All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Trevor Hill:
The issue might have been related to some possible corrupt data in the EPG.
Whilst I don't know if there was any such corrupt data that week, one of the regular posters here keeps an eye on the EPG from time to time, so there may be some information forthcoming.
According to the Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker you've got excellent reception, so it's nothing to do with that! I can't find any detail of any reported faults or Planned Engineering that week.
Whilst I don't know which Panasonic you are using, nor am I familiar with any of them, I am aware from other reports that a lot of Panasonics had these sort of issues a couple of years ago. It looks as though there was a firmware update which may have solved the problem at that time, but I've no idea if it was a "for all time" fix.
It would be worth you checking that you do have the latest firmware for your model.
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J Cooper:
The BBC reported faults on the Truleigh Hill DAB transmitter which appears as though it's the local Relay transmitter near you.
From 1:18pm to 4:35pm on 7th Dec 2020 - BBC National DAB - Poor quality due to a fault.
It also reported the same fault for the Local Mux carrying BBC Sussex!
The fault should now be cleared.
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David Sargeant:
Can't find any reported faults either by Freeview or the BBC, and the Mevagissey transmitter isn't currently listed for Planned Engineering.
There has been a lot of "Tropospheric Ducting" accompanying High Pressure over recent months, most recently it did affect quite a few areas of Devon and Cornwall as well as other parts of the UK from time to time. However it is currently totally clear according to current predictions.
Without a full postcode, we can't look at what your predicted reception might be, or what even the typical Line-of-Sight to the transmitter might be. That in any case would not take account of any new buildings or trees etc on the L-O-S.
Do you have any trees near you that have grown larger and maybe on the LOS?
Whilst you've had your aerial checked, have you changed you installation in any way?
Also check any wall-plates, coax plugs, connections, flyleads etc, unplug connectors check for corrosion or other problems and reconnect them. Flyleads are a common problem, try swapping/changing them.
See what signal strengths and quality you are getting for the multiplexes (groups of channels) shown in your TV's tuning section.
The UHF channels for Mevagisey are C46, C43, C40 in the order BBCA/PSB1, D3&4/PSB2, BBCB HD/PSB3.
Are the BBC ones poorer than D3&4?
Problematic connections, water ingress etc. can seem to affect reception of just an individual or several multiplexes.
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Dr SM Crawford:
Whilst Malcolm's problem may well have been due to a transmitter fault which wasn't identified/reported at that time, there was subsequent Planned Engineering at Emley w/c 8/6/20. As you say you should have excellent line of sight reception.
The problem you now see could well be a repeat of the same issue, which might be the reason that there has been major work at Emley since 4/12/20 see https://www.freeview.co.u…ters
The "temporary" mast was put up in 2017 with the intention of it being in place for 4 years whilst structural work was done at the top of the existing mast. However covid-19 has put pay to the work that was originally planned in 2020, so whether the current work is due to or causing the problem you currently see, we don't know, Arqiva don't normally provide that sort of detail.
You might find interesting reads at This is why there will be TWO Emley Moor masts for four years - YorkshireLive and The up-and-down story of the TV mast at Emley Moor | Yorkshire Post
Using your search engine will find other interesting information.
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Alan_C:
Hi Alan, I do apologise about the confusion over the aerial, I'd been reading some other performance reports and clearly had the wrong one in mind!
As far as the XB10K tests by ATV go, the gain at C35 & C37 and C48 and C55 (they didn't measure C36 as there was no transmission on C36 at the time the tests were done) was 5dBuV compared to 4dBuV on C32 & C34. It peaks at 8dBuV at C52 & C53, so the results you are getting are a bit of a puzzle if attenuation post amp is not having any effect on the relative Quality and Strength figures.
As far as cable goes, it should have identification marking on its sheath. There is 50ohm cable but it's used in other applications. 75ohm is what should be used as you know.
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Ronald Oseland:
Well Barnoldswick is within the coverage area for the Skipton transmitter BUT it will depend on exactly where you are. We need a full postcode to look at the Predicted reception.
Skipton is a relay of the Emley Moor transmitter and there has been major work at Emley scheduled from the 4/12/20 so it's quite probable this will have affected your transmitter and reception. To provide any further assistance we'd also need some more detail about your reception problems.
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Ron:
Not too surprising, it's a 100kW transmitter and there are no others on the frequency in the UK. AFAIK the nearest other in Europe is in Hungary using 150kW.
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Elaine Egan:
I can't find any reported transmitter faults, and there's no Planned Engineering listed BUT it may depend on exactly which transmitter you might be receiving as there's more than one in some places in your general area, so a full postcode would be needed to provide further information on that.
However this could be a Broadcaster issue rather than a transmitter problem especially if you are still able to get other channels such as Channel 4 and Channel 5. The post before yours has STV's contact details.
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Sharon:
Talking Pictures is on the ArqB multiplex, see Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which channels are on which multiplex for your reference though you don't need to bother your mother with all that information.
There hasn't been any changes recently, so if your mother used to get it, she should still be able to.
There was some Planned Engineering back in mid-Novemeber and there have been some periods of "continental interference" (to keep the language simple) on occasion more recently which could have disrupted reception at various times.
If your mother's set retuned automatically or she retuned at some point when there was no signal or there was strong interference, this usually just clears the correct tuning and a further retune is needed when signals return to normal.
The usual solution in these situations is to use the following technique -
Unplug the aerial and initiate a full automatic retune from the set's tuning menu - this should clear all previous tuning (in case there's incorrect tuning or channels in the wrong place etc.). Plug the aerial back in and repeat the automatic retune which will hopefully restore all channels correctly.
If that hasn't worked please post back with your mother's full postcode, details of missing channels etc., so we can look at predicted reception and offer further advice.
FYI if your mother is upto looking at the TV's tuning section, if there's any setting for the set to automatically update for channel changes, it's usually best to turn it off, as it's often more trouble than it's worth when there is signal disruption. Maybe you could do it for her at some future date if that's not possible for her to do. If a retune is needed at some point in the future, there's usually an on-screen pop-up to advise and a retune can be initiated manually.
For your information (and anyone else reading), the UHF channel list at the top of this page is out of date as the site owner has not had time to update many pages with all the 700MHz clearance changes that took place a while ago. The full current list is as follows -
C40, C43, C46, C42, C45, C39, C55, C32 in the order PSBs1-3, COMs4-7, Local.
Note, satisfactory reception of COM7 and the Local multiplex in particular will depend upon your location.
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Monday 7 December 2020 7:18PM
David Laverton:
The BBC have reported a fault with reduced quality on the Hastings National DAB multiplex which should have been cleared at 6.06pm.