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All posts by jb38

Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.


Myra: DUK's coverage checker indicates your area as being served by either the Sutton Coldfield transmitter @ 61miles / 120 degrees, or The Wrekin @ 35miles / 140 degrees.

However, a terrain check on your location relative to that of both stations has revealed that the signal path from both Sutton Coldfield and The Wrekin transmitters suffers from line-of-sight blockages starting from approx 1 mile prior to the area you reside in, line-of-sight blockages always having a much greater effect on reception if the obstruction is located at only a relatively short distance away from the receiving aerial, any signal that is received being via diffraction (signal bending) likewise vulnerable to being affected by weather conditions / slight atmospheric changes etc and which I feel is the reason for your problem.

That said, although the signal might well have vanished from your screen its not necessarily the case that the signal doesn't exist, as its possibly just dropped under the threshold level necessary to resolve a picture, something which you can test for yourself using the following procedure provided that your Freeview TV or box has a manual tuning facility.

The procedure being: When the signal vanishes go into your TV or boxes tuning menu and select "manual tune",
then "if" your reception is from Sutton Coldfield enter 43 (BBC) into the box (if The Wrekin 26) but "stop" at this point, (do not press search or tune) because if any signal is being received the level of will appear in the strength / quality indicator bars no matter how low it might be. The point of the test being, that if you do get an indication of strength "and" quality (essential) then it might be possible to recover the picture with the aid of a variable powered booster.

By the way, have you ascertained if others in your area suffer from similar problems with reception?







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Rob: Not quite sure about exactly what you are meaning, but though "if" you are referring to a 4G transmitter affecting the analogue output from a Sky boxes modulator? then a 4G filter fitted in line with the Sky boxes aerial input socket should (in theory) rectify the problem.

Its also advisable to set the modulators output on a lower channel number, of course ensuring that it doesn't clash with any of the Mux channels used by the station you receive Freeview from.

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Paul curtis: Your area is indicated as mainly being covered by Bilsdale transmitter, this station listed on the "planned engineering works" page under the heading of "possible weak signal".

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Mary sutherland: This type of problem can be caused by either a glitch having occurred in the box, or alternatively by the dish having been moved slightly out of alignment, e.g: blown by high wind, or struck by an object.

The easy way of testing if the former applies being to disconnect the box from the mains for about 30 seconds before reconnecting it again, checking if the channels have returned after the box has gone through the usual "checking for listings" procedure.

If by any chance they haven't, then carry out a signal check on the box. The procedure on a standard (or white Sky+) box being to press : Services - 4 - 6 and noting the levels indicated, both of having to be around 60% minimum (norm being higher) for satisfactory reception and with the quality "never" being under the strength, an indication usually always associated with a misaligned dish.


The procedure on Sky+ HD boxes being /

(1) : Press "Services" and you will see the main menu with "Options" being highlighted.

(2) : Press the right arrow once to change from Options to "Settings" and press on. (pictures highlighted)

(3) : Finally, scroll across to the right to select and press on "Signal", the grey bars now displayed will show you the strength / quality of the signal.

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Steve: Spike (31) is broadcast on COM6, which on Whitehawk Hill is C48.

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J
5USA
Sunday 19 April 2015 7:03PM

a. ayusawa: The problem referred to can easily be rectified by carrying out a retune on your TV or box, this action being necessary to update the programme guide due to changes having been made to the listing numbers.

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J
5USA
Sunday 19 April 2015 8:14PM

a. ayusawa: I should of course have added, that 5USA is now on EPG21 and with VIVA being on EPG74.

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Belynda Giles: Looking at the situation from another angle. As Mendip, the station indicated as covering your area, is on the engineering list under the heading of "possible weak signal, which in your case of being located at approximately 27 miles away from the transmitter could result in no signal being received, therefore, if by any chance you carried out a retune whist the signal was down? this action will have deleted everything stored in the tuners memory, creating the situation of frequent retunes being necessary to recover / reload the channels back into said memory.

Should though the aforementioned not be applicable in your particular case, then if, which appearances might possibly suggest, you are connected into a communal aerial system? it would be prudent to make an enquiry with a neighbour to ascertain if they are also suffering from the same problem with reception as yourself.

The point being, that although engineering work might well be in progress of being carried out, the signal is never turned down for any more than about an hour or so at the most.

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Margaret: Advice as to the possible reason for your problem can only be given once the following points are known.

(1) : Your location, this preferably being in the form of a post code or one from somewhere nearby, e.g: a shop / post office. This info being necessary in order to access information on the transmitter covering your area.

(2) : Do you have your own aerial? or are you connected into a communal system? such as used in apartment blocks etc.

(3) : Is the aerial connected directly into the TV? or does it pass through some other device first?


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Tony: The problem referred to could possibly be down to a temporary glitch having occurred on the COM4 / C42 transmitter, as no engineering work is being carried out at this station.

The main point to remember being, "not" to carry out a retune in an attempt to recover the channel, as all this will achieve is to delete all the COM4 programme channels already stored in the tuners memory, this then requiring frequent retunes (manual tune on C42) being made in order to recover them.

However, it would though be prudent to check with a neighbour or someone else nearby purely for confirmation that the signal on Mux C42 is actually down, thereby eliminating any possibility of the fault being associated with your equipment.

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