All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
H.J. Clarke: Yes, I did actually notice in your original posting that you had mentioned "initial tune method", but I wasn't completely sure if you were meaning exactly the same as described by myself.
However, as far as your problem with mux Ch43 (650Mhz) is concerned, although its fully appreciated that many prefer not to do this, but its always the best policy to try and carry out a few local checks for the purpose of determining if others are also experiencing difficulties with the same channel, for simplicity best referred to as ITV3, because if they are then this saves needless checks being carried out when the cause of the problem is obviously out with your control.
If though its subsequently discovered that they are not having any problems and yet they are also receiving Freeview from Bilsdale and not Emley Moor (@ 40 miles / 216 degrees) then its not by any means unheard of for a fault of this nature to simply be caused by a faulty (slightly corroded / oxidised) connection where the coax terminates inside the aerial box, in other words and much as it appears far fetched but not!, that of being a frequency selective bad joint, this type of thing having recently been experienced by another person on this site when their transmitter had switched frequency, as hitherto all had been perfectly OK before the change of frequency.
Of course you can get this peculiar effect with satellite systems as well, and where some programme channels might be missing and yet they are on exactly the same transponder frequency as others that are perfectly OK, once again the reason being down to a faulty connection.
Another thing that I did notice when having a look at your signal strength / quality findings is that the I00Kw ITV transmitter is only being received at the same levels as the 50Kw commercials, this being inclined to suggest that although the terrain indicator gives a clear line-of-sight between Bilsdale and your particular location that the signal is likely to be passing over areas where numerous trees are located, something which very much applies if attempting to receive signals from Emley Moor, i.e: a clear line-of-sight but with the signal passing over what looks like to be quite dense woodland located not too distant from where you reside.
Maybe you could give an update should you make any local checks.
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H.J. Clarke: Just a small addition, should your aerial be suspected as being the cause of your problem then provided that the feed from comes directly from the aerial and not through any splitters or boosters, then you should try a test by connecting an ohmmeter set on a low range (100ohms or so) across the end of the coax and noting if any fluctuations are seen when observed over a couple of minutes or so, the validity of this test obviously being greater if "not" conducted whilst the outside air is still.
Although an even better test is to connect the end of the coax in series with a small tungsten bulb and a 9 to 12 volt power supply and observe this over a few minutes, the tungsten type bulb being superior for this test by fact of it being a higher current device thereby better at exposing an iffy connection.
As far as the bulb is concerned something rated at about 5 to 21 watts would be ideal such as used in car sidelights or direction indicators, although a 6 volt torch bulb (not LED type) and battery would also be suffice.
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Paul Smith: Should you be referring to reception from Waltham, as Sutton Coldfield is indicated as providing a superior signal using the post code provided, then try a "manual" tune on Ch49 which is Walthams BBC.
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Small Dog: Thanks for your update on the situation and pleased to hear that all is OK after the retune, however I do have to say that the improvement in reception from the hitherto problems mentioned could simply be down to the result of the rapidly occurring seasonal changes that have taken place over the last few weeks, as the effect of is always experienced to a greater degree where a person is located in a non line-of-sight situation such as applies in your case and where reception is always via an element of signal diffraction, (bending etc) as the direct signal path from Oxford is according to the terrain checker being obstructed from approximately 4 miles out from you, this of course is only referring to the land and excluding the effects such as from trees on the land, these adding to the problem
However, your aerial as far as its response to the lower channels is concerned would appear to be OK, although the SDN signal should be fractionally better by the fact of it having moved downwards in frequency, as lower frequencies are always better at getting over obstructions caused by such as trees etc, because other than that aspect nothing else has really changed with any of the other channels.
By the way, what I mentioned about seasonal changes being a factor connected with your reception problems is down to the fact that of your postings having been centred around the months of the year where the main changes are liable to be experienced, e.g: May 2010 / September - October 2011 / March to May 2012 / and of course May 2013.
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Pauline: ITV3 can be received by the majority of viewers who receive Freeview from a main station, those who don't unfortunately residing in less populated areas served by one of the numerous Freeview light PSB only relay transmitters, and if after having retuned your TV or box ITV3 is found to be missing then you will have to manually tune it in from the station that you were previously receiving from.
Should you be in this situation, then if you supply your post code or one from nearby, e.g: a shop / post office this will enable advice to be given with regards to the channel to use.
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H.J. Clarke: Yes, because with a background such as your own I am sure that you will appreciate the fact that when carrying out some of the simpler faulting tasks its not really necessary to use sophisticated measuring equipment, and indeed using same can sometimes be a disadvantage by the device tending to give misleading results, at least to the unwary anyway!
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Oliver Webb: Or indeed anyone else having problems receiving Oxfords COM4/SDN transmitters new Ch50 operating channel such as used by ITV3 / QVC / E4 etc and they happen to reside in an apartment block whereby are using a communal aerial, then the agent responsible for the maintenance should be informed as its entirely their responsibility to resolve the situation, of course "before" contacted the latter having made one or two checks with a neighbour to ensure that others are also experiencing the same problem.
However, if the other hand a communal aerial is not being used then try a manual tune test on mux Ch50, this done by going into the set up menu / manual tuning and entering Ch50 into the box but with this action NOT being followed by pressing search or scan, because by not doing so the signal level of anything received on Ch50 should be displayed, at least it will be on most equipment.
Should any levels be indicated then make a note of whatever it is then change the number entered into the box from Ch50 to Ch55, likewise making a note of its level, because if its being received OK by the TV or box (e.g: Film4 / Yesterday etc) and ITV3 etc is not, then the signal level received from the SDN transmitter is under that required by the receiver to resolve a picture, this being cured with either the aid of a booster or alternatively the aerial may require to be changed to a group E or a wideband type, although in most cases a booster should suffice provided that the signal quality was observed to be reasonably constant.
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Floyd: Although I feel that I have already fully explained the most likely reasons responsible for causing the problems experienced in my reply made on the 29th @ 12.49am, however in answer to your immediate question with regards to whether or not the communal aerial referred to should be altered, well considering that the line-of-sight from the Sandy transmitter is indicated as being completely blocked from about 6.5 miles prior to reaching Malzeard Road and with this type of situation being one thats almost guaranteed to result in intermittent reception being experienced at certain times of the year, then "yes" in my opinion the aerial should really be facing the Luton transmitter.
Of course the downside of this being that by Luton being a PSB station it does not transmit commercial channels such as the ones you are experiencing problems with, and so if the aerial was altered there would then be no chance whatsoever of receiving the commercials unless you chose to move over to Freesat.
As said in my previous reply, the Google earth information I am looking at is not bang up to date and as such the communal aerial may have already been altered, but if standing at the junction of Studley Road / Malzeard Road and on looking up at the end of the "single" block of apartments on Malzeard Road where a satellite dish can be seen mounted on the end of along with an aerial mounted on a pole, then if the aerial is still horizontally mounted and is pointing roughly towards the right of the property seen at the very far end of Malzeard Road and facing same, then the communal aerial is facing towards Sandy and with the signal from Luton being received on almost exactly the rear of the aerial.
As you have already consulted the manager of these properties and with his reply being as one would expect from people in his position and who operates under the mandate of keeping expenses to a minimum, the "no one else is experiencing any problems" can really be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt, albeit that others would not be experiencing any problems if they were using the satellite facility, this really highlighting the reason why you should try and check with others yourself regarding this issue so that you can achieve an accurate answer.
By the way, if you still have your Goodmans GRD11 around you should couple that up and see what results you get, as although its one of the lower end devices its actually fitted with a reasonably good tuner, if you do manage to try it do NOT loop the aerial through it and into the TV in case the Goodmans RF modulator is sitting on a channel used by Freeview.
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Dennis West: As far as a tuning menu is concerned there isn't that much difference between a TV and a box, as in both cases you press menu / set up / tuning and select manual tuning, this nearly always located close to auto-tuning, if you cared to mention the model of the TV in question then someone could maybe assist on this should it prove necessary.
By the way if you do manage to get to the point of entering Ch50 then do not instantly proceed to press search or scan after having entered the number but note if anything is displayed on the signal strength indicator bar, if it is make a note of the level seen then press search or scan.
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Thursday 30 May 2013 12:45PM
Graham Cole: Another point to note being that you cannot change channels on a Freesat box from a location remote to the box in the same way as done via a Sky boxes magic eye system, as the Sky box uses special circuitry to allow this to be carried out and is something that's unique to Sky boxes.
You can of course buy free standing (not connected into the box) units that allow this to be carried out on any box, but it all adds to the cost as they are considerably higher priced when compared to the relatively low cost of a magic eye.