All posts by Michael Perry
Below are all of Michael Perry's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
James:
Looking at the Digital UK Coverage Checker for your location shows that you should be getting perfectly good reception od all the multiplexes broadcast from the Tacolnston transmitter. See Coverage Checker - Detailed View for that information.
As you are only 25 km from it, your signals should be good but not too stong. Please will you check all the connections between your aerial and the TV set, unplug any plugs from their sockets and then refit (that clears any corrosion/oxidation that can build up on the cantact and prevent the signals getting through properly). Then perform a manual tune for the 8 multiplexes offered (less if you do not have a Freeview HD equipped TV), look at the listing mentioned above for the channel numbers to use.
Then check that you are getting all the expected channels and then check the signal strengths reported by your TV set (the User Manual will tell you how to do the manual tune and the signal strength check). Note that the quality is irrelevant at this stage. The strengths must be between 60% and 85%, any more or any less will give you problems of pixilation, loss of channels, loss of sound, etc. If the strengths are all greater than 85% then you need to fit an attenuator into the aerial lead using an additional short flylead so the weight does not 'hang' on any socket. If all the strengths are below 60% then you may need an amplifier. You should also check that your aerial is correctly mounted still and is either a wideband type or a Group T type, the 'old' Group B will give poor results for the COM7 and COM8 programmes.
Hope that helps? Please let us know if it works for you again.
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John Buchanan:
We contributors are aware of that but only the site owner, Brian Butterworth (Briantist). can do that updating. Meantime, please use the Digital UK Coverage Checker at Digital UK - Coverage checker for a listing of the available transmitters at any entered post code.
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Derek Thompson:
No one else has reported this so it is unlikely to be a transmitter fault. So please check all your aerial connections by unplugging all plugs from their sockets and refitting to clear any corrosion/oxidation from the contacts. Then put you post code into the Digital UK Coverage Checker at Digital UK - Coverage checker and manually tune to the channels given for the Redruth transmitter.
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Hardy:
The whole idea is to make the aerial as 'future proof' as is feasible. We know there will be several more changes along the way well within the lifetime of a good quality aerial. A Group B will become unsuitable within that timescale, hence the advice to have a wideband type fitted that will be suitable for many years to come. That will also mean just a single change of aerial and not two or more, so saving the users some expense that is not necessary if a wideband aerial is used.
The tinking comes from many, many years experience in the TV field service and technical training sphere.
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Ray:
Retuning is a very bad idea when one channel has been lost! All it does is possibly loose more channels!
Please check all your aerial cables and connections, corrosion/oxidation of the contacts is a common cause of problems like yours.
Also put your post code into the Digital UK Coverage Checker at Digital UK - Coverage checker and look at the channels used by your best transmitter. Then manually check that the TV has tuned to the correct channels. Only manually retune those that are incorrect.
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John Martin:
Your thinkin g of what constutes a 'smart tv' is incorrect. A smart TV has the capability to download and display streamed programmes from the internet. They have no ability to 'think' at all. Not even a 'smart meter' for your energy supply does not have the ability to think, the supplier does than and communicates remotely with the device so they can alter the cost or even turn off your supplies if they want. (Read the recent articles in the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail.)
So the thoughts about AI devices are irrelevant at present.
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Hardy:
But if you are advising someone who is having reception problems and find they need to replace the aerial, then you should advise them to have a wideband type fitted as that will cover all the current and foreseeable future channel usage - even after the completion of the current changes.
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Vicky:
You should ask Pick that as this website is for reception problems and is entirely inde[enent os all broadcasters. They can be contacted via the Sky website at https://www.sky.com/.
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Paul Horth:
You are only 10 miles from the transmitter and should be getting good reception. There are no known fault at present with the Rosemarkie transmitter but some enh=gineering work has been done recently, mainly from early July.
Please would you check all the connections between your TV set and the aerial. The contacts of plugs and sockets are a well known source of such problems. Also check what the signal strength is for each of the multiplexes. That should idealy be between 60% and 85%, no more and no less. If it is more then you have too much signal and need an attentuator. If it is less then you need to investigate why within the aerial system.
Incidentally, this website is not the way to contact the engineers who maintain the over 1100 transmitters around the UK. They are all operated by Arqiva, who can be contacted via https://www.arqiva.com/co…us/.
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Sunday 29 July 2018 3:57PM
Andy:
Does this occur at regular times of day? Which transmitter do you receive from (a full post code will help us contributors)?
As for filtering, it all depends on what and where the source is, so that will need to be investigated.
You may wish to consult the BBC Reception Advice Service, look at BBC - Television - Help Receiving TV and Radio for mor information and contact details.