All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Paul hudson:
If you mean Hill Rd. in WSM then you stand a chance BUT that's a guess on my part, we do need a full postcode to look at the predicted reception. If you look at the coverage map above with Pro-mode enabled and zoom in, you can see the general difficulties in the WSM area, but do not take the map as 100% accurate, these things aren't always the case (nor are predictors) but they give a general idea.
Which way are you neighbours aerials pointing? Are the rods (or squashed Xs) horizontal or vertical? If they are horizontal and pointing roughly ESE (although depending on location Hutton maybe roughly the same direction but vertical rods) then you may get Mendip, but a full postcode will give a far better idea.
If you want all multiplexes from Mendip, you'd need a Group T/Wideband aerial BUT if predicted reception (especially of COM7) isn't good, you might be better with a Group A and forget COM7 (but again you might get that off the back of the aerial from Wenvoe. Whatever, do not be tempted to buy one of these "baco-foil" aerials from certain DIY outlets, the first pigeon or two to land on it will bend things all over the place!
Once we know what the predicted reception might be and what your neighbours are getting, we should be able to give some sensible choices.
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Rob:
A lot of modern TVs have a Satellite tuner built-in. If so, you'd only need a Dish and LNB for Freesat.
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Robin:
There isn't exactly a large number of transmitters in quite a large surrounding area transmitting the SDL multiplex - it's not on Stockland Hill.
The only ones AFAIK are Exeter St.Thomas, Beacon Hill, Mendip & Bincombe Hill in Dorset, however I'm a bit baffled by the data I can find, that says in the centre of Chard you can only get the main BBC DAB mux with good reception and fair reception of the Local mux carrying BBC Somerset (possibly from the Taunton transmitter), yet a transmitter map suggests there is maybe a commercial multiplex at Stockland Hill (but not SDL or D1). My guess would be that you are receiving Scala and Times Radio from Mendip on the way home as I don't think the other transmitters' coverage would get to the Chard area!
The SDL mux is Block 11A: 216.928 MHz, have you tried manual tuning on your set(s) at home, often auto-tune can miss signals that are weak. Obviously you've got it already tuned in the car!
Scala is part of the Bauer group and they (Bauer and their stations) don't seem to want to be readily contacted by convenient things like email or phone but they do have presence on social media if you use any of that.
Times Radio are also on social media, but do have an email studio@times.radio
If you contact the stations themselves, I'd suggest you ask them to forward your enquiry to the relevanmt engineering people or otherwise you'll likely get a non-committal answer!
As the SDL mux is part owned by Arqiva and Bauer and it's Arqiva that install and maintain the transmitters, you could try asking both of them if there are plans to add the mux to the Chard Somerset transmitter or any other nearby main transmitters.
Arqiva seem readily contactable at radio@arqiva.com, Bauer don't seem to have readily available contacts for the public, the best I can find is their Media Communications Director cat.martin@bauermedia.co.uk
So good luck with that, let us know how you get on.
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Keith Lawler:
This is the second report I've seen about the ArqB/COM6 multiplex from the Clacton transmitter, yet no-one seems to have any Planned Engineering or Faults listed.
Mind you Freeview stupidly think your "preferred" transmitter is Sudbury whilst predicting better reception of all multiplexes from Clacton!
Check in your TV Tuning section that you are tuned to Clacton for COM6, UHF C46. Sudbury is in virtually an identical direction from your locale but on C37 for COM6.
You could try contacting Arqiva enquiries@arqiva.com as I think contacting Freeview for faults is like banging ones head against a wall unless you want repeat advise on how to retune - which by the way I do NOT recommend, if signals are missing retune just clears you current correct tuning!
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Darren Brian White:
They need to sack their sound engineer though, at least they seem to have bought a few more LEDs for Dewbs!
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jack:
Thanks for the update, keep us posted of anything significant.
The only thing I can add to my comment about COM7 SFN and Planned Engineering at other near main transmitters is that Ridge Hill had Planned Engineering last week with "Possible weak signal" and now Oxford and Waltham are similarly listed this week. Theoretically I guess it could have some impact on your COM7 signal.
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David Mundy:
The sound quality and levels have a lot to be desired, hopefully they'll get it sorted soon before a lot of people give up!
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Great British Tripe:
Totally agree on self sufficiency, maybe too much is imported from the EU.
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Chris :
Manual tune the UHF channels for the multiplexes you are currently missing, do it when you see a general improvement in quality, but it's going to be a bit hit and miss whilst the "Tropospheric Ducting" that's here with the high pressure persists and you may have to try several times. There's not a lot you can do about such weather conditions except if you lose signal or have badly pixelated picture at anytime be it weather, planned engineering or local interference, do NOT retune., as you've discovered it will just clear the channels on the multiplexes affected.
"Tropo" causes signals from more distant transmitters, which can be in the UK or Europe, to travel a lot further than normal. It is currently affecting different parts of the country by varying degrees and signals can change by the second or remain stable for much longer periods and may persist for a few more days.
For a fairly simplistic explanation, see
How does good weather affect my television? | Help receiving TV and radio and
Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | Help receiving TV and radio
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Saturday 12 June 2021 9:11AM
andy:
Oh, to add to the above, make sure the HDMI leads are not close to any of the RF leads. The RF leads should ideally be quality double screened types, as HDMI has been known to cause interference, especially to C55.