similar issues as too little. Eg. if you have 100% signal but NOT 100% Quality you may have too much signal. You should always have 100% Quality, but really excesaive signal can overload the tuner front end and appear to give less signal strength as well as less quality.
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With envy:
The Belmont transmitter is currently listed for Planned Engineering with possible effect "Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels". I'm afraid Arqiva never give details of the work being carried out or how long it will last.
You say you've had no signal for two days, that's unusual unless you are in a weak signal area (or your aerial installation is faulty - how old is it?). As you haven't given a full postcode we can't say what the predicted reception for you locale may be.
If you give your fullpostcode we should be able to offer further comment.
Also look in your TV Tuning Section for the Signals Strength and Quality figures for each UHF multiplex and post the figures for each, which will possibly also help identify any issues.
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SteveK:
Well, I'm afraid to say I think he should have got up on the roof and inspected the aerial connections at close quarters to ensure that rain wasn't getting into the connector box and there was no corrosion.
I have noted that you've had problems with C47 as well as C46 in the past, this I'm afraid smacks of the POSSIBILITY of a bad connection or water in the aerial connector and maybe coax. The consequences of which are that "standing waves" can occur in the cable - this is frequency dependant and it in effect will cancel out some/all of a signal at the given frequency. This may not be the cause of course, but it's a possibility that SHOULD have been eliminated from simple inspection.
There is something you can do, have a look at the connector on the downlead from the aerial into your booster. If water has got into the cable, it may (and often does) work its way down to the connector. If there is any sign of any corrosion or the slightest dampness of the cable at that point then this is the likely cause.
Of course, now we've had this sustained period of dry weather, any damp may have disappeared, but any corrosion will not - detected by any "greeness" around or inside the plug or the end of the cable, remove the connector if need be, to inspect the cable.
Just to add though, there has been transmitter maintenance at Heathfield, the BBC have reported "From 10:01:43am to 11:11:54am on 22nd Mar 2022, BBC A, Low power due to essential engineering, and
From 10:02:11am to 11:12:12am on 22nd Mar 2022, BBC B HD, Low power due to essential engineering.
I would guess other multiplexes may have been similarly affected (the BBC only report on their own).
I guess you've recently got Freesat from your other post, good luck with it, I'll pop a post over there for you.
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SteveK:
Well good luck with it, about 40 more channels than Freeview IIRC.
Freesat only appear to have a listing of their EPG on the TV Guide TV Guide and Listings | Freesat
There is a listing here All of the free TV channels in the UK | free and easy but I'm not sure how up-to-date it is (I've not checked).
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Mark Davis:
I often post an updated list of channels on various transmitter pages where the site owner has not found time to do the updates.
As the list at he very top of the page is correct apart from the Local mux, it's a while ago since a complete list was posted. However, the Local mux was mentioned as being on C37 in one of my more recent posts on the page prior to the one with your post (on p198) Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy
It's probably around 12 months or so ago since the other UHF channels were mentioned but C37 has been mentioned a few times since.
C29 is actually used by several other main and relay transmitters (some as an SFN). In just the Meridian region it's used by Midhurst, Haslemere, Tunbridge Wells, Salisbury & Oxford (all for the SDN mux), and Chisbury & Lamberhurst for BBCA.
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ray:
It is location dependent on which multiplexes you can receive, sometimes a predictor can give results that represent part of a locale and not a specific postcode.
London TV (LCN8) is carried on the Local Multiplex UHF C35 for the London area.
That's TV (UK) LCN91 is carried on the COM7 HD multiplex UHF C55. there could be several reasons that you aren't getting this.
You need a set with a T2/HD tuner - do you get BBC1,2, ITV, C4, C5 in HD on LCNs101-105 at all? If so you have a T2 tuner (but note, those stations are carried on the PSB3 multiplex).
COM7 C55 is transmitted at lower power than the other main multiplexes - it is only a temporary mux in any event and is due to close by the end of June 2022, there's been no announcement about what may happen to the channels on it.
If you have a very old aerial, it may be channel Group A, which will not pick up C55 unless you are very close to the transmitter. It's would not be worth spending any money changing/upgrading the aerial when COM7 is due to close in 3 months.
If you provide a full postcode, we should be able to advise about your reception predictions.
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Monday 21 March 2022 1:30PM
Alastair Barr:
You are unlikely to be receiving the Braid Hills transmitter in Rosyth as it only has a small service area, you are more likely to be getting signals from Craigkelly or Knock Hill. The BBC are not reporting any faults on multiplexes carrying their channels particularly Block 12D: 229.072 MHz with BBC Scotland which also carries Forth 2.
Finding fault reports for just commercial only multiplexes is almost impossible.
There have been weather conditions which could still be affecting reception in your area which should be clearing by the end of the day. If problems are still continuing after that, you'd probably be best contacting one of the commercial stations you are having problems with.