All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Nick: Knowing the various attempts that you have made to try and find a way around the Ch60 problem I feel that (in theory anyway) there could well be a possible deficiency in radiation from the aerial element covering your direction, of course this is not an uncommon thing to happen on TX aerials that covers 360 degrees by the use of a number of phased radial elements, although this is not necessarily noticed by most who generally puts the problem down to other reasons.
However a way that this theory can be tested out is by drawing a line between the TX and you and choosing a point about 25% along the line for a signal strength test, the purpose of this being to carry a level comparison check across the five muxes (HD ignored) to find out if the ratio of differences in strength between mux Ch60 and the rest of the muxes is still the same at this closer range to that experienced at your location.
Should the subsequent test reveal that the situation has somewhat been ironed out and that the levels are now all within a reasonable range of each other, then provided that there isn't any serious terrain problems between the TX and you that could cause "odd" difficulties in reception, then this could point to the radiating elements elevation tilt being a little too downwards facing, of course it could well be something purposefully done to restrict where the signal will reach, but though on the other hand it could also be an unintentional occurrence but which has been considered as only affecting the absolute minimum number of viewers and likewise not worth the major problem of attempting to rectify, and I do have to say that to my knowledge there never has been any widespread complaints.
Of course "if" the difference in levels are still in evidence at this closer range then its unlikely that a tilt problem exists and so the problem could be caused by a notch in the signal at the transition points between two elements, and with the only way of checking this out is to draw a circle round the TX with your own location marked on the circle, then choose a point about 45 degrees around the circumference of the circle on either side of your own location and carry out a test at these two points to find out if Ch60 is more in line with the rest of the muxes, of course allowing for a natural element of variation as its very seldom ever the case for all six muxes to be received at the same level except in very near to line of sight circumstances.
It is fully appreciated that this type of test only really applicable to a person who is mobile, although not necessarily one that's equipped with professional test gear, as all that's required is a portable receiver capable of displaying both the strength & quality of a signal on separate scales, and of course this receiver being coupled into a small log periodic aerial which is ideal for carrying out tests of this nature by it having a near to flat response across the entire band, this being far in a way more important than gain.
The other point I forgot to mention, being a person also prepared to spend an entire afternoon travelling around a pre determined route, as its something usually carried out with the aid of a helicopter!
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Charlie: I think that your reference to "ambitious" is most certainly the case, although not so much concerning the Nova stick but more your use of a simple indoor aerial, as judging by a serious impediment to reception that I can see (even to a roof mounted aerial) namely the dense range of trees smack in line with Winter Hills signal path, it being 30 degrees from you @ 11 miles its a wonder that you can get anything with what you are using, therefore in the interests of reliability of reception I would really advise you to use a standard loft mounted aerial, a DM log periodic type being ideal for this purpose. (link provided)
Online TV FM DAB Aerial sales
By the way 746.000MHz is Ch55 (ArqB) from Winter Hill.
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Clifford: If there is a problem with your TV's "analogue" auto tuning process and you are aware of the RF output channel number used by your Sky boxes modulator, then select "analogue MANUAL tune" on your TV then enter and store the Sky boxes channel number, no scanning necessary.
Just in case you are unaware of how to check the Sky boxes RF output channel number this is the procedure for two types of boxes.
Sky standard box: press "Services then 4" followed by pressing "0 - 1 - Select" and go to RF outlets.
If a Sky+HD box: press "services" then type in "0 - 0 - 1 - select" and scroll right to select and press on : RF outlets.
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Sam: Thanks for the update on equipment used etc although I had also meant to enquire as to the model of TV you have purchased, because if as you say it appears to work fine when tested on the same aerial points that the Freeview boxes don't, then even allowing for the fact that your TV is very likely to be fitted with a somewhat more sensitive tuner hence the fact of it operating OK, but it also suggests that even although you have a booster box in the loft the gain of this device is not really good enough to keep the signal running at a sufficiently high enough level above the Freeview boxes reception cut off threshold.
I do have to say though that your "Argos special" really does come into the category of one getting what's paid for as far as performance is concerned, and so I would prefer not to comment on that device, what I would be interested to know is the level of signal that your TV is receiving, so maybe you could carry out a signal level test whilst on BBC (any programme), ITV1 and also ITV3 (different transmitters involved), or alternatively have a look at your booster box and let me have the model number of it.
The other point I would like you to check is the mux channel numbers seen associated with the these signal strength checks, because "if" indeed its Waltham (96 degrees @ 42 miles) you receive from then the mux numbers should be 61 (BBC) - 54 (ITV) - 29 (SDN) whereas if you receive from Sutton Coldfield (184 degrees @ 19 miles) the mux channels would be 43 - 46 - 42.
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T.King: Should you be thinking along the lines of using the Sky+ box then you cannot record or playback anything on a Sky+ box without paying a subscription to Sky and which I believe to be in the region of £10.00 per month, because as you will probably already be aware of Sky controls access to this side of the box on a permanent basis and will only send the release codes (into the Sky card) when the aforementioned subscription is taken out.
Although its initially quite an expense, but you would be better purchasing a twin tuner Freesat PVR (recorder) as once purchased there are no further running costs whatsoever, these operating in a similar fashion to Sky+ and with Freesat devices (all) being 100% compatible with Sky dishes.
If you are interested in HD then you should look along the lines of a Humax device, these obtainable with hard drives up to 1TB.
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eag: Apologies for my late reply and which was due to pressure of work.
I had a look at both the service and user manuals for that model of TV and unfortunately it appears that there is no "straightforward" way of seeing the mux channel number that's associated with the signal strength / quality indication, these two being combined in one bar.
The reason I emphasised straightforward is because as you will no doubt have noticed when you select a "digital" channel the info bar with the combined strength / quality flashes on at the bottom of the screen for about 5 seconds, this also indicating the favourite number its been given and which of course could be back tracked, but its a laborious process.
Your best policy is to select the DVB menu then select "settings" / "installation" then select "manual search" where you will see a channel number box at the top of the screen and a signal bar at the bottom, this being where you can check the strength of the signals being received "without" pressing search.
Have a pen and paper to hand for jotting down the readings then starting with Durris enter the channel numbers one at a time and noting the indication seen.
Once all five have been completed do the same with the Angus channels then you can compare the results between both stations, as you might find that say the BBC is better from one station but ITV is from the other and so on, if this is found to apply then you scrub everything stored and manually tune in the muxes required.
Durris: 28 - 25 - 23 - 26 - 29
Angus: 60 - 53 - 54 - 58 - 61
HD channels not applicable with the DUB2850 and as such left out.
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tony rowlands: As you are located at only 6 miles away from the transmitter its very likely that your TV's tuner is being overloaded by the strong BBC signal and which can cause blocking of reception. If you have any form of booster fitted then this must by by-passed, but though just for a test if you can borrow a set top aerial connect that into the TV and carry out another auto tune to see what results you get.
Sometimes even a short length of wire (about 3 / 4 feet) connected into the aerial socket can give results of sorts dependant on your surrounding terrain.
By the way the BBC and ITV stations are twice as powerful as the commercial channels.
Further advice dependant on results.
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tony rowlands: Meant also to request that you provide the model number of your LG, as some models have a built in booster which should be switched off.
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Nick: I believe that I had mentioned some time back that the reason for this type of indication on mux Ch60 is because you are not actually receiving a "direct" signal from it, this most likely for reasons previously explained, and when you see the signal flashing between 0 - 90, the 90 is when the signal is being reflected towards you from some object, maybe even a high flying plane whilst changing course whereby its wings act like huge reflectors.
This type of thing was frequently witnessed on analogue reception and took the form of signal strength flutter being seen on the picture, the duration of usually lasting about a minute or so every time.
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Sunday 11 November 2012 5:29PM
Sam: With queries of a nature such as yours a person has to provide their location, this in the form of a post code or one from nearby, as its impossible to check the signal levels expected in your area without this knowledge.
However some older boxes cannot operate with the new transmission standards that came into being when stations switched to high powered operation, and so its possible that this is the reason for your problem if a new TV was found to work OK when connected into the aerial point that was previously used by the boxes.
Maybe you could indicated the model numbers of the boxes in question.