All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Melvin Rochon:
I suggest the site owner is probably not interested, but you'd best contact him direct as posting here is most likely a waste of time.
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Greg:
The fact that C31 is "missing" is odd. It won't be directly/solely related to its strength. I still believe this has something to do with the way your set(s) are handling the tuning and the fact that Emley's signal appears to be stronger for the BBCA mux. Are they the same make/model?
When you have things like water tanks somewhere in front of the aerial, things can often get very unpredictable. If an aerial is not in a "particular" alignment it is possible for it to make a huge difference to reception maybe of just one multiplex, so at the moment it's anyone's guess. Especially as other nearby "external" local factors may have an influence, never mind the roof tiles, lead flashing etc etc.
One of the reasons I asked you to post the Strength and Quality figures for each mux (on the set that's only missing C31 but otherwise tuned to all Chesterfield) is to give a better idea about what might be going on.
As you have an amp/splitter (what make/model?), without changing anything else (ie. not retuning etc.) if you could also post the same Strength & Quality figures with the aerial directly fed (use a coax coupler) to the downlead for the same set and with the amp/splitter powered off.
This sort of information could help analyse what is happening without the need for professional equipment.
As far as loft environments go, yours may be dry and well ventilated but lofts can get very hot when in full sun and very cold at night if temperatures drop, and condensation can occur on anything metal, and that of course could sometimes introduce some corrosion. This is why it's always worth looking at the connections if it's been installed a long time - BUT do it after you've done and posted those Strength/Quaility figures!
As well as playing with your phone app "UK Aerial Alignment", I would use the Compass App to get a decent feel for the direction the aerial is actually pointing in. As mentioned in an earlier post Chesterfield is just 4 degrees W of due N according to DUK/Freeview's database from your location which should use the most accurate information. I've no idea what database that App might be using. BUT in any event local conditions MIGHT mean that the best alignment for the aerial is not necessarily precisely in that direction.
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Len Taylor:
Whilst you've posted on the DAB transmitter page, there's not currently any useful information on the Freeview page. Whilst you aren't totally clear about your problem, I'm assuming you mean the picture is "pixellating" ie getting a bit blocky. You haven't mentioned if the sound also breaks up, nor which channels are affected.
As you haven't given a full postcode we can't tell what your normal predicted reception should be like. Was your aerial professionally installed?
The Midhurst transmitter is currently listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels" ;. This could explain your issue.
Other than that I assume you are correctly tuned to Midhurst's UHF channels C48, C35, C36, C29, C34, C33 (note unfortunately the site owner has made an error with some of the updates at the top of the page).
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Len Taylor:
Apologies, this IS the Freeview page, I made the wrong assumption because of the post prior to yours!
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Paul Taylor:
I'm not familiar with your set, but a few things occurred to me as I was reading.
My first reaction was to do with the DVD Recorder. I've certainly come across stories where the signal to the set disappears at various times depending on what recordings have been set - this is on the assumption your aerial is fed through the recorder and then on to the TV.
So my first question is - are you sure the set is actually switching off? Or is the screen just going black and no sound for those few seconds?
My next thought was that if it was anything to do with anything in the transmitted signal, the this would undoubtedly be as a result of a bug in the set's firmware. You mentioned the set has never been connected to the internet so I guess it's never had any firmware update, so if there was a bug, it could be fixed in a later update.
You said your aerial installation was around 30 years old, but wasn't giving you any problems. Are you absolutely sure of that? Where is the aerial? If it's external then water ingress could be an issue. Is the downlead secure or can it flap about a bit in the wind? Degradation of an aerial installation can reduce the signal somewhat and if it's become marginal then anything that affects the received signal could mean it disappears briefly. Having said that, and considering the periodicity of your issue it may only happen under certain weather conditions.
Have a look through your TV's tuning sections and see if you can find the Signal Strength and Quality figures (or Error/BER) for each UHF channel multiplex and post the figures for each. This may help eliminate or identify any signal issues.
I'd be inclined to connect the set to the internet and look for a firmware update - there is one. If you can't do it that way, you can download it from here -
Download Information of TV 2010-year Models for UK | Download | TV | Digital AV | Support | Panasonic Global
The page also has information on how to do it using that method.
One other idea, make sure your HDMI leads are not close to any aerial or flyleads especially if the aerial and flyleads are not high quality double screened types as HDMI has been known to cause interference.
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John Tupper:
Well the BBC have reported one fault -
From 6:58:00pm to 7:25:27pm on 19th Feb 2022 BBC B HD Off the air due to a fault.
If you perchance retuned when there was no signal it will most likely just have cleared your correct tuning and so you may not know if it's back on air.
I would imagine with all the outages that are likely to be about, staff everywhere are having trouble keeping up with it all. You could try checking via your power distribution company's website if there's a power outage which might be the cause.
Hey, done it for you, Electricity North West shows there was a power cut and power has now been restored.
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Peter Hatt:
If it's the Wooburn transmitter that you normally receive, the BBC are reporting it as off-air due to a fault.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks are reporting a power cut and are hoping power will be restored by 2300 hrs tonight.
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Michelangelo :
A full postcode could have helped in case terrain makes a difference to the transmitters you may receive in your area.
That said, it appears you may get BBC National DAB from Midhurst and the BBC are reporting the transmitter as air due to a fault. There are some power cuts in parts of the area reported by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks. Power may be restored by 2300.
You may get your FM from Rowridge and the transmitter is supposedly on reduced power due to a fault.
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I've seen a report that the Local multiplex started on 1st December 2021. Block 11B: 218.640 MHz
Details of the OFCOM licence
Ofcom | Digital Radio Stations
Stations currently are
BBC Cumbria 64 kbit/s DAB+ Stereo HE-AAC v1 Varied Speech
Bay Trust Radio 32 kbit/s DAB+ Stereo HE-AAC v2 Pop Music
Beyond Radio 24 kbit/s DAB+ Stereo HE-AAC v2 Varied Speech
Cando FM 32 kbit/s DAB+ Stereo HE-AAC v2 Pop Music
Fun Kids UK 24 kbit/s DAB+ Mono HE-AAC v1 Children's Progs
Heart N Lancs 112 kbit/s Joint Stereo Pop Music
Nation 80s 80 kbit/s Mono Pop Music
Smooth Lake Dist 112 kbit/s Joint Stereo Pop Music
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Wednesday 16 February 2022 12:31AM
Greg:
As mentioned in the following reply Chesterfield (Derbyshire, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy Waltham is over 70km away. If it were a persistent problem for you, neither Freeview's Detailed coverage checker (mentioned by StevensOnln1) nor the Radio and Television Interference Service or the BBC (I checked all) would predict good reception of C31 for you. Yes your set could tune to the best signals it finds if no other preferences have been specified or can be set. Manual tuning the wanted UHF channels is the solution to that one.
Waltham is in the complete opposite direction to Chesterfield & Emley at your location and so would have to be receiving the horizontally polarised signals from Waltham off the back of your vertically polarised aerial. Whilst it's unlikely under normal conditions it's not inconceivable. It you had a suitable aerial (with sufficient gain) pointing at Waltham you are predicted to get good signals for the PSBs but NONE for ArqB/COM6 which is on C31 at Waltham, that being due to the strong C31 from Chesterfield.
I assume you aerial doesn't have any missing bits.
The poster in question did not come back and provide a full postcode so we were unable to check predicted reception BUT located in Dronfield, both Chesterfield and Waltham would be in a generally SE direction and as pointed out by the other poster that replied it can be a problem in that area with poor aerial installation. Furthermore, if that poster had some form of splitter/booster system to feed several TVs, they may have had too much gain bringing in unnecessarily strong signals from Waltham as well as overloading the TV front ends with Chesterfield signals which would result in poor signal quality (a common problem with excessive signal).
Another possible relevant factor at that time was that Storm Arwen had occurred a few days before. We've no idea about the condition of that poster's aerial or downlead and its connections which may have been damaged or had water ingress. (I didn't ask about yours because you mentioned it was in the loft).
Having mentioned about reception under "normal" conditions, there's been no weather related "lifts/temperature inversion/tropospheric ducting" conditions in the last few days and only some very minor and very brief conditions a week ago. That wasn't the case though when the retune occurred as I mentioned previously.
As I also mentioned, predicted reception of Emley is generally better across your postcode BUT it is always dependent on local conditions. One thing people often tend to ignore is trees on the line-of-sight!
You mention your TV stops at 800, this seems rather odd. I'm not convinced you are not receiving C31 from Chesterfield, simply that your set is not using it as the preferred BBCA/PSB1 multiplex for some reason. It is common when sets receive two signals of the same multiplex (even when different regions) it will put the weaker signal (unless it's the chosen region) in the 800s.
HD channels have limited regions at present, that is due to change later in the year.
I suggest there's a few things you could do here. Go through your TV's settings and tuning sections looking for any "automated retune" on no signal setting - if you find one, turn it off, it's more trouble than it's worth. Retunes are rarely needed these days, often only when the commercial operators make some changes to their channels on the COM muxes and then there's usually a pop-up on screen message so you can either manually retune or initiate an automatic one.
In your TV tuning section wherever it gives the Strength and Quality (or Error/BER) figures for each UHF channel's multiplex, post those figures for each.
It might be an idea to 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. Also check the connections at your aerial for corrosion particularly if its been installed for a long time but especially as you mentioned losing presumably C31 on your old TV a year ago.
Problematic connections can seem to affect reception of just an individual or several multiplexes.
Make sure you don't have any HDMI leads close to your aerial leads or flyleads, as HDMI has been known to cause interference.
Do you have a distribution amp/splitter?