All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Jeanette Phillips :
Hmm, I wonder if your aerial is a wideband but far better a Group K which it might be if replaced recently - Group K is in effect the new wideband as it covers all channels upto C48 and so give some protection from Mobile mast interference that may use/start using the 700MHz band above C48.
If either, then re-orientating it for Redruth might be worth a try, I say might because despite the predicted reception, there are hills in the way. A professional installer with a signal strength meter should be capable of checking how good or not it is, especially those Commercial multiplexes COMs 4/5/6, (SDN/ArqA/ArqB), otherwise the only guidance is what your set tells you.
If it's an older aerial it could be a Group A (might have red plastic bungs in the ends of the main bar) which wouldn't receive the higher UHF channels used by Redruth so would be a waste of time - you need a Group K (as an aside Group A would give some protection from mobile band interference).
Now, the hills in the way (on the line of sight) are obviously the one you are on (wow good views S but not in the direction of Redruth!) then about 1&1/2 to 2km out there is a more significant one. Signals do "bend" over hills but it weakens them, a huge hill would mean zero signal.
Are there any aerials in your road pointing at Redruth, if so, ask them about their reception.
There's also a hill on the line of sight to Caradon Hill, but it's quite small. It may have been in the analogue days you could more easily get ghost free/minimal ghosting from Caradon Hill but not Redruth, I can't find any definitive information on that.
As far as mobile interference is concerned, I note you do have a few masts close by, mainly in the general direction of Caradon Hill. If it became a problem then https://restoretv.uk are the people to deal with it, they can supply free filters (or in worst case instal a new aerial f.o.c). I note the website says they haven't sent postcards to your postcode but I've come across cases where they haven't and there was still a problem!!
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Marion:
Did you retune when you had no signal? That will have cleared your correct tuning!
The Ridge Hill transmitter is also having Planned Engineering which will not help if you are in a weaker signal area but as you haven't provided a full postcode I can't check that.
Reception in many areas has been disrupted by the recent weather conditions -
They have been causing Tropospheric Ducting affecting much of the south coast and southern parts of the country on last Saturday and extending into the Midlands and North of the country through Sunday including East Anglia, then affecting all Wales and England. These conditions have been unusually quite extreme on occasion recently.
This causes interfering signals from distant transmitters in Europe or the UK to affect reception of your wanted signals. This can periodically last, seconds, minutes and sometimes much longer - Do NOT Retune. (If you'd been correctly tuned I cannot understand why people think retuning will help when the set says no signal, it's not going to get a signal that's not there!).
There is nothing you can do about this situation apart from wait for conditions to change, or use online streaming if available.
IF you did retune, you'd be best manually retuning the UHF channels for your transmitter, as detailed in the top section of the relevant transmitter page, or now as the conditions have substantially gone away an automatic retune may restore all your channels.
The BBC and Freeview had issued warnings -
High pressure weather conditions impacting TV & Radio services - from 07 October | Help receiving TV and radio
High pressure could affect reception across parts of the UK this week | Freeview
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Anna:
As indicated in the post before yours, recent weather conditions have been disrupting reception at various times in many areas across the UK.
They have been causing Tropospheric Ducting affecting much of the south coast and southern parts of the country on last Saturday and extending into the Midlands and North of the country through Sunday including East Anglia, then affecting all Wales and England. These conditions have been unusually quite extreme on occasion recently.
This causes interfering signals from distant transmitters in Europe or the UK to affect reception of your wanted signals. This can periodically last, seconds, minutes and sometimes much longer.
Do NOT Retune. (If you'd been correctly tuned I cannot understand why people think retuning will help when the set says no signal, it's not going to get a signal that's not there!).
There is nothing you can do about this situation apart from wait for conditions to change, or use online streaming if available.
IF you did retune, usually you'd be best manually retuning the UHF channels for your transmitter, as detailed in the top section of the relevant transmitter page.
As the conditions have substantially subsided, an automatic retune may restore all your channels.
However, the conditions may still come and go albeit not as severe as previously and you may have to resort to manual tuning. Go into your TV's tuning section and look for the Manual tuning option.
Then tune each of Hannington's UHF channels which are C39, C40, C42, C43, C45 & C46.
(C means channel, if you hover over those it will give the frequency should you need them).
If you are in a weaker signal area, such conditions won't help, but as you haven't given a full postcode I can't check that.
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Clare McNeil :
Hi Clare. I can't find any faults listed and it's not been listed for Planned Engineering either, so it is most likely due to the recent severe Tropospheric Ducting that occurred with the recent high pressure.
It was unusually intense on this occasion. As you probably know it can be quite variable, come and go within seconds, minutes or hours. It doesn't necessarily affect all multiplexes at the same time or at all and not everyone will be affected, it will depend on location. At times it can wipe out your reception.
People in different parts of the UK and Europe have been experiencing problems.
Auto-retuning is probably not the best idea when you've lost signal or it's badly pixellated be it due to weather, engineering or faults etc. as it can often clear your correct tuning. You just have to be patient and wait for conditions to change, you can't tune to signals that aren't there or have bad interference.
There is still some of this "tropo" around, so if channels are missing from your EPG, then the best option is to try a manual retune for the multiplex UHF channels that you are missing.
See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for a full list of which TV channel is on which multiplex.
Whitehawk Hill's channels are (in multiplex order) PSB1/BBCA on C48, PSB2/D3&4 on C35, PSB3/BBCB HD on C36, COM4/SDN on C32, COM5/ARQA on C34, COM6/ARQB on C33.
The LOCAL MUX/L-BTN is on C40.
If you hover on each of the aforementioned channel numbers, it'll give you the frequency if you need to know those.
If it's just the BBC SD channels you are missing, try a manual retune on UHF C48. If it's the HD ones, try UHF C36.
If conditions in your locale are still bad, you may not be successful on any try, you just have to try again.
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David Griffiths:
The Planned Engineering may not be helping, but you are only 17km from the transmitter with a clear line-of-sight and there are no specific faults listed, so the most likely cause will be the recent weather conditions.
Severe Tropospheric Ducting occurred with the recent high pressure.
It was unusually intense on this occasion. It can be quite variable, come and go within seconds, minutes or hours. It doesn't necessarily affect all multiplexes at the same time or at all and not everyone will be affected, it will depend on location. At times it can wipe out your reception.
People in different parts of the UK and Europe have been experiencing problems.
Do NOT retune. IF you had been correctly tuned it is never advised to Retune when you've lost signal or it's badly pixellated be it due to weather, engineering or faults etc. as it can often clear your correct tuning. You just have to be patient and wait for normal conditions, you can't tune to signals that aren't there or have bad interference.
If you did retune at any point and channels are missing from your EPG then the best option is to try a manual retune for the multiplex UHF channels that you are missing.
See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for a full list of which TV programme channels are on which multiplex.
The correct UHF channel numbers are listed in the top section of the page (although the TV programme lists may not be up-to-date).
As far as the Planned Engineering is concerned, I'm afraid Arqiva never give details of the work or how long it will last, especially as some may be weather dependant.
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mr t carroll:
I think you are simply confusing the TV programme channel number LCN - logical channel number (the one that's in the EPG - Electronic Programme Guide) with the UHF Channel number for the multiplex that carries the TV programme channel.
You of course may have your own "favourites list" which numbers the LCNs as you want in your own custom list.
"Sky Arts" LCN 11 and Sky's "Pick" LCN 36 are both carried on the ArqA/COM5 multiplex which is on UHF channel C31 at Winter Hill.
On the 18th October, Sky, the broadcaster, as swapping the TV programme channels around in the official EPG so that Sky Arts will be on LCN 36. They are then renaming "Pick" as "Sky Mix" which will be LCN 11.
Your set MAY pick up those swaps automatically, but otherwise you may have to retune the mux UHF C31 to pick up the change.
You may also have to edit your "favourites" list if you have one - or of course you may have just renumbered LCN 11 as LCN 8, the latter not being used at Winter Hill, but is used by some transmitters elsewhere. So after the change, you'd have to renumber LCN 36 as LCN 8 if you still want pick at 8.
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Ed:
Glad you've found the source of the problem. Hope everything now remains stable.
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Clare McNeil :
:) Hi. Your post has appeared 4 times - that's because you thought it hadn't posted when this site can sometimes take over a minute or so before a post appears (I think it's the spam & swear filter working!!).
Not to worry.
First have a look in your TV Programme Channel numbers in the 800s, they may have appeared there.
Did you go into the TV Tuning section and find the Manual Tune option? It should give you a selection/list of UHF channel numbers.
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Thursday 12 October 2023 4:11AM
Jeanette Phillips :
Hi. The precise compass bearing is supposedly 51 degrees which is 6 degrees E of NE, not only well within the beamwidth of your aerial but may not be the optimum in a specific location due to the way signals propagate. A few degrees either way can often give the best results. But Caradon Hill is 62km away and although more powerful than Redruth (compass bearing 306 degrees almost NW) which is only 12km away, Caradon Hill is predicted to give quite variable reception across your postcode, whereas predictions by both the Freeview and BBC checkers for Redruth are much better.
However, predictions are that, a quick check of the local terrain will give a better feel for this, and we'll post further comment on that in due course.
Everyone's aerials pointing the same way may be for historic reasons, I'll see if I can find any information.
Do you know how old (roughly) your aerial is? Has it been changed since DSO (Digital Switch Over) ~10 years ago?