All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Stuart Swaine:
See if your neighbours have similar problems!
The stupid thing here is that the Freeview Detailed Coverage predictor suggests that Bilsdale is the preferred transmitter, yet it's only predicting good coverage for the 3 main PSB multiplexes, none for COMs4-6 and potentially variable from the COMs7&8 multiplexes, BUT it's predicting GOOD reception from Emley Moor for the six main multiplexes PSBs1-3, COMs4-6.
It's also predicting no coverage from Keighley for the 3 main multiplexes, yet good for COMs4-6 !
It's try a full retune as well as checking what the situation is with neighbours.
Unplug your aerial and carry out a full automatic retune which should clear all previous tuning as no channels will be found. With the aerial then plugged back in, if you can carry out a manual retune on the specific UHF channels that will be the best way (if you can't do a manual retune you'll have to do an automatic one).
I'll list the UHF channels for each of your potential transmitters in the order PSBs1-3, COMs4-6 & separately for COMs 7&8. Note PSB3 and COMs7&8 are HD multiplexes so if your set doesn't have an HD TUNER, you won't get them. I also suggest you try the PSB1/BBCA multiplex first, on YOUR preferred transmitters first, to see exactly what you can/are picking up, then carry on with the other UHF channels for that transmitter.
Emley Moor - 47, 44, 41. 33, 36, 48 unlikely to get COMs7&8 (on UHF 55&56)
Keighley - 40, 43, 46, 29, 31, 37 (no COMs7&8)
Bilsdale - 27, 24, 21, 43, 46, 40 (note COMs4-6 no prediction), COMs 7&8 are on UHF 55&56.
If you and your neighbours all got Yorkshire before, and it's now set up for Bilsdale (Tyne Tees), you may care to ask you building management why the aerial installers have changed transmitters in view of what you previously received quite satisfactorily and the fact that the predicted reception from Emley Moor is good. (I will say however that the predictors are always 100% correct, but I'm going on what you previously received as well!).
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Stuart Swaine:
Sorry, to add to the above, if it's Bilsdale that it's set up for, Bilsdale has Planned Engineering this week with "Possible Service Interruptions", so if you happen to retune when a channel is off-air you'll get nothing, try again later!
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Jack Smith:
Freeview (but not the BBC strangely!) is reporting a potential problem but I would also have expected other posts from other regulars that get a signal from MIdhurst so I don't know how widespread this is.
If you retuned when it was all off-air or a weak signal it will have cleared any correct tuning.
Try a retune again, you may have to do this several times if there are ongoing service problems.
If it continues, try contacting BBC Engineering on 03700-100-123 or maybe Freeview on 0808-100-0288 try option 3 (never found them too helpful!).
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John Myddelton:
"We" haven't turned it off, as we are an independent help site ;) But I can tell you that the BBC have got it listed as being off-air since 6.36am this morning due to a fault.
If you happened to have tried retuning whilst it was/is off-air it will have cleared all tuning and you'll need to repeat a retune when it's back on air. I'm afraid I don't know when that'll be. You could try ringing BBC Engineering on 03700-100-123 but you may not get an answer due to the current covid-91 situation. There's probably no point as they know it's faulty and it'll get fixed as soon as manpower etc allows.
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Julia moss:
You shouldn't post your number on an open forum, it could lead to abuse.
This is the DAB radio page, but no worry, but we don't know which TV transmitter you are receiving, there could be planned engineering going on. If you happened to have tried retuning whilst it was/is off-air it will have cleared all tuning and you'll need to repeat a retune when it's back on air.
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P. Kieran Ward:
In addition to what StevensOnln1 has said, a reminder that you were advised last May that the channel clearances and future usage was a co-ordinated change between Saorview and Freeview. Perhaps it should also be said that all these changes have been made as a consequence of European agreements (not just a decision by OFCOM), Europe has been making similar changes. (Also it should be remembered that general frequency usage is also subject to International agreements).
Also UHF55&56 were not "due" to be cleared (for Mobile Internet use) by June 2020, it was just a date that OFCOM were proposing, however Arqiva had always opposed this date, and nothing definitive was ever made public. The 700MHz frequencies haven't been auctioned yet, so there is unlikely to be any clear information available in the immediate future.
You may be aware that the DigitalUK site which we've referred to many times in the past for predictions and other technical information was merged into the Freeview site at the end of last October. Because of the poor way that this was done it's currently not possible to link directly to urls for predictions, but if you explore the site you can manage to extract most of the useful UK information - it's not especially user friendly IMHO.
If you goto Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free and put your postcode and house name/number into the box just down the page, then on the new page scroll right down and click "Detailed view" you can then look at the prediction for reception at your location.
You may find that predicted reception for COM7 is not as good as COM8. COM8 had a UK wide FEC change to 1/2 on the 10th Feb. for all transmitters that are using UHF56 (which I think is all of them now that transmit COMs7&8 IIRC). Because of the SFN nature of these muxes this also had the effect of changing hot and not spots and the signal strength seemed to increase in a number of areas, whereas COM7 was not affected.
If you are "technically" outside the coverage area, you may have to make some clever adjustments to your aerial installation to possibly receive everything satisfactorily.
You may also notice that the Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker is now showing the "Final Prediction" as 2025 for all multiplexes including those transmitters with COMs 7&8. So it's now speculation that they may continue until 2025. It's also speculation (and been said previously) that sometime between now and then, probably a bit nearer then, that one (maybe eventually more) of the other COM muxes will convert to T2 allowing for a move of (some of) the HD programmes. No doubt when something definitive is announced by OFCOM and/or Arqiva, people will post links to the information. HTH.
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Pat:
Can you not check somehow with your "neighbours" on the same communal system if they are having similar problems?
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Sunday 22 March 2020 1:52PM
js:
No pressure!! Your message prompted me to check it out properly and also see what the User Guide said exactly. It does cover most things, but is not the most intuitive thing to go through.