All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
David McAlpine:
The BBC have reported that -
From 10:31am to 11:03am on 2nd Oct 2025 - Off the air due to essential engineering
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David Graham:
The BBC have reported this -
From 7:43am to 12:18pm on 6th Oct 2025 Off the air due to a fault.
The reasons are never specified.
The transmitter should of course be back on air now.
I suspect this is all likely to be due to power outages due to storm damage and repair work.
I hope you didn't Retune when you had No Signal, as this will likely have just cleared your correct tuning.
You Cannot tune to signals that aren't there or can't be decoded.
If you did, you'll have to retune again when signals are normal.
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Andrew Oldacre:
Several points here.
Firstly, as currently noted at the top of this page, the Transmitter is listed for Planned Engineering again. Details of the work aren't usually provided.
As with many main transmitters, it has been having such engineering work on and off in recent months (It's likely the work is to do with maintenance of the structure which means service interruptions or reduced power are sometimes needed when engineers work close to the antenna).
Reduced power could affect your reception if you are in a weak signal area, but as you haven't given a full postocde we can't advise on that.
Also, Weather conditions that sometimes occur with High Pressure have periodically had effects on reception for some.
As you've mentioned your reception is worse when it's windy, then checking your aerial installation would be a good idea.
Check that the aerial is still pointing in the correct direction with its rods (or squashed Xs) vertical. Again without the full postcode we can't advise on that.
Check that the coax downlead isn't flapping about in the wind.
Check the coax plug (or wall-plate) on the end of the aerial coax for water or corrosion. If there is any, then it's possible the aerial connection or downlead have deteriorated and letting in water and could require replacing.
Hope that is of some help.
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john slater:
Just to add to that, the aerial rods (or squashed Xs) should be horizontal.
Have you had a Postcard from Restore TV?
They claim they haven't sent any to your postcode, see -
https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/
However we know of several cases where they should have been sent and haven't!
You could be suffering interference from a new/upgraded mobile mast, there's at least one just behind you, and two just over 1km away just off the line-of-sight to Heathfield.
I'd get in touch with them and ask for the Free Filter. If you have an amp/splitter to feed more than one TV/Box, the filter should be fitted before the amp/splitter.
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Alan Donald:
Like Andrew Oldacre, as you haven't given a full postcode, it's impossible to comment on your predicted reception. None of the predictors work on partial postcodes or solely on distance as terrain is an important factor.
I can only assume that your are somewhere in the general area of Armadale to get any reception from Mallaig, and as you say it's a Freeview Light Relay transmitter but AFAIK it still gets its signals from Torosay relayed by Glengorm. So there are a number of other factors that could cause disruption to your signal including weather conditions.
You comment on your signals and quality hovering around 100%. Ideally Quality should always be 100%. Signal strength can be lower. If you have amplification, too much gain can cause problems and whilst you may think turning it up is good it can overload the receiver front end and the apparent strength shown can go down (when it actually hasn't), and the quality will eventually drop from 100% as well.
The general advise already given should be followed especially in light of the severe weather conditions you've likely to have had in recent times.
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In addition to the above comments -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/work-warning/weather-warning/waw-high-pressure
https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/updates-alerts/high-pressure-10-october-2025
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Wednesday 1 October 2025 2:02PM
Peter:
No reports of any faults at present but it could be a bit early to see any. IIRC it's as relay transmitter, so if there's maintenance etc going on at the transmitter it gets signals from, that may be a reason. I doubt it'll be off air for very long unless you have severe weather there at present and there's a power cut!