All posts by Dale
Below are all of Dale's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.Brian : assuming you are pointing at Sudbury, did you have the digital ITV channels before today? Many people around here (Ipswich) cannot pick them up yet because they are still on very low power on CH56 from Sudbury B : I get them OK in IP2, but my brother-in-law, half a mile away and also in IP2, has never received them despite buying the most expensive aerial he could find! He is 'lower down' than me (i.e. closer to sea level) and I've always assumed that tbis is the problem. They will be fine on full power from July 20th.
Alternatively, are you on the Stoke Relay and picking up Freeview for the first time? In which case, it is only the BBC channels that are currently being relayed from there : from July 20th it will relay the PSB channels, sometimes called Freeview Lite, and that will include *some* of the ITV channels (but not all).
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Kim Lay : as others have said, today it is only the BBC channels which have moved to full power on Freeview ; you need to wait another 2 weeks before ITV1/C4/C5 (and others) join them.
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Mike : Chsnnel 68 from Sudbury is definitely NOT directed at the East : it is almost non-existent East of Sudbury. Channel 56 from Sudbury B is the only version of Mux 2 that carries to the East. That said, Steve in Bury is to the West of Sudbury so might have a chance of getting CH68.
This is quite a good page :
Sudbury Transmitter (IP29XY)
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Have just found that Mux 2, on Channel 56 from Sudbury B, while still on very low power, is now using 8K FFT mode : I have no idea what that REALLY means (!!) but I wonder if the change from 2K mode (which was not predicted until DSO 2 on 20th July) is the reason why many people are having problems with Mux 2, on both CH56 and CH68, since yesterday. The signal quality here (IP2), for instance, has gone from 80% down to a fluctuating 50-60% since switchover.
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Jim D : yes, just checked again. Mux 2 seems to have changed to 8K FFT 2 weeks early. I'm guessing that, combined with its very low power, that might account for some people's problems? I can still get the channels (ITV ; C4 ; C5 etc) but the quality has taken a dive (down at about 50%, previously 80-90%)
Current status of all the muxes according to my TV / PVR here in Ipswich :
CH39 (MUX B) : 16QAM 2K Quality 80%
CH44 (BBCA) : 64QAM 8K Quality 100%
CH49 (MUX A) : 64QAM 2K Quality 100%
CH50 (MUX D) : 16QAM 2K Quality 70-80%
CH54 (MUX C) : 16QAM 2K Quality 70-80%
CH56 (MUX 2) : 64QAM 8K Quality 50% or less
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Will : I think you are confirming my supposition. Cheers.
The only question now is : WHY did they do anything at all to MUX 2 at DSO1, when DSO2 switches it to a different channel(41) on high power. Someone must have gone out of their way to make an early (unhelpful) change when surely it would have been easier (and in line with the plan!) to do it with the other changes on 20th July? Mind you, they've also upped the power on MUX A to 14k, which is a good thing, when that was also not meant to happen until DSO2 according to the Digital UK postcode predictor (though the latest OFCOM document DOES say it happens at DSO1 : just checked!)
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MikeH : as I found out and posted a few days ago, at DSO1 they changed Mux 2 on CH56 to 8K FFT mode from 2K : apparently this is the equivalent of a few decibels drop in signal power, meaning that many people have lost those channels. My signal quality has gone down from 90% to 50% but I can still get the Mux here (IP2). It should be ok on 20th July when it moves to CH41 and goes from 1.1kW to 100kW!
More details here : Freeview on Sudbury TV transmitter | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice (IP29XY)
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The point I was making is that the signal level (quality) drops significantly on 8K compared to 2K mode : I would guess that MikeH had much more than 36% before 'they' made the odd decision to switch Mux 2 to 8K Mode while still on low power (1.1kW).
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Discovered my first instance of Sudbury Freeview signal now being too strong : my dad has a plug-in Freeview 'adaptor' (one of those 'all hanging off the SCART plug' gadgets) which had been working perfectly on all channels while on low power, but now the BBC channels consistently break up. Once I finally found my way around the menu system to something resembling a signal meter, CH44 now shows as Signal Strength 99% but Signal Quality 39%! In contrast, the next most powerful Mux (CH49) shows Strength 40% and Quality 75%. His other Freeview TVs/boxes are fine, and they all run off the same newish rooftop aerial. I think when he had the aerial installed a couple of years ago that they did it with a masthead amp and it then splits into 5, to serve 5 rooms in his house. After the 20th July, can he just switch the masthead amp off (I'm assuming it plugs in near his main set) or will that kill the signal completely? The alternative, I guess, is to attenuate the signal to the gadget that is not coping. His postcode is IP2 0QH.
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Wednesday 6 July 2011 12:23PM
Ipswich
Mike : C56 from Sudbury B provides Mux 2 to the east of Sudbury (including those of us in Ipswich) until 20th July. C68 seems to only radiate to the west of Sudbury : we can't pick it up here in the east.