All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Mand Morgan :
From your postcode you should be receiving the Winter Hill transmitter, do make sure that your aerial is pointing in the correct direction - bearing 142 degrees which is fractionally S of SE, and the rods should be horizontal - compare to neighbours aerials if need be.
Now this gets a little complicated as not only was Winter Hill undergoing the initial stages of the 700 MHz Clearance programme where the multiplexes are being moved to different UHF channels - that got put on hold because of the covid-19 situation, but you may also pick up two other transmitters even if your aerial is pointing correctly (one being a local relay quite close, but very low power, the other being a Welsh main transmitter). Winter Hill is currently transmitting two lots of the main BBC channels due to the current situation.
Does your TV have a manual tuning option? (That's rather than the automatic tuning option).
If it has, then you need to tune each of Winter Hill's multiplexes manually.
It's current UHF channels are C32, C59, C54, C58, C49, C37, C55, C40 and that's in the multiplex order -
PSB1/BBCA, PSB2/D3&4, PSB3/BBCB HD, COM4/SDN, COM5/ArqA, COM6/ArqB, COM7 HD, Preston Local.
If you want to know which channels are on which multiplex, see Channel listings | Freeview
If your set doesn't have an HD/T2 tuner, you won't get (and can ignore) C54 & C55.
The best way to try and ensure this gets set up correctly is to first clear all existing tuning by unplugging the aerial and doing an automatic tune, no channels should be found and it should clear the previous tuning.
Plug the aerial back in and start the manual tune with UHF C32. Now check that you are getting the main BBC TV and Radio channels correctly and that the signal strength and quality indicators in the tuning section give you a high signal strength and 100% Quality. I'm suspecting this may not be the case as you said you weren't getting Yesterday (LCN25 in the EPG) which is on the ArqB multiplex UHF C37. Try that channel next and check signal strength and quality.
If you are getting poor or no signal for either of those, it's likely that you have an older Group C/D aerial and with all the changes that will take place at a future date you will have problems unless the aerial is replace with a Group T/Wideband, which Freeview will do Free of Charge (more detail in a moment).
You shouldn't have any problems with the other multiplexes at this time.
You may remember seeing a retune message on screen back in February when the first of the changes took place, this is where they moved the main BBC multiplex to its new channel C32 (but also left it on its old location of C50). This is so anyone whose aerial doesn't get C32 correctly can apply for the Free In-Home support from Freeview, but still get the BBC channels but they will be in EPG LCNs 751 and on. See Engineering work affecting television services in the North West of England - 12th August 2020 | Help receiving TV and radio
So if you are having this problem contact Freeview on 0808-100-0288 and state you need the Free In-Home support because you can't get the BBC channels satisfactorily on C32. There could be a delay before they can provide this because of the covid-19 situation.
The rest of the clearance programme when the other multiplexes are moved won't take place until the In-Home support is provided to all those that have requested it.
If you have further problems with your tuning, do post back.
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John Simon Knight:
Some of those figures are not good, and despite your distance from Belmont, the Freeview Detailed Coverage checker predicts good reception for all multiplexes. Do you receive COM7 (C55) signals?
You've mentioned the booster installed in Dec.2016, but when was the aerial installed? Have you checked it's still pointing correctly, pretty well due E with the rods horizontal? Do you know the make and model of the aerial at all?
Is the booster a splitter as well (how many sets/), make and model would be useful.
An indication of when these pixelation problems started would also be useful.
I did, at the end of my previous reply to you, suggest try taking the booster out of circuit and connect the aerial direct to your (main) TV and check the signal and quality levels - do that for the same channels as you've just given. This may well give us a better indication of what is happening.
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DAVID ALLEN:
Just for the record, the BBC did report that the transmitter was Off the air due to essential engineering, but the hours didn't tally will your experience on the day.
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AEKostas:
What makes you think that you'll (necessarily) lose 55 in November? 56 (COM8) has already been closed by Arqiva for commercial reasons - nothing else. There's still quite a bit of misleading information around, some based on some comment that the auction of 700MHz frequencies will take place in November, but I have yet to see an official OFCOM statement to that effect. Please read Rebuilding Freeview High Definition from 2019 onwards | free and easy
As it says at the end of that post Arqiva could decide to close COM7 at any time for commercial reasons. In any event COM7 signals will not change between now and June 2022 which is the final end date for COM7 if it doesn't close before. As for BBC4HD, you need to look to the BBC for what may happen there, there is (I believe) a review concerning BBC4 and rumours about it possibly being closed. If it continues, whether there will be space on the BBC HD multiplex for it when COM7 closes, or whether Arqiva will have started converting another multiplex to HD and the BBC move it there, is all speculation and an unknown at this time.
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Heinz:
If your predicted reception is poor in your location, perhaps you should consider Freesat.
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Martin:
See my post on p89 Monday, 17 February 2020 at 10:58 AM Whitehawk Hill (Brighton and Hove, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy , the site owner has not been able to keep up with all the 700MHz clearance changes.
Freeview have listed the transmitter for Planned Engineering this week, details of exactly when or for how long aren't provided.
The BBC have listed the transmitter as being off-air due to a fault and for essential engineering a couple of times yesterday and there could be a report later for today, I suspect they are getting delayed because of the covid-19 situation.
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John Simon Knight:
Just for reference, all UHF aerials will pick up TV signals whether they were analogue or digital, it's all RF (Radio Frequency). It's more likely that your old aerial and/or connections or cable had deteriorated and weren't good enough.
That particular model of booster/splitter unfortunately doesn't appear to have a gain control, if it did it would be near the UHF input connector marked 0-10dB. To take it out of circuit, you'd need an F-Connector female to female (back to back) connector, so you would unplug the aerial from the input and unplug the main tv output and connect them using the coupler. More on that in a moment as there are some other things you could do first.
With this particular booster/splitter and it's IR facilities, each output has short circuit power supply protection. May or may not be relevant have you changed any equipment when you started to get the problems?
So what you need to do is try and check that there aren't any faults on any of your cables, connectors or equipment. Flyleads connecting aerial output sockets to sets and between items such as PVRs/Video recorders/TV sets etc can be a problem. Also check you don't have any HDMI leads close to aerial or flyleads. Aerial leads and flyleads if not double screened can in some cases get interference from HDMI leads.
One of the best ways to do fault checking would be to start by checking the signals and quality on any second room & set and noting them down. Then by unplugging all the outputs from the booster and plug the one from your main TV into a different socket from the one it (or another set) was in. Check that the cable into the connector looks secure and that no fine wires from the braid appear to be shorting the centre conductor.
At the TV end connect the aerial (socket) direct to the TV not going via any other equipment (turn that off at the mains). If you use a flylead, try and use a different one, or if you normally have a couple connecting say a PVR the swap them during the testing.
Check your signal levels and quality and see if they are any different from what you had before, then try the original and another output on the booster to see if they are different. If any/all are improved, it suggests that there could be a fault on one of the outputs or other cables currently unplugged. So try plugging one at a time back in and see if one reduces the signal and quality. That's both any interconnecting cables if you have say a PVR (and power it up again), or the cable(s) to other rooms/sets.
If with just the main TV, all those are the same as before, then you need to see what you are getting on a second set on its own cable, it could be the main room/set's cable faulty.
So unplug the main TV cable at the booster and plug in a second room/set cable (preferably a different output from before). If these readings are now better, then plugging the main TV one back in may reduce the signal showing a fault on the main TV cable.
As I'm sure you've worked out by now, it's a process of elimination. If with all those checks nothing changes and all readings remain the same, then we need to first by-pass the amp to see what difference that makes, this is where you need this coupler and as you live in Sheffield https://www.aerialsandtv.….jpg I'd recommend you go to ATV in Langsett Rd where you can get one for 75p. Most other sellers do them in packs of 2 or more and you'll pay a lot more which is silly as you only need the one for testing!
What you need to check ideally is the signals and quality on the stronger/strongest multiplexes with and without the booster. This will give you a good idea if the booster is still doing it's job. If it seems to be working ok then you'll need to consider a fault at the aerial or it's downlead !!
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Peter Wickes:
The Winter Hill transmitter is listed for Planned Engineering this week with "Possible Service interruptions".
The Freeview site is also listing there being a current live issue that may be affecting reception.
This is the most likely cause of the problem.
As you have retuned whilst the signals were missing, you may have to retune again when signals return as the correct tuning may have been cleared. You may have to try several times as no detail of when signals will return has been provided.
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Tuesday 14 July 2020 8:20PM
Bob Eys:
Exactly which channels are you missing on the newer TV?
You say you have a good signal level for both TVs, can you provide the Signal Strength and Quality figures from each TV for the various multiplexes being received please?