All posts by Michael Perry
Below are all of Michael Perry's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
John Leather:
Please provide a full post code so that we can see what the expected reception is like at your location.
Bear in mind, though, the current hot weather does cause problems with signal reception in some areas.
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Carole Garrett:
It is essential that you provide a full post code so that we can examine the reception conditions at your location. Without that information nobody can offer any advioce or help.
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Michelle Pledger:
According to the Digital UK Coverage Checker, at Coverage Checker - Detailed View you should be getting excellent results from the Sandy Heath transmitter on 6 of the multiplexes.. Only COMs 7 & 8 would be variable or poor.
Ideally, you need a wideband aerial, if you have not already had one fitted. Note also that they are saying you will need to retune on 17th July 2018.
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Adrian Brown:
It is highly likely that the problem is due the hot weather. Such disruptions are occuring in various parts of the UK and there is nothing you nor anyone else can do about it. This has been happening most years during summer hot weather for more than 50 years, so is not new.
DO NOT RETUNE.
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Stephen Jones:
The current warm weather is causing tropospheric lift and that caues the symptoms you give. DO NOT RETUNE. It is a perfectly natural even that has happened ever since we started using UHF signals for TV transmissions in the 1960's.
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Mark Jolly:
As you are just 6 km away frok the transmitter at Winter Hill, you only need a small aerial fitted, which could be in a loft or external. You need to avoid having too much signal so a high gain aerial is not needed, but it is best to have a directional aerial to avoid external interference, hence having a small aerial fitted. Note that there is no such thing as a 'digital' aerial (that's a ploy to increase the costs) as the aerial does not care how the signals are modulated on the carrier.
You should aim to have between 60% and 85% signal strength on all multipexes available. Put your post code into the Digital UK Coverage Checker at Digital UK - Coverage checker and it will tell you the channels currently being used.
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Carole Garrett:
You should be getting good reception of all channels available from the Sudbury transmitter. That is just 35km (under 20 miles) away and there are no significant hills between.
Please check that your TV is tuned correctly to the Sudbury transmissions. They are on channels 44, 41, 47, 58, 60 and 37. The main BBC SD transmissions are on the BBCA multiplex on channel 44. There is no known problem with the transmitter, else there would the thousands of complaints - but there aren't.
So you could have a problem with your equipment. Start by checking all the aerial cables and connections and then ensure you are correctly tuned by using the manual tuning facility of your TV (see the User Manual for how to do that). Whilst checking you are using the correct channels, look at the signal strengths being reported on that same settings page. It needs to be between 60% and 85% strength (not quality). If it is higher than you have too much signal, but that is unlikely. If it is too low then you need the assistance of an aerial installer to correct the low signal strength.
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Brian:
Please provide a full post code so that we can examine the predicted reception conditions at your location.
Have you tried it without the amplifier? Too much signal strength can cause the symptoms described. If you are using an active (amplified) splitter, does it have a variabkle gain control? If so, try turning the gain down. I hope all the TVs are fed from a proper splitter?
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Michael:
According to Digital UK, the Winter Hill transmitter is operating normally and is unaffected by the nearby moorland fires.
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Saturday 30 June 2018 3:42PM
N Mugford:
It is perfectly correct to replace an aluminium dipole with a copper one. However the dimensions are critical. So it would be better to carve an exact replica of the aluminium dipole in a sheet of copper, using the resultant item to replace the original dipole. The need to be an exact copy is to maintain the required frequency range coverage and the impedence presented to the TV set, always required to be 75 Ohms. It would also be wise to protect the copper against corrosion, especially if it were to be placed outside the property where it can get wet.