All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Christopher Sercombe:
The filter in your amplifier is probably not a "5G" 700MHz one, it'll more likely be for 4G LTE 800MHz.
You need the Filter from Restore TV. That will also clobber the 4G stuff.
I hope your new aerial was a Group K and the coax was double screened similar to CT100.
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Brian Butterworth:
I've not seen any "I'm not a robot" with my posts Brian.
As you obviously know some spam still finding its way through!
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Christopher Sercombe:
Steve does periodically do a very thorough analysis of some of these situations. I did take a quick look and noted two trees that were potential problems if you lived in the "wrong" house, which is why I mentioned trees in my previous post. I didn't look in depth further as you'd originally mentioned reception was ok in normal circumstances, and it seemed as though the issue was only present with this current engineering.
The booster is fine BUT iirc earlier versions did not have the 5G filtering, so you need to confirm what is marked on the packaging or the booster. If you need to try additional 5G Filtering, as previously mentioned, it should be on the input side of the amp/booster.
The "problem" with that aerial, from such suppliers as Argos, is they don't say which version it is. Although some previous versions were CAI approved, they were also Wideband. Some later versions had 4G filtering and some versions were what's called by some as"bacofoil" aerials - easily damaged by winds and pigeons perching on them. You may only know from what it said on the packaging, and keep an eye on it for damage.
I certainly wouldn't be rushing to change anything, the aerial is high gain which you probably need because of the tree, albeit the highest gain is at the "wrong" end of the band - nearest/into the 700MHz band, hence the importance of the 5G filtering. You'll probably struggle to get as much gain from a standard log-periodic although Blake make a 56 element Group K which has high gain.
If problems were to continue after the engineering was completed then I'd look at the possibility of relocating the aerial first.
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Geoff:
Hi there. There's only two multiplexes currently broadcast from the Budleigh Salterton transmitter.
The BBC National Block 12B: 225.648 MHz
The Local Commercial Multiplex Block 11C: 220.352 MHz which carries BBC Radio Devon.
At present none of those BBC stations use DAB+.
I don't believe any of the commercial stations on the Local mux use DAB+ but I can't confirm that at present. You should be able to check using your receiver's settings and going to where it shows the information for the strength and other details of the transmission.
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Geoff:
I can confirm that none of the stations of the Local mux use DAB+.
5 of them - BBC Radio Devon, Capital UK, Heart Devon, Smooth Country, & Smooth SouthWest all transmit in Stereo,
the other 4 - Grt Hits Devon, HITS RADIO UK, Radio EXE Devon, & The Voice are in Mono.
It will depend on the individual brand/model of radio as to whether the station "Info" found in "Settings" shows the transmission mode.
What is displayed on a DAB only radio when there are DAB+ transmissions will also depend on the brand/model.
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Billy:
As noted in the post before yours, the Black Hill transmitter is listed for Planned Engineering and has been so for several weeks now. Arqiva never provide details of the work, what it involves or how long it may last, some of which can be weather dependant.
IF you are suffering interference from a new/upgraded mobile mast, then it's more than likely that your reception could be affected by the more recent engineering.
As noted by Steve, your postcode should have received a postcard, checked here -
https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/ so contact them for a Free Filter.
It sounds like the mistake you've made is to rescan/retune when you had no signal, you cannot tune to a signal which is not there, the usual effect is it just clears the correct tuning that you previously had.
Also, your postcode is predicted to receive more than one transmitter, so to check that it is Black Hill that you should be receiving, check that your aerial is pointing at compass bearing 99 degrees - that's just 9 degrees south of due E, and the aerial rods (or squashed Xs) should be horizontal.
If that's correct then your best option will be to MANUAL tune each of Black Hill's UHF channels.
As listed at the top of this page, Black Hill's UHF channels are C46, C43, C40, C41, C44, & C47
(where C means UHF channel).and that's in the multiplex order
BBCA/PSB1, D3&4/PSB2, BBCB HD/PSB3, SDN/COM4, ArqA/COM5, & ArqB/COM6.
For which TV channels are carried on which multiplex see
Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview
If the signals are still weak, you may have to try manually retuning a given channel several times over a period, until you get them all back. Once you have a particular multiplex retuned do NOT retune it again (or do an automatic retune).
Apart from the possibility of interference causing your set to "see" weaker signals, your aerial installation may have issues, check that it's still pointing correctly, that the downlead isn't flapping in the wind, check all your accessible coax connections for corrosion or water. If you have flyleads between aerial connections and equipment, check these haven't gone faulty.
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Brian Butterworth:
The "I'm not a robot" box doesn't seem to be having any effect for me. I can ignore it and just post as normal. Does it come into play only in certain circumstances?
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cyril horton:
Apologies for having missed your post until now.
As you haven't given a full postcode, we can't check your predicted reception or advise on the possible reasons for your reception problem.
If you are in a weaker signal area, Planned Engineering could see your signal affected periodically.
IF you are correctly tuned, then if at any time you have no signal or badly pixellated pictures, then do NOT retune. You can't tune to signals that are not there, or cannot be decoded.
The usual effect is to just clear the correct tuning.
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Wednesday 6 December 2023 12:27AM
Christopher Sercombe:
Hi. Your postcode should have clear line of sight to Mendip and you shouldn't have any problems getting a good signal. The aerial should point at compass bearing 254 degrees, that's slightly W of WSW for your postcode, with the rods (or squashed Xs) horizontal.
That's on the assumption that you don't have any very local obstructions, large buildings, trees, scaffolding, other metal objects, etc. Such situations will be made worse if the aerial is low down . If in a loft, water tanks, metal flues, lead flashing, solar panels could all cause problems.
Have you had a postcard from Restore TV?
I put your postcode in here https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/ to check and it says Yes, you should have had one, but we know many cases where people haven't had them.
If there's a new/upgraded phone mast near you, it could be causing interference problems, cause desensitisation of your receiver tuner and give the sort of symptoms you see when the transmitter is on reduced power.
If you haven't got a filter, get in touch with them and request a free filter to see if that helps.
If you have a pre-amp/splitter to feed more than one TV, the filter should go before the amp.