All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
James Lockly:
I'm afraid a lot of what your aerial "guy" is saying, is coming from his rear end!
The main changes at Bilsdale were completed in November 2019 with the exception of the BBCA/PSB1 and BBCB HD/PSB2 swapping their UHF channels in March 2020, in other words, all the channels being used were the same as in November 2019.
Even before that last main change in 2019, Bilsdale was already using adjacent channels to those used by Belmont, namely C26, C29, & C23 for PSBs1-3. Belmont's PSB channels always have been C22,C25, & C28. Changes at Belmont have only affected the COM & Local multiplexes, the last of which was in March 2020. None of those have been or are now, adjacent channel.
So in effect, nothing has changed since then.
Co-channel interference is when transmissions are on the Same channel, Not Adjacent channel.
In this digital age, adjacent channels do not present a problem to modern receivers. There are a number of transmitters that use some adjacent channels for their own multiplexes! Adjacent channels could be, and sometimes were an issue in the old analogue days.
I assume you are talking about Skirlington Leisure Park about half way between Bridlington and Hornsea whose postcode is YO25 8SY. You are well within the coverage area for Belmont and are predicted to get very good reception, whereas not so for Bilsdale - it could be very variable - that's with an aerial pointing at it!
Belmont is almost due S of your location (bearing 176 degrees). Bilsdale however is at bearing 304 degrees, that's slightly W of NW which could possibly be receivable off a rear reception side-lobe of your aerial especially if it's not very directional and particularly if you have lots of unneeded gain from an amplifier.
My suspicion is you may have two issues. One, too much gain from your amplifier (this can also overload your receiver front end and cause pixellation etc.) and two, possible poor rear side-lobe rejection by your aerial.
Most aerials have a reasonable front beam-width, so you can point the aerial off-line a bit without major detriment to the wanted signal, but be in a situation where a rear side-lobe is no longer pointing at any unwanted signals.
The correct UHF channels for Belmont are listed in my post on the 19th March 2021 further up the page (p83).
Check in your TV's tuning section that they are the ones you are tuned to, and also look for the Signal Strength AND Quality (or Error) figures for each multiplex channel. If the Quality is not 100% but the signal is high, turn down the amplifier gain a bit and see what the effect is. Overload can cause the Strength and Quality figures to appear to reduce, even though there is more signal.
Likewise if need be, try turning the aerial maybe slightly W of S, rather than E, as this may reduce any rear side-lobe reception, which if strong enough could cause an addition to an overload problem.
If you are still having problems, knowing what make and model this aerial is, and what is the gain range of the amplifier is could be helpful in giving further advise.
Hopefully it will be a simple bit of adjustment, but a certain amount of experimenting may be needed.
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Marie :
Well not quite sure why you've chosen to ask that question here as this page (and the ukfree.tv site) as it's not connected wiuth the programme or the broadcaster - the BBC (BBC2).
As the chef (Dan McGeorge) said the Lamb is from Cumbria which is part of the North West, which this heat is representing.
You'd no doubt be best directing your question via the BBC or maybe even directly to the chef. He has a twitter account @DanielMcGeorge .
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PJS:
According to a Freeview report I've just seen, there is apparently Planned Engineering at Rowridge although it's not on the main list!!
This is the most likely cause of the channel loss. These sort of things don't normally last for very long, have her channels returned?
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Ed Tozer:
There doesn't seem to be any faults currently listed by Freeview or the BBC for the Redruth transmitter, nor is it currently listed for Planned Engineering. It's unlikely that a power outage would cause loss of just BBC and HD channels. Have the channels returned?
It would be worth checking that your aerial seems intact and pointing in the correct direction and that your downlead looks undamaged (especially if it is old). Also check all your 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 other multiplexes (groups of channels) shown in your TV's tuning section.
Problematic connections, water ingress etc. can seem to affect reception of just an individual or several multiplexes.
Have you changed anything in your setup at all?
Make sure you don't have any HDMI leads near unscreened/poorly screened flyleads/aerial leads as HDMI has been known to cause interference.
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Peter Martin:
As has been mentioned many times around this site, unfortunately the site owner has not had the time to do all the updates that have resulted from the 700MHz Clearance programme, there are 1200 or so UHF transmitters in the UK. If you read my post prior to yours (bottom of p113) you'll see all the correct UHF channels for Bluebell Hill are listed.
In addition, unfortunately broadcasters do periodically change the channels and services they provide, that's primarily COMs4-7 and the Local Multiplex. See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for what is usually an up-to-date list of the channels and which multiplexes carry them. It was last updated on the 29th April, see Channel changes and launches, Now 70's, 80's and GB News | Freeview for the changes.
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PJS:
Update - Rowridge has now appeared on the Planned Engineering list, is your aunt still affected?
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PJS:
With the Planned Engineering, any one or several multiplexes could be affected at any time depending on the nature of the work being done. There could be service interruptions or reduced power (the latter possibly causing picture or sound break-up).
You should NEVER retune when this sort of work is going on as it can usually end up just clearing the correct tuning, or even getting tuned to some more remote transmitter whose signals will not be stable.
If you do so, you'll end up have to retune again when the signals are back to normal, and as you can't be certain when that might be, you may have to try several times. If necessary, manual tuning on the affected multiplex(es) would be better than a full auto-retune as you don't run the risk of messing up those multiplexes that are ok.
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DH:
The Bluebell Hill transmitter is currently having Planned Engineering. The information available suggests that it could be operating on reduced power affecting one or more multiplexes at any given time. whilst the work is i progress. Do NOT retune whilst you have no signal or bad breakup as this usually just clears the correct tuning.
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Mrs Allen:
One of the "problems" of being quite high on a hill. especially in parts of South Pembrokeshire, is that you can pick up more than one transmitter. According to the predictions you could theoretically pick up six! Unfortunately none of them are predicted to give reliable reception of all the multiplexes (groups of programmes that are carried on one UHF broadcast channel).
See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which programmes/channels are carried on which multiplex.
Preseli is you "main" most likely transmitter virtually due north of you (bearing 4 degrees). Is your aerial pointing that way? The aerial rods (or squashed x's) would be horizontal.
The Freeview predictor suggests you should get reliable reception of the 3 PSB multiplexes - BBCA/PSB1, D3&4/PSB2 and BBCB HD/PSB3 but only variable reception (or none) of the commercial multiplexes COMs4-6 depending on where you are in your road. There is no COM7 or Local Multiplex at Preseli (or Carmel, Kilvey Hill or N.Devon transmitter Huntshaw Cross. There is COM7 from Wenvoe - Wales and Mendip - West).
Now it's also possible, like a number of properties down on the seafront, that your aerial may be pointing at Wenvoe or Kilvey Hill, both in a very similar direction, bearing 109 or 104 degrees (that's just 19 or 14 degrees slightly S of due E) the essential difference being for Wenvoe the rods will be horizontal, but vertical for Kilvey Hill. Kilvey Hill is more likely to give poor/no reception whereas Wenvoe could be good/variable for the PSBs and COM7 but maybe poor/none for COMs4-6.
The "problem" in locations such as yours is that some of the transmitters use the same UHF channels for some of the multiplexes, so there is interference between them. A really good aerial/aerial array would be needed to minimise that and it's not always possible to eliminate it for all the time (weather dependent). This is the case for COMs4-6 from Preseli and Wenvoe, also to complicate the issue the transmitter power is less for these COMs compared to the PSBs to minimise locations with interference but it also reduces coverage.
I think that's enough (technical) explanation of the Freeview situation. If you tell us which Programmes/Channels you want to watch that are pixellating, that would help with more detailed advice.
In general you'd perhaps be better going for Freesat. A lot of modern sets have a Satellite tuner built-in, so you just need the Dish and LNB. Do you know if yours has? What make and model? This could be a cheaper option that having your aerial (array) changed/upgraded.
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Monday 3 May 2021 8:48PM
John Pykett:
That is the situation as I've understood it.