All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Bert:
This is quite odd, as according to the predictions, you are in a bit of an awkward location but none-the-less the SDN/COM4 is predicted to be the strongest/most reliable of all the multiplexes from Bluebell Hill!
I am also puzzled by the predictions as it would appear that you have line-of-sight to all the significant transmitters, never mind the nearest one - Bluebell Hill, unless you are very locally in a bit of a dip or have your signal path blocked by some local buildings, even then I would have expected other multiplexes to be affected.
Did you clear all previous tuning first as I'd previously suggested in my last post?
Have you changed anything around in your installation, or have any new bits of equipment?
Do you have anything with an RF output on it, such as an older Skybox, Set-top box, Games console etc. which may now be switched on which wasn't previously or had the RF output channel changed which may now be causing interference to UHF C40? Is a next door neighbour having similar issues?
If you have any splitters/boosters/amplifiers in your system, try one TV set directly connected to the aerial to see if you can get signal (albeit perhaps low) but with an improved quality.
Check all you coax plugs, connections, flyleads etc, unplug connectors check for corrosion or other problems and reconnect them, flyleads can be a common problem, try swapping them.
See if the signal strengths and quality you are getting for the other multiplexes shown in your TV's tuning section is what you normally get, this might indicate potential issues with your aerial or downlead.
Also check that your downlead looks undamaged and that your aerial seems intact and pointing in the correct direction.
Problematic connections, water ingress etc. can seem to affect reception of just an individual or several multiplexes.
I really can't think of what else to suggest, other than when you've checked all the above, if the problem remains and if neighbours have the same issue, all phone FreeviewAdvice on 0808-100-0288.
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George:
You can apparently receive several transmitters at your location, but the most reliable main transmitters is likely to be Emley Moor, in which case your aerial should be pointing ~SSW (bearing 202 deg.) with the rods horizontal.
That said, none of the transmitters have any reported faults according to Freeview or the BBC.
When was the last time you had a signal? Is it all channels that you are not receiving or just some, if so which ones?
Check all you coax plugs, connections, flyleads etc, unplug connectors check for corrosion or other problems and reconnect them. See what signal strengths (if any) and quality you are getting for the multiplexes shown in your TV's tuning section, this might indicate potential issues with your aerial or downlead. Also check that your downlead looks undamaged and that your aerial seems intact and pointing in the correct direction.
Problematic connections, water ingress etc. can seem to affect reception of just an individual or several multiplexes.
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David Mansell:
It's likely to be due to the way the information is currently collated automatically and posted on the various transmitter pages. I think there are some bugs in the system at present which I believe are currently being looked at.
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David watkins:
The Pontypridd transmitter is well to the north of Upper Boat, it's probably better described as being just north of Glyntaff and very close to the east of Coedpenmaen. If you click on Pontypridd it will go to its transmitter page where the map will show its location. It's 10 degrees S of E and about 5km from your location.
There are over 1100+ TV transmitters in the UK of which over 1000+ are "relay" transmitters, the great majority of which are Freeview "Light" transmitters which only transmit the 3 PSB multiplexes. Of these Public Service Broadcast multiplexes, PSB3 is the BBCB HD multiplex for the main HD TV channels which you can only receive if you have a TV with an HD (T2) tuner. The two other multiplexes PSB1/BBCA and PSB2/D3&4 broadcast the SD Standard Definition channels of which there are 21 TV channels and the BBC radio stations. So there is nothing unusual about your situation, it's like many that have to rely on a PSB relay "Light" transmitter.
The main transmitters cannot cover the whole country simply because of it geographic nature which is why we have all the relay transmitters to fill in most of the gaps. Because most of these relay transmitters only cover small populations, the commercial broadcasters don't consider it cost effective to pay for additional transmitters on those sites to provide the other 3 main COM (commercial) multiplexes.
Two other HD multiplexes COMs 7&8 are not broadcast from all Main transmitters because of technical limitations and cost effectiveness. In any event we are expecting those to be closed by around 2022 when the frequencies may be required for 5G mobile use. Whether the commercial broadcasters and transmitter operators will at that time consider it cost effective to start converting any of the remaining multiplexes to T2 (HD) which can then accommodate more channels, remains to be seen.
According to the Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker, you could receive signals from 5 transmitters at your location - 4 Welsh, and the 5th is Mendip (West of England main transmitter) but the reliability of signals from all but the 3 very local Relay transmitters will be variable to poor for most of the multiplexes.
The 3 local transmitters are Porth about 0.7km to the NW of you, Trebanog just over 1km to the SW, and Pontypridd. Trebanog is very low power (2W), Porth is also very low power (12W) and Pontypridd is low power 400W where you are likely to get your most reliable signals from even though all 3 are predicted to give good reception.
See Problems with Freeview reception? | RTIS to give you more of a feel for reception of these Welsh transmitters.
If you want to receive more TV channels (including some not broadcast on Freeview), you could consider Freesat which is subscription free, otherwise the other options are Sky, or Cable if available in your area.
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David watkins:
To add to my last, if you have a decent broadband connection with unlimited usage, you could consider a more modern "smart" TV that can connect to the Internet where you can "stream" some additional channels, also make use of "catch-up" services, and many of these sets are now UHD (4k) definition (limited streaming services available for UHD at present) and a number of sets will also have satellite tuners built-in so you only need a dish and LNB to get Freesat.
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Gregory Murphy:
Maybe it would be best to contact Freeview Advice. if this is an issue affecting several people, there could be an issue at the transmitter that they aren't aware of - eg. signal not radiating correctly in one direction.
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Mike Chenery:
As has been mentioned many times on various pages on this site, the site owner has not been able to keep up with all the changes associated with the 700MHz clearance. Suggest your refer to Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free
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Mike Davison:
As has been mentioned many times around various pages on this site, the site owner has not been able to keep up with all the changes resulting from the 700MHz clearance. Refer to Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free where you should find up-to-date information.
The pagebar problem on the Emley_Moor pages is something that's more recent, even a direct link back to my post on this is not working !!
"Not sure what happens on this site from time to time, but one can't get back to previous pages as the links seem to get corrupted eg. at present Page 209 has the link Emley Moor (Kirklees, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy and it just stays on Page 210. The corruption seems to be the _(U) after Emley_Moor.
The workaround seems to be Right Click the page number and select Copy Link Location. Paste that into the address bar and delete the _(U) from the address before pressing Return/Go."
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Philip Lyons:
There doesn't seem to be any reports of transmitter problems either by the BBC or Freeview and there's no Planned Maintenance listed.
See my post prior to yours, then unplug the aerial and carry out a full automatic retune. This should clear all previous tuning as no channels will be found. Plug the aerial back in and then carry out a retune, either automatically if that normally works for you without picking up other transmitters, otherwise tune manually using the UHF channels for Rowridge.
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Wednesday 11 December 2019 12:52PM
Bert:
For what should be an up-to-date list of which channels are on which multiplex see Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free corporate/platform-management/channel-listings">Channel listings | Freeview
I can find no reports of transmitter problems at Bluebell Hill at this time, neither being reported by the BBC or Freeview. Your issues sounds a bit like your TV's memory needs clearing.
The site owner has been unable to keep up with all the 700MHz clearance changes and as has been said quite a few times on this and other transmitter boards, the best place to look is the official listings on the Freeview site (now that the digitalUK site has been merged into it).
Goto Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free and scroll to the box "Check Freeview at my home", put in the postcode and house number/name and click "Check".
On the new page, amongst other things, you should see a mention of any Planned work Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free corporate/platform-management/planned-engineering-works
also whether there's any current transmitter issues - I've not always found the latter to be 100% reliable.
On this new page, scroll down just over half way and click "Detailed view".
You'll now see a list of any transmitters and their multiplexes that are predicted to be received at your location. You can hover over some of the information to get more detail/explanation, eg. hover over a channel number will give the transmission mode and the power in kW.
Another source of help & information is Advice about receiving TV and radio | RTIS Select the service you are having problems with and then enter your postcode and house name/number. It will show you which transmitters you might receive, you select the one you are interested in.
To hopefully resolve your current problem, unplug your aerial and do an automatic retune. This should clear all previous tuning as no channels will be found.
Plug the aerial back in and then retune (manually was your choice) to the UHF channels listed on the Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker.