All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Sarah-Jane Morris:
With the extra information I totally concur with what StevensOnln1 has said, whatever is tripping needs to be fixed properly or replaced, it's totally unacceptable that so many vulnerable individuals have to suffer this isolation.
There may be other problems with the system if it's that old, cable deteriorating etc. and I could imagine the council may not be keen on spending money on something that's no longer serving council tenants.
You said you are in a bit of a dip and (when you were a teenager) the signal was never good, but are/were you talking about pre-1970s when there was only VHF analogue ITV transmitted from the Black Hill Mast? (BBC at the time came from a nearby mast). And of course transmitters have changed somewhat since then, first with UHF Analogue in the late 60s and of course digital since 2011.
Using Street view, I didn't get the impression that there was that much of a dip in the whole of your postcode and although the Detailed Coverage Checker can't be guarantee to be 100% correct, it does give the impression that a good signal is available from Black Hill all around the postcode.
So it could depend on how much of dip you are actually in. Have a look at nearby neighbour's aerials. It may be worth your mum considering having her own aerial installed on the chimney which of course would eliminate the current issue, but may be tricky at the current time because of covid-19 situation, and of course it will cost, but if you go down that route, get several quotes and preferably use a contractor that has been recommended by a trustworthy person that knows they are ok.
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A further reminder -
Clacton is no longer a "Light" transmitter as of 1st August 2018, it now broadcasts the 6 main muxes.
PSB1(BBCA) - UHF32; PSB2(D3&4) - UHF34; PSB3(BBCB HD) - UHF45; SDN - UHF40; ARQA - UHF43; ARQB - UHF46. 400W for each Mux. Aerial group K, Horizontal.
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Alan Haynes:
That will rather depend on which way your aerial is pointing, there are actually a number of choices that you might receive, most requiring ideally a Group K aerial (although Group T /Wideband would do), but the most reliable are likely to be the main Sudbury transmitter which has all 6 main multiplexes or the Felixstowe Light transmitter which only has the 3 main PSB multiplexes (PSB1/BBCA, PSB2/D3&4, PSB3/BBCB HD).
For Sudbury, the aerial should be pointing virtually due W (bearing 273 degrees) with the rods horizontal, and for the Felixstowe relay, bearing 156 to 159 degrees depending on exact location, that's approx. SSE, rods vertical.
For Sudbury, PSBs1-3, COMs 4-6, it's UHF C44, C41, C47, C29, C31, C37 and
For Felxistowe, PSBs1-3, it's UHF C33, C35, C42
If you don't have an HD/T2 tuner, ignore C47 and C42.
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Colin Whatley:
To be frank, my immediate reaction was I'd prefer something with a variable gain control especially that close to the transmitter. You can have too much signal which can overload tuners and give problems with signal breakup.
Second, if you can find one in stock somewhere, those that I found were charging outrageous prices.
You could do better - a more flexible system, buying separate items. A separate log-periodic and find a 4 -way splitter with variable gain - for example I spotted this from B&Q of all places https://www.diy.com/depar….prd (assuming there is stock - not checked).
There are of course 6-way splitters, but again I'd want variable gain.
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Colin Whatley:
Yes I guess 32 is probably quite reasonable, the prices I was seeing elsewhere were considerably more., but what's the delivery cost with TLC (I haven't checked)?
You will need to amplify it a bit to make up for the losses with a loft aerial and splitting it that many ways but it's very much a case of how much and it could be easy to overdo it, but if you can get the kit cheap enough you could always add some attenuation.
I did see one bargain price at Toolstation if you have a branch near you that has one for click and collect, as it's not available for delivery SLx Megaboost Aerial Kit 4 Way it's a clearance price of 15.61, even I would have bought one at that price if any store near me had one!
Whoever you buy from, don't forget metal coax plugs, and any double screened coax you need.
Even though you may not need it although I think you might, I would still buy this variable attenuator Satellite or Cable TV Variable 0-20dB Signal Attenuator F Type with Short Cable 5060507532225 | eBay (that's ebay item 253378790228) it is exceptional value coming with that short cable. It has the advantage it's DC pass-through so you can put it anywhere in the system. If you were to find that all outputs need attenuation, you might get away with this between the aerial and the splitter.
I'm assuming that the outputs you are thinking of splitting so you have 6 in all, will be the ones for the shortest cable runs, in which case I think I'd get a couple of the cheap plastic Y splitters as their insertion loss will provide some attenuation that you'll likely need. They are so cheap (eg. TLC 66p ?), if it were to turn out you needed the metal low loss splitters instead, it's hardly a big waste of money!
In any event, I'd start experimenting with the attenuator at your main set where you'll presumably site the PSU (at least to experiment). When you have some idea about how much attenuation might be needed you can then think about where you put it and also the PSU as you'll want the splitter powered up even when the main set is not in use?
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Simon:
If you look at the three or four posts before yours, you'll note mention of Engineering work that appears to be going on at Waltham, whereas the transmitter is not on the published list. As I have already noted incidents elsewhere where similar things are happening, one can only conclude that the list is not accurate - TBH, I've had a suspicion for some time that's the case.
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Sarah-Jane Morris:
Well done, don't suppose you know what exactly the problem is/what causes it?
Certainly make sure your mum has their contact details in case it happens when you aren't available.
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Anthony J. Kightley:
Firstly, just to make things a bit more muddy at this point, Rowridge is currently listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible weak signal". They never give detail of the work, so signals could vary at any time.
Secondly, this is an independent help-site, we're not responsible for the transmitters, what information is published is generally available from documents issued by OFCOM, Arqiva, DUK/Freeview etc. I'm afraid that some of it isn't up-to-date as the site owner (the only one that can update things) has not had time to incorporate all the 700MHz Clearance changes or some other changes made by broadcasters.
As far as things like polar diagrams are concerned, not all information has been made public, and there also seems to be bugs present in displaying some of the information, so they aren't going to be an awful lot of help.
What is likely to be more helpful is Freeview/DUKs Detailed Coverage Checker which looks at the predicted reception at a location.
I'm not sure if you are aware the Rowridge transmits both Horizontal and Vertical polarisations for PSBs1-3, & COMs4-6. The Local mux and temporary COMs 7&8 are horizontal only.
Your location does appear to be in a slight dip and being on the NE side of that ridge, it doesn't help especially with the horizontally polarised COMs4-6 signals which are only transmitted at 50kW compared to 200kW for the PSBs. COMs 7&8 are approx. 25 & 20 kW respectively.
All the vertically polarised signals are transmitted using 200kW. If you put your details into the boxes at Platform management | Freeview you'll see that you should get far better predicted reception with vertical polarisation, but you would lose COMs 7&8 (if you have them!). I assume your current aerial is horizontal? If you don't get (or want) the Local multiplex or COMs 7&8, the solution is simple, rotate the aerial to vertical polarisation.
If you get and want to continue getting COMs 7&8 and the Local mux, it gets quite messy from a technical point of view. You are going to need two aerials and some probably quite expensive filtering if you want things on one downlead, so it depends on how much you are prepared to spend, whether you like/want the programmes on the Local Mux, and the fact that COMs 7&8 are temporary. The latter we aren't expecting to close before 2022 but there's no formal announcement yet, so things could change but it's highly improbable to be before later in 2021 as the 700MHz clearance elsewhere isn't complete and has been delayed because of covid-19. There's implications from the DUK/Freeview checker that they could be here until 2025, but it's all speculation.
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Tuesday 12 May 2020 6:50AM
Sarah-Jane Morris:
OK, the situation requires some clarification. If this is a regular occurrence, we need to get to the bottom of this. Which website was indicating an outage at the Black Hill main transmitter?
The BBC have still not reported any fault at the Black Hill main transmitter that's affecting their channels.
Next, I initially had the impression that your mum was in a house that had its own aerial, if so, does that aerial point virtually East with the aerial rods horizontal as indicated in my previous post?
It's a totally different kettle of fish if you mum is in a property where the signal is provided by a communal aerial, which is possibly what you may be saying. If this is the case then it's the council or maybe building management if it's not a council managed property that are responsible if it's say the power supply for the distribution system that has tripped out either due to a fault or power failure.
Back to the situation of your mum being in a house with it's own aerial. If it's pointing as I said, then did you manual tune using the channel numbers I indicated i my previous post?