All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Me: Re: your 12.52PM posting, on what basis is the assumption being made that you are receiving a strong signal from Reigate? as the terrain indicator points to the signal from that transmitter being completely blocked starting from a distance of approximately 7.5 miles from your given location. (if genuine!)
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
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Jonathan Evans-Baldwin: Chagford is a relay of the parent Stockland Hill transmitter and so if anything was amiss at Stockland it would also affect the relay, however a check made a few minutes ago still gave a clear sheet as far as any faults being indicated are concerned, this of course being contrary to the result of your own enquiries.
However you could try a signal check for yourself on a TV connected into the aerial facing Stockland Hill, the station being located @ 33 miles / and with the aerial facing 75 degrees, easily identified as the elements on the aerial should be positioned horizontally for Stockland Hill whereas vertically for Chagford.
The signal check made by going into the TV / boxes tuning section / "manual tune" and entering mux Ch26 into the box (Stocklands BBC) but do NOT press search or scan, because if any signal is being received then its level should be indicated no matter how weak it might be.
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Idris Martin: Although the channels referred to might well come from the same mast they are all being radiated from different heights on the mast (BBC at top) by a series of phased panels positioned around it at these different levels, and with this type of system no matter how carefully these panels are positioned the signals beamed out from the mast will never be anything even remotely resembling parallel lines, hence the main beam from some channels might suffer from one of the three main problems that can affect an RF signal, and being - reflection / diffraction / scattering, whereas another beam might not hence why the difference in levels.
The fact of you having previously reported that Ch22 can vary dependant on whether it be a sunny day or not somewhat indicates that Ch22's the signal path suffers from one of the aforementioned potential problems, and of course the further away a person might be from a transmitter (48 miles in your case) the greater the chance of being affected.
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Catherine: The fact of your neighbour being able to receive Film 4 whereas you don't could simply be due to the fact that your neighbour is receiving a slightly stronger signal than you do on Ch52, yours possibly being under the level required to produce a picture whereas theirs is above, and so I would like you carry out a signal level check by proceeding as though you were going to carry out another manual tune on mux Ch52 but though (important!) this action NOT being followed by pressing search or scan after having entered 52 into the box, because by NOT pressing search or scan if any signal is being received the levels (strength & quality) should immediately be indicated on the bars, maybe you could try that and report back on your findings.
But before carrying out the above select ITV2+1 (same mux as ITV3) and carry out a signal level check whilst viewing that programme and which you reported as being 30% to 55%, but no matter what it indicates I would like you to check that the aerial connectors at each end of the jumper cable between the TV and the wall socket are fully inserted whilst observing the indications on the screen for any possible jumping in strength when you move the cable, this test only being requested to ensure that your Film 4 problem is not being caused by a faulty aerial lead.
By the way, its also being assumed that when you mentioned ITV2 that you were really meaning ITV2+1? ITV2 being on the same transmitter as ITV1 whereas NOT where ITV2+1 is concerned, only the latter being on mux Ch48.
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Gil: What method are you using to connect the three TV's to the aerial? as going by what you have said would suggest that you are already using two boosters, but with the signal being fed to the bedroom TV also requiring one.
The normal way of doing things is to have the aerial going straight into a three way booster / splitter and with each of its three outputs being used to feed the TV's in each of the three locations.
Advice regarding boosters / splitters can only be given if you indicate your location, this in the form of a post code or one from nearby, e.g: a shop or post office, as this will enable the signal strength expected at your location to assessed.
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CCob: Although aerials being seen facing different directions can simply be down to the fact that some have been installed prior to a station having switched over to high powered operation and are likewise facing another transmitter, whereas the others have been installed since this event and are taking advantage of a better signal, but though it can also be an indication of residing in an area where signal strength levels can vary over relatively short distances, because as you will no doubt have seen on your link to the terrain indicator the signal from Wenvoe is being obstructed from within 1 mile from your location, something with can sometimes cause the type of problem referred to.
I did try a check to see what like the signal would be from the Mendip transmitter to your location as all of its six muxes radiate on 100Kw, unlike in the case of Wenvoe where only its PSB channels are on this power the commercials being on 50Kw, however the signal from Mendip also suffers from a couple of obstructions from about 4 miles out, although purely for test purposes you could always try a "manual tune check" using the previously mentioned procedure (NOT pressing search or scan) and entering mux Ch49 (Mendips BBC), maybe also trying mux Ch56 Mendips ArqA (Pick TV / Sky news etc).
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Colin: With regards to your 10.34AM posting of today (30th) Winter Hills channels only span from Ch49 - Ch59 as the figure that you mentioned refers to the entire Freeview band.
As far as auto scans are concerned, when an a person chooses to carry out an auto-scan on their TV or box then irrespective of what brand of Freeview equipment they are using an auto-scan will ALWAYS start on Ch21.
But though you should carry out a manual scan on Winter Hills mux channels as mentioned in my reply to you yesterday @ 08.24am, making sure that you leave the TX mode "permanently" on 8K and the guard interval on 1/32.
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Colin: Judging by the result of what you have found on each of the individual manual scan checks carried out when its also known that you were using the correct settings, my request purely to verify that you were, is unfortunately beginning to point to a fault on the box triggered off as a result of the initial rescan, my line of thought being that the box has lost its ability to respond to an 8K signal albeit that its RF level is still being indicated, which on many devices is normal.
But I would like you to carry out another quick check by entering Ch49 into the manual scan box again so that you see a strong signal being indicated then remove the aerial connection just to ensure that the signal vanishes, then if you have a short length (six feet or so) of wire kicking around push that into the aerial socket (middle cup of) and see if the strength bar indicates anything.
As far as the box is concerned, it would also be of assistance if you could indicate the exact model number of the device.
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Colin: Also meant to add, that the tuners fitted in Freeview twin tuner PVR's are both automatically scanned at the same time, the reason for this being that if they weren't a person would not be able to view a programme on one mux channel whilst recording a programme that might happen to be on another mux channel.
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Monday 29 April 2013 9:31PM
CCob: Whether a simple indoor aerial would be OK for a test or not is dependant on if it can be tried out along with a TV in an upstairs location, and if it can then to aid aerial positioning go into your TV or boxes "manual" tuning menu and enter Wenvoe's BBC on mux Ch41 but do NOT press search or scan, because if any signal is being received it should be shown on the strength / quality indicator after you entered Ch41.