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All posts by John

Below are all of John's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.


David Mansell: I understand your fustration over the years at this particular relay transmitter but you have to remember it's not just this one that occasionally has the odd fault or engineering maintainance, it's all the other hundreds and hundreds of relays around the UK as well.

Todmorden in particular has an odd set up as instead of receiving its services direct from Emley Moor, the transmitter receives via Cornholme first.

Strange to think the location of the site was selected because of its line of site to Winter Hill ... sadly Winter Hill has absolutely nothing to do with Todmordens transmissions anymore

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David Mansell: Maybe they are just doing some important maintenance work to the transmitter hence the frequent service cut outs. If it is really annoying you, remember you could get Freesat, where you will also have a choice over which regional news program you want to receive!

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David Mansell: I'm not sure why you have 'no desire' to watch Freesat considering you seem a bit upset of the reliability of your incoming signal at the moment. What's your dislike for Freesat?

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David Mansell: There are plenty other transmitters in the area namely Cornholme, Walsden.
If you decide to re align your aerial, to another transmitter, according to Digital UK and this website, Cornholme is a viable option that should give you virtually perfect signal strength. Cornholme receives its signals direct from Emley Moor and hasn't had the same amount of 'downtime' that Todmorden transmitter has had. Cornholme transmitter is definitely an option.Walsden is also an option, you will get a fine signal but probably won't make any difference because Walsden simply relays Todmorden.According to Digital UK, it shows that you will get a signal on nearly all MUX's, average signal 50-60%. Maybe you could try that transmitter (even though its through the Pennines with no line of sight!) and see what happens? A very high gain aerial may do the trick ... then again if you were going to do that I'd say Freesat is the most simpler option

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Sorry David, the transmitter I was talking about above was Emley Moor.

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It's odd to see a transmitter (like Heathfield, The Wrekin, Llandonna) deemed to have a 'too small' household served area (e.g 50,000-150,000) to receive the extended HD Com7 and 8 ...I look at my local transmitter, which has been a full Freeview transmitter since DTT started in 1998 ... it serves just over 10,000 homes.I think the Saddleworth/Tameside area were quite lucky to be deemed big enough for DTT in 1998.

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Richard Cooper: I wouldn't say it's a 'significant area' but it is quite big lying to the East of the city .. Tameside is a sort of medium sized area in Greater Manchester consisting of the relatively small towns of Mossley, Stalybridge, Hyde, Droylsden, Openshaw (some of which used to lie in Cheshire).Saddleworth transmitter serves around 60-70% of the Saddleworth area (Saddleworth consists of several small Pennine villages, all of which actually used to lie in Yorkshire), as well as upper areas of Tameside like Mossley and some of Stalybridge, hence 10,000-15,000 or so homes. In all I think we were very lucky to be deemed big enough for DTT in 1998.That's another strange anecdote of the TX ... back when it came in service (1969) virtually its whole target area was in either Yorkshire or Cheshire ... nowadays that's history and Greater Manchester has invaded the whole area now.

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Saddleworth (Oldham, England) DAB transmitter
Friday 17 June 2016 3:03PM
Oldham

I just thought I'd point out that this transmitter also carries Digital One and the Manchester Mux's rather than just BBC National.

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SDL National multiplexes
Tuesday 28 June 2016 7:03PM
Oldham

You just wonder whether if a radio digital switchover ever happened, this SDL Mux would be confined to only certain masts (like the ones in the map above) and other smaller masts serving smaller locations will only receive BBC, Local and Digital One

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Oulton (Suffolk, England) DAB transmitter
Thursday 30 June 2016 11:23PM
Oldham

MikeP: Wouldn't agree about DAB breaking up in cars; I regularly drive very long distances in many different vehicles and never ever noticed severe break ups for the majority of the motorway network at least.
Problem as you say is in cars ... although then again for me DAB is far superior for my favourite radio station TalkSport on 1053/89 medium wave ... sounds incredible on DAB compared to AM.But I'm a traditionalist and I don't bother with DAB despite it's quality over the ever fading Medium Wave, I just like the old fashioned crackly analogue signals on 1089AM from Moorside Edge for some reason!

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