All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
PAMELA COLLINGS:
This site is an independant help site & has nothing to do with channel or mux changes, switching things on or off.
The local mux at the Mendip Transmitter (for Bristol) is beamed north towards Bristol & S.Glos.
It was Sony who chose to move the channels to local muxes where they are transmitted. We'd suggest you complain to them, see see True Entertainment | free and easy for full information about the changes and how to complain.
If you provide a full postcode (or put it into Digital UK - Coverage checker ) then you'll see the predicted coverage you can get. If you tell us here we might be able to offer other advice.
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peter kirk:
Also worth checking that your aerial is still intact and pointing the correct way after the high winds last weekend.
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Sandra Macgregor:
Who did you contact? Was it the Freeview Advice line on 0808-100-0288?
Did they not know that there is planned engineering this week at the Rothesay Relay with Possible service interruptions?
There's also the Transmitter engineering post just before yours, after gary bull's.
Your aerial is probably fine!
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Gilbert Wright:
Your previous post went on another board - see Freeview modes - a simplified explanation | free and easy and would have been best on Caldbeck (Cumbria, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy
Well Gilbert, your views are ones that quite a few people can sympathise with, but at the end of the day the amount of spectrum allocated to TV is the reason for the change and that's primarily down to the government (and EU agreements) and allocated by OFCOM, implemented in the main by Arqiva. So you need to moan at your MP.
As far as the specific changes at Caldbeck, see Changes to the Freeview channel line-up in Cumbria, south west Scotland and the south Lakes | Freeview
As far as "signal strength" goes, the BBC and other main HD channels transmitted on the BBC B HD mux use the same power (100kW) as the BBC A (SD) mux and the D3&4 mux for the main ITV and 4 channels. The remaining COM multiplexes use 50kW (half the PSB multiplexes.)
Because the BBC B HD mux there is on UHF22, a lot of aerials (including wideband) don't have quite as much gain at the bottom of the band as further up, so if you are slightly on the edge of good reception, this could be a reason. If you provide you postcode we might be able to offer further advice, but otherwise put it into Digital UK - Coverage checker and it will show you the predicted coverage at your location from the available transmitters and multiplexes.
Now as far as the type of aerial is concerned, I assume you went through this with the Freeview Advice line on 0808-100-0288? BUT I'm afraid this is where I'm going to disagree with StevensOnln1, you may be better off with a decent Group A aerial which is likely to have a bit more gain than a wideband (which you don't need for Caldbeck now). If you already have a wideband or even an older Group A, how old is it? But to comment more fully we really need to see the predicted reception at your postcode.
I presume you have done some basic checks on your coax and connectors to make sure connections are clean and the cable is undamaged, also that your aerial is intact and pointing the right way after any high winds.
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Gilbert Wright:
Well the predicted coverage checker is showing 100% all round. Have a good look at the aerial and the coax that you can see and check all is intact and nothing chewed by mice.]
Try the following, remove the booster and plug the aerial straight into the TV and see what the figures are.
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Gilbert Wright:
I assume that was direct to the TV and not via the HD HDD recorder.
Is the booster one with several outputs? If so try another output, or do you have a splitter at all & if so where is it inserted?
Can you identify the type of aerial, without disturbing it, has it got a coloured plastic bung in the end opposite the connections and reflector? Does it have x-shaped rods or straight ones? It might be a log periodic - google for a picture if you aren't sure.
At your location it should be pointing at a bearing of 230, that's a fraction W of SW. Are there any other objects especially metal or water tanks near the aerial?
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Gilbert Wright:
Oh dear, a cheap contract aerial that's been damaged a bit, and it's not even one that has a decent gain!
With the way it's mounted and the direction it's pointing it doesn't look as though there's much room (if any) in front of the aerial?
Where is the flue in relation to the aerial? Is it right behind or to one side - again a picture may help.
I guess you don't want to get an aerial installer in unless you absolutely have to? Is there any boarding on top of the beams supporting the ceiling? If need be, could you put some (temporarily perhaps) so you could try and get to the back of the aerial?
The coloured bung (might be black) is in that far end of the square section on which the rods are mounted.
The "rods" should all be horizontal (not bent in any direction) and should be square on to one another and to the "dipole" part that is just in front of the grid reflector.
Do you feel/are you confident enough to get to the aerial and make some adjustments etc. Are you likely to have a spanner of the right size that undo/do up the nuts on the clamp at the back of the aerial where it's mounted on that pole?
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Patrick Stevens:
Hello Pat, the ones you have "lost" are probably those Sony channels that Sony have (re)moved to Local Multiplexes (you may not have noticed you weren't getting them unless you'd done a retune since 27th June but before the recent changes.. Unfortunately there's no Local multiplex broadcast from Selkirk, these only tend to exist in the larger urban areas. See True Entertainment | free and easy
See Digital UK | Channel listings for a full list (usually up-to-date) of Freeview channels and the multiplexes they are on. COMs 7&8 are not broadcast from Selkirk (and many other transmitters). They are only temporary muxes where they are broadcast and some transmitters have also lost them in recent changes. This is because of the limited spectrum available due to the 700Mhz clearance for 5G (see Digital UK | 700MHz clearance ). Currently COMs 7&8 are due to be closed by 2022 at the latest. We anticipate that some of the other existing muxes might become HD (and so have more capacity) at some point in the future.
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Gilbert Wright:
Hi Gilbert, the significance of the bung is its colour, it "should" indicate the aerial band. That one looks Black suggesting it's a wideband, if it's more grey it could be a group K, either of which are okish in that they cover the channels broadcast from Caldbeck, the primary issue is gain at channel 21/22.
Now having said that, aerial position is also a major factor and it can sometimes be a bit of a black art. One thing you don't want is that flue or that wall to the left, in front of the aerial. The flue to the side could be having an effect, if it were behind it might have less effect but again I'll repeat things can be a black art as beams can sometimes have unexpected effects and you don't want that wall that's in front, in the "line of sight".
As far as the direction is concerned you don't really need to get the compass close to the aerial. Anywhere eg. from where you took the picture of the flue would probably do to see if it's roughly in the right direction - 230 degrees is 5 deg. W of SW and in any case because of "things in the loft", exactly 230 degree may not be optimum, nor come to that maybe the current height!
The question is, so far, has straightening the rods on the aerial had any effect? If so what effect? Make a note of the current position of the aerial, maybe by a mark on the beam at the front of the aerial in it's current position.
If you are up for a bit of experimenting, we could get some idea of how sensitive the position is. Depending on the effect so far, I would try lowering the aerial on the pole, say by 6", keeping the direction the same (this will allow you to change the direction a bit - later - as at present it's too close to the beams to give any freedom of movement). See what effect this has on the strength of each multiplex - I would start writing things down so you can compare before and after effects.
Having got an idea of where 230 deg. is, if it's currently pointing pretty much that way and lowering it hasn't had disastrous effects (ie. drops in quality across several multiplexes, a slight drop in signal may not be of too much concern) then I'd try changing the direction a bit. First, if it's not pretty much on 230.deg, I'd turn it towards that way and check the effect. You can also try turning it a bit further in the same direction. Again, note down exactly what the effects are on each multiplex. Then try turning the aerial the other way, a few degrees at a time and note down the effects. Eventually you may be able to draw some conclusions about an optimum position.
Depending on the results, whether or not changing the aerial might be more beneficial might remain to be seen - you might be able to get some satisfactory results just from repositioning.
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Wednesday 14 August 2019 8:01AM
Alan Alder:
Ch.64 is on the COM8 mux, see Digital UK | Channel listings
Check to see is you are having similar problems with any other channels on the COM8 mux. If so, you may be suffering a touch of interference from Wenvoe.
Also check that your aerial is still intact and hasn't moved in the recent high winds.