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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.


mark winters : With reference to that said by KMJ, Derby concerning the Huntshaw Cross page, on having had another look at the situation I can see a possible reason why reception from Westward Ho's PSB2 could be affected by the fact of it being a relay of Huntshaw Cross, insomuch if its reception from the latter's PSB2 is suffering in the same way as others have reported then this will be reflected on its own PSB2 transmissions, therefore before taking any further action at the customer referred to's installation I would first of all try and check to find out if the problem is also affecting others in the area receiving Freeview from the Westward Ho relay.

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J
Hannington (Hampshire, England) transmitter
Friday 30 August 2013 9:43PM

Fran: Well I have to admit to being somewhat suspicious of that message myself, as after I had drawn your attention to it I couldn't find it listed in UK Free via twitter access listings, a facility I use for checking replies to postings when out and about, the RT investigation site good as it might be not always being bang up to date with events.

However that aside, as far as 4G is concerned I don't really feel this comes into the equation as far as your location is concerned, as in any areas where it might possibly have the potential to cause problems the transmitters that serve the area are operating on channels in the latter part of the 50's whereas the highest channel number used by Hannington is 47.

I really do feel that rather than making any attempts to improve your signal other than what you have already done, your best policy by far would be to make one or two local enquiries (at least one of outside of your housing complex) to determine if others are also experiencing similar difficulties, as this is the correct faulting procedure to use by anyone connected into a communal aerial system as it gives a far better idea of the situation that exists, this then enabling advice to be given appropriate to that situation.



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Chris b: Well done!! and pleased to see that you have now given your box a new lease of life, as lets face it they are amazingly reliable devices apart from the PSU problem.

These Satcure kits are really quite handy by the fact of them providing the exact components required for upgrading the PSU as otherwise they would generally have to be sourced from more than one supplier, as a matter of fact I will probably order a few kits for myself as I am always dipping in to my store of components intended for other applications connected with my work.

Anyway, thanks for the update on the situation and pleased to have been of assistance.

Cheers / jb.

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Trevor : On the assumption that you are receiving Freeview from the Crystal Palace transmitter then the night time / daytime scenario should not really come into the equation when located at only 5 miles away from the transmitter, that is unless you are screened in any way from it, unable to check same without a more precise location being given, i.e: post code or one from nearby.

However as far as these signal strength / quality readings are concerned, as they all appear to be on the low side this makes me curious as to what they represent relative to the maximum that's possible to be indicated on your scale? I am also rather puzzled by you seeing LNA being mentioned, as Sony does not indicate that the 26EX553 has this facility albeit that the 523 does, and so maybe you could confirm the model number.

Taking it that your set does have an LNA facility, then what you should do is to repeat the previous signal check test but this time with the LNA switched off and noting if any significant differences are seen in the readings.

I would also be interested to know that if whilst viewing the signal test screen you removed the aerial and replaced it with a short length of wire (about 6 feet) or (if available) even set top aerial, whether or not anything would be indicated?

By the way this LNA (low noise amplifier) facility is Sony's way of saying "booster" as that's all that it is, but though with the useful feature of being able to select which channel you wish to be boosted, as in many areas one or two multiplexes are receive at a somewhat lower strength than the others and if a normal booster is fitted into the system this obviously amplifies everything including the channels its not really required for.

The only reservation I do have about the LNA / booster facility on some Sony models is as far as its actual gain is concerned as this is not mentioned, my suspicions being that it could possibly be of a very mild level.

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nick: The only way that you "might" just be able to view the foreign channel responsible (if!) for your problem is should any of Sudbury's C56-58 or 60 muxes fail, because just in the same way as the muxes from across the water can wipe out your reception from Sudbury, on the other hand Sudbury will be wiping them out.

As unlike in the case of analogue reception and where two signals can be received at the same time without completely wiping each other out, digital reception cannot tolerate its data being corrupted in any way or the receiver will be unable to decode it, and of course this corruption can be starting to occur at well under the level that's is required to resolve a picture anyway.

With regards to the query in the latter part of your posting, basically yes! although its also possible that the signal is beaming in a low level by skipping across the water and is being reflected on some distant "inland" object and back onto your aerial or even a combination of both, but though you are effectively in the realms of the unknown unless in possession of a hand held test aerial (Log) coupled into professional test equipment.

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Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter
Saturday 31 August 2013 5:08PM

James Feest: You will have to carry out a "first time installation" on both sets as Dave is now on (12) and with Drama on (20) although Yesterday still uses (19), and so if after having carried out the aforementioned you find that its still missing can you receive ITV4 (24)? as that is on the same multiplex as Yesterday.

By the way "first time installation" is also known as "factory reset" or "default setting" or similar dependant on the brand of equipment.

The other point being, that if you use Rowridge for reception then engineering work has been taking place there since 27th and you might have retuned whilst the transmitters power had been reduced.

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Connecting it all up | Installing
Saturday 31 August 2013 5:41PM

john bartlett: According to what I can see on the manual for that model of Toshiba (non UK issue?) it has a composite video input on the extreme right hand side of the connection panel , video being the top RCA (phono) connector and with the audio left and right phono's running downwards underneath.

Should yours be like this? then you will have to purchase a scart to RCA adapter of the type that has an in/out selector switch (selecting out) some types only being that (an adaptor) whereas other types have the scart adaptor with leads coming from it terminated in phono connectors (yellow always being video) and you would use this type of lead to connect the Bush into your TV.

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nick: No, because if you are viewing a programme and it slowly starts to break up and with the reason for suspected as being caused by a rising level of co-channel interference from a foreign station then rescanning would not make any difference, and simply because that the end situation would still be exactly the same.

That being, of the receiver picking up signals from two digital transmitters on the same channel but with the data stream from both corrupting each others in varying degrees dependant on the signal strength ratio between them, partial but intermittent reception only starting to re-appear when the signal from one transmitter has reached a sufficiently high enough level to virtually overpower the other and with "no signal" or just a blank being seen on the receiver whilst it hasn't, albeit of course that the actual signals are still there.


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nick: With reference to the suggestion made by KMJ,Derby, if when your reception of Sudbury's C56 or C58 is affected in any way then try a "manual" signal check on C49 Waltham's BBC1, or alternatively C57 which is Waltham's COM6 and see if anything is being indicated, because if atmospheric conditions are enabling Waltham's muxes to interfere with your reception from Sudbury then the chances are that its BBC1 and also its COM6 will also be receivable.

If though its Sudbury's C60 that's affected, then should Belmont's C60 be responsible then try a manual tune signal check on Belmont's COM5 on C53 and see if anything is being indicated signal wise.

By the way, the check I refer to is achieved by going into the tuning menu / manual tune and entering the channel number but NOT being followed by pressing search or scan, as on most devices the strength / quality of the mux channel entered will be seen shortly after the channel number has been entered, if search or scan is accidentally pressed the test will be null and void as you will have activated the signal level cut off threshold into the equation.

Those tests are not necessarily 100% accurate, however in most cases they will apply by giving an indication of whether or not the problem is being caused by another UK station rather than a foreign one.

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Connecting it all up | Installing
Sunday 1 September 2013 12:21AM

john bartlett : MikeB's link is exactly what I was referring to, the other version rather than having the RCA/ phono sockets mounted on the actual scart adaptor has leads coming from it which are terminated in three separate RCA/ phono plugs.

I was going to say that these are easily obtainable at the amazingly low price of £1.00 from the aptly named Poundland shops in the UK, but as it would appear that you "might" not be located on UK mainland I refrained from doing so.

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