All posts by Michael Perry
Below are all of Michael Perry's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Kayleigh
To assist us help you, we need to know where you live by giving a post code (that of a nearby shop will do) and some idea of what equipment you have.
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Jenny and Claire
It is possible that the weather is having an effect on the signals. Long Eaton is some way from Gedling (I used to live and work in Nottingham) but both could be affected the atmospheric events while we have warm sunny weather.
I advise against retuninbg as you may loose more programmes.
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More changes to come, proving bad planning. Switchover III to re-allocate the 700 MHz band will be more unpopular I suspect than Switchover II when the 800 MHz band was gifted to the mobile consortia. Switchover I was so much of a problem for many people and as the pages on this site show there are still ongoing difficulties caused by the switch from analogue to digital encoding.
The non-techically minded viewer will suffer again.
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Bren
Lenton should have reasonable signals fromthe Waltham transmitter providing you are no behind any of the large buildings or a hill. There could be a chance that the signal may be too strong and not too weak. Using the User Manual for your TV, check what the signal strength for Sky News is showing. If it is over 80% it may well be too strong and a boost will make it worse and not better. If, however, the strength is less than 50%, then a booster may help and could be worth trying.
Come back here with the readings, please?
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EMP stands for Electro-Magnetic Pulse and is generally only produced by a nuclear explosion! If that happens, we hope it never does, then any electronic devices based on semiconductor technologies are at risk of failure although it seems that equipment using valves (I remember them well) are generally less prone to damage from EMP. That's why the Russian combat aircraft still use valves!
It seems to make no difference if you are considering digital or analogue, VHF, UHF or Ku band! The key appears to be the technology used in the equipment, and not just for radios or televisions! EMP has been shown to damage hospital equipment as well as computers, etc.
I'm not sure how relevant EMP is to these discussions?
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mike:
To get Freeview, you have to use an aerial.
You main TV presumably has a Sky box connected to it, that then being connected to the dish - or perhaps your TV has a 'built in' satellite receiver that has been set for Sky with a Sky Viewing Card.
As I understand it, Google Chromecast allows your laptop/PC/Smartphone to send video and audio to a TV with the Chromecast 'dongle' fitted, see
Chromecast
It then allows you to view whatever is available either from saved programmes on your computer or else to view streamed content downloaded via the internet.
Freeview is not available on the internet! Where you live, it is only available via an aerial set to receive from the Conway Freeview Lite transmitter not far from your home. Note that this is a 'lite' transmitter and so does not provide all the services that would be available from a full service transmitter.
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Steve P
We often watch Pointless on our 28" JVC widescreen TV (good old CRT type) and there are times when the questions being shown are not that clear. I suspect it's a case of camerawork not being quite as good as we expect, it is an outsourced programme. So your 14" may not be showing the text as clearly as you'd like and may not be due to the equipment at Chez Steve.
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Steve P
ALL TV transmissions in the UK are already entirely digital! Freeview, FreeSat and Sky are digital signals anyway. The issue I suspect is whether your connection to the TV is using the analogue outputs from the box to the TV, these could be in RGB, S-VHS, or composite format. RGB is better than the others. The only other possibility is if your equipment, TV and box, have an HDMI output/input. That 'may' give an improvement but don't waste money on 'gold' connectors as they are no better than any other - just more expensive!
It would be quite pointless (sorry for the pun!) complaining to the broadcaster of Pointless (BBC feeds are used) as the problem as described is unique to that programme, or have we misunderstood your point? Worth noting that no one else seems tro be complaining.
I was wondering how old your 14" TV was? The thought being that perhaps it is a CRT type and the tube is showing signs of aging and giving a blurred image.
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EMP is likely to be 'broadcast' over quite a wide area. If the 'source' is a nuclear explosion, it is possible for it to affect equipmenyt up to 50 miles away or more depending on the yield of the explosive device.
The Sun, a nuclear fusion reactor in effect, emits some EMP but at roughly 93 million miles distance little if any eaches us on Earth. A Corona Mass Ejection (not Coronary as that's relating to your heart!) is a well known phenomenon and does sometimes send pulses in the electromagnetic spectrum that we use and reaches Earth on some occasions. It does on rare instances cause communication problems but generally the energy is not sufficient to cause total disrruption at ground level - though satellites have to be 'hardened' against these effects.
Electronic equipment using valves is generaly little affected by EMP but printed circuit boards are potentially badly affected (high currents caused burn out the circuit connections), as are semiconductor devices such as transistors and integrated circuits. Valve equipment that is affected usually recovers fairly well providing it is not built on a PCB, so the 'old fashioned' hard wired system as were used prior to PCBs are much less prone to EMP disrruption.
Digital systems require more signal processing than analogue so nowadays only ever use semiconductor components mounted on PCBs - so are highly susceptible to EMP.
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Monday 19 May 2014 9:19PM
D Clayton
To receive FreeSat, you need a dish. Whether it is available via the internet I cannot comment (my internet would be too slow anyway!). You may need a larger than normal dish as you could find that Paderborn is a little outisde the main target area, but it is worth asking a local satellite service shop in Paderborn what they recommend (I know some people there have managed to get FreeSat signals but not suire what equipment they use).