All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Karl:
StevensOnln1:
I bet whoever is installing them is making a killing! They do look reasonably well made (time will tell) and they are cheap!
A bit shorter than that LP and if the figures are to be believed, similar gain.
On paper I suppose that providing the loss in the downlead is less than the aerial gain, it'll be OK as you are in quite a good signal area, I'd guess about 50dBuV @10m external unobstructed, even feeding an amp/splitter all should be well, but it could get very iffy with passive splitters. Personally I'd prefer a bit more signal.
Consideration also needs to be given to the F/B ratio and beamwidth. However I'd think that with the low gain then Moel-y-Parc shouldn't be an issue, and considering your particular near coastal location F/B shouldn't be an issue either, but never the less I'd still go for that Labgear LP if COM7 isn't an issue.
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Steven Smith:
No it's not an accurate analysis as no announcements have been made about the conversion of ANY of the 5 current non-HD muxes to T2.
Secondly, it's highly unlikely that when it does happen, that they'd be all done at once, it'll be a progressive thing and will no doubt happen region by region as well. It's more likely that such conversion will start with the COM multiplexes and not the PSBs so those with only "Freeview Light" transmitters will be the last to be affected.
IIRC, non-T2 sets and boxes have not been on sale for some considerable time and the "Green Tick" logo was withdrawn from such items long ago.
And of course any usable sets out there that are not T2, can make use of T2 set-top boxes until their owners decide to replace them. Some have suggested there could be a scheme to supply such boxes in a manner similar to that which was done for DSO.
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Clive Street:
The Rowridge Local mux is certainly available in parts of your postcode. The figures are definitely green - 84 Served and 99 Marginal, so that's pretty good. The aerial needs to be horizontal for the Local mux and COM7.
Loft installation will reduce signal a bit, but 30% for the main muxes is a bit low, unless your signal is coming through a party wall in the loft or a metal tank etc. it ought to be better.
I'll look into the signal variation across the postcode and post again later.
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Gary:
It's Temperature Inversion/Tropospheric Ducting again I'm afraid. See my previous posts before yours if you want more detail. It's unlikely to clear completely until some time tomorrow and then it could still be a bit intermittent for a few days.
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Ben Castell:
We don't say there's no problem, being an independent technical helpsite, but we're going to need some more detail.
Now depending on where you are in the Rayleigh area (we'd need a full postcode to advise in more detail) there is possibly 3 transmitters you might receive, none of which are currently or recently reporting faults and are not on Planned Engineering.
Can you explain exactly what happened on the 22nd. Did you start to suffer picture pixellation and sound break-up which persisted for a while and that then turned to "No signal" ?
Did you then retune when you had no signal?
If that's what happened then you will have just cleared your correct tuning, you should never retune when you have no signal.
If that was the general train of events, this was most likely cause by the weather conditions at the time. The high pressure system was accompanied by some Temperature Inversion/Tropospheric Ducting affecting large parts of the UK for several days.
Essentially it results in interfering signals from other transmitters in the UK or Europe reaching you and so your wanted signals are disrupted. It won't necessarily affect all multiplexes or necessarily at the same time if more than one. It can last for seconds, minutes, sometimes hours or longer.
Despite the incorrect spelling, this link does work - simple technical explanation
https://www.bbc.co.uk/rec….jpg
So IF you did retune when you had "no signal", you are going to need to retune again to get your correct tuning back BUT unfortunately it's possibly a bad time again as there is currently some more Tropospheric Ducting present, so you may need to try several times, you may even get incorrect transmitter signals which will eventually disappear.
IF you didn't retune initially then there a few checks you should do before trying a retune -
Have you checked the connections behind your TV?
I would check that your aerial seems intact and pointing in the correct direction and that your downlead looks undamaged (especially if it is old) and is secure and not flapping in the wind..
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 (if any) you are getting for the multiplexes (groups of channels) shown in your TV's tuning section, that information may indicate issues with your aerial or downlead or possibly any distribution amp/splitter you may have.
Problematic connections, water ingress etc. can seem to affect reception of just an individual or several multiplexes.
If ultimately you still don't have any luck, post back with a full postcode, also the direction your aerial is pointing (rough compass bearing) and whether its rods (or squashed Xs) are horizontal or vertical, and is it external or loft mounted? Do you have any distribution amp/splitter? Tell us more about what the sequence of events were on the 22nd.
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Derek Matravers:
Do you currently have "no signal" on UHF C55 or is it just not tuned - maybe you did a retune when you lost signal (may have been weather conditions a couple of weeks ago) and this cleared the tuning?
Try a Manual tune on UHF C55.
Unfortunately we have those "weather conditions" again right now - Temperature Inversion/Tropospheric Ducting affecting large parts of the UK and disrupting signal for some, so you may have to try that manual retune several times.
I would check that your aerial seems intact and pointing in the correct direction and that your downlead looks undamaged (especially if it is old) and is secure and not flapping in the wind.
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 multiplexes (groups of channels) shown in your TV's tuning section, that information may indicate issues with your aerial or downlead or possibly any distribution amp/splitter you may have..
Problematic connections, water ingress etc. can seem to affect reception of just AN individual, or several multiplexes.
There are currently or recently no reported faults at Wenvoe, there would be a lot more people posting if there was.
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Andrew Grant:
Considering the general M33 area, as you are getting your signals from the Winter Hill transmitter, there is the Manchester GI mux transmitted on UHF C27 and the Local Manchester mux on C27 - the one you're having a problem with.
If you look in your TV tuning section, what Signal Strength and Quality (or BER - bit error rate) do you normal have on C27?
Current weather conditions (again!) - Tropospheric Ducting - may be causing some disruption to signals. If you have lost tuning for C27 altogether, try a Manual tune on C27. I would not advise a full/automatic retune with current conditions.
Some of the channels are available on-line, I'm not certain which ones, you'll just have to search for a particular one.
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Clive Street:
Having looked into this in more detail, it's because the coverage checker says the most likely transmitter is Rowridge VP (vertical polarisation) so when you use the Channel Checker instead of the Detailed Coverage Checker you don't get COM7 or the Local mux, so only120 channels.
When using the Detailed Coverage Checker, if you use Horizontal Polarisation you get the lot, BUT low house numbers in the postcode (primarily those below 20) are predicted variable reception on the COM & Local muxes.
In your 5.05 PM post where you are listing the UHF channels you include C37 which is the Local mux, so you are getting it (note - the list at the top of this page is out of date).
No sign of C55 in your list (COM7). How old is you aerial? If it's quite old (pre-DSO 2012/13) it could be a Group A aerial - the original group for Rowridge - so it's not designed for C55 - does it have a Red plug in either end?
You could try a manual tune of C55 but if it's a Group A aerial I doubt you'll get it especially as the strength for the other main muxes is 30%.
Now before you even think about rushing to change it, don't. COM7 was ever only a temporary mux and is due to close by the 30th June 2022 under the current licence.
However, as I've already mentioned 30% is quite low. How many rods on the aerial (those in front of the dipole - where the coax goes)? I don't suppose you know what make/model the aerial is?
Is the aerial pointing correctly - it should be compass bearing 212 degrees for you (that's roughly 13 degrees S of SW). A slight amount either way can sometimes improve the signal.
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John B:
You are predicted to get excellent reception from Mendip in your locale. Your problems are highly unlikely to be related to any of the mobile masts that you've mentioned. If there was interference from these masts it would be a consistent problem, not one that comes and goes.
If the problems were related to yesterday (evening primarily) and possibly some this morning, then it's most likely to have been the current weather conditions. There has been some Temperature Inversion/Tropospheric Ducting which has been disrupting signals in various parts of the UK for some.
Essentially it results in interfering signals from other transmitters in the UK or Europe reaching you and so your wanted signals are disrupted. It won't necessarily affect all multiplexes or necessarily at the same time if more than one. It can last for seconds, minutes, sometimes hours or longer.
Despite the incorrect spelling, this link does work - simple technical explanation
https://www.bbc.co.uk/rec….jpg
It's always possible these conditions may affect you again during the next 24hrs according to some current predictions but if they continue after tomorrow evening when they should have cleared, then it might be wise to make some basic checks.
I would check that your aerial seems intact and pointing in the correct direction (compass bearing 234 degrees for you, that's 9 degrees W of SW), and that your downlead looks undamaged (especially if it is old) and is secure and not flapping in the wind..
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.
Make sure you don't have any HDMI leads near unscreened/poorly screened flyleads/aerial leads especially if those aren't double screened coax as HDMI has been known to cause interference.
One other check you could do is to connect your aerial output direct to your main TV feed eliminating the DA in case that's playing up.
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Thursday 30 December 2021 1:43PM
Chrissie:
If you are getting your DAB signals from Lark Stoke, there is currently a fault affecting the BBC national multiplex. Whether it's affecting any commercial multiplexes (D1 in this case) is impossible to say as finding listed faults for them (unless they carry a BBC station) is almost impossible these days.
If the signal doesn't return shortly, your best bet would be to contact LBC direct as they should know who to get hold of to get some attention to the fault.