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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.


Mike Featherstone: January 30th 2014 is indicated as being the starting date on the Pontop Pike transmitter transmitting on C56, however whether or not you will be able to receive it is entirely dependent on your location which is unknown.

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Full technical details of Freeview
Wednesday 1 January 2014 1:15PM

John G: Dover located at just over 11 miles away is indicated as being the station that covers the given area, that is "if the P/Code supplied is applicable to it and not your own?, then although the possibility always exists of a fault having coincidentally developed in the aerial system at the same time as the TV was changed over its also possible that there is a problem at the transmitter, something which unfortunately cannot be verified or not as the case may be at this present time.

Therefore should the old TV still be located on the premises about the only way of excluding the aerial system from the equation is by temporarily coupling the old TV back up again.

By the way, that said is on the assumption that nothing is amiss with the aerial connection going into the TV.

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Full technical details of Freeview
Wednesday 1 January 2014 1:32PM

John G : Meant also to say, that should the old TV be coupled up and this results in the reception reverting back to normal then could you please supply the model number of the new TV.

Another point being, if a booster is being used in the aerial system then try bypassing it, especially if the new TV is an LG or Samsung, as the tuners in those brands are rather more prone to suffering from the effects signal overloading.

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Full technical details of Freeview
Wednesday 1 January 2014 1:51PM

Stewart Smith: You are indicated as being able to receive Freeview from either the Wenvoe transmitter located at 15 miles / 233° or alternatively the Mendip transmitter at 29 miles / 146°.

As far as the aerial is concerned, aerials do not distinguish between transmission modes no matter what some advertisers may suggest.

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Full technical details of Freeview
Wednesday 1 January 2014 2:35PM

Stewart Smith: On the subject of your aerials suitability for reception from either transmitter, then to be strictly correct as far as accommodating the new muxes are concerned it should really be changed to a wideband version such as a Log 36, this version also catering for the possibility of reception being affected at any time by 4G transmissions, a supplier of the aerial referred to being accessed by opening the link.

ATV`s Choice Of Aerials for digital TV


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CLIVE JOHNSON: You should carry out a signal strength check on the offending channels as your TV or box has possibly stored that used by Sutton Coldfield, the reason for the test being to determine the mux channel number which on most Freeview devices is usually shown along with the strength / quality of the signal and with same being cross checked with the undermentioned channels used by both stations.

Waltham - 49 (BBC) - 54 (ITV) - 58 (HD) - 28 (ITV3 etc) - 56 (Pick TV etc) - 57 (ITV4 etc) - 31 (new HD)

Sutton C - 43 - 46 - 40 - 42 - 45 - 39 - 33 listed in the same order as above.

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CLIVE JOHNSON: In addition, needless to say that should you subsequently find that the problem is being caused by Sutton / C's muxes having been picked up then the only way of avoiding this is to blank out everything previously stored by auto tuning with the aerial removed, this then being followed (once aerial is reconnected) by manually tuning in each of the muxes used by Waltham with reference to that listed in previous posting.

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Full technical details of Freeview
Wednesday 1 January 2014 9:05PM

John G: Yes, the terrain indicator does indeed indicate a good clear line-of-sight even when using the more detailed Megalithia checker.

However, as your aerial is positioned in the loft and with the signal output from same not being boosted in any way, then although the issue of tuner overloading is not completely out of the question I somewhat doubt if it applies in this particular instance.

As far as the problem is concerned, although temporarily substituting the new TV for the old one would instantly indicate if the aerial is still OK or not, but should this create a problem then there is another test you could carry out that would be of considerable assistance, this being to carry out a signal strength / quality test on BBC1 making a note of the levels seen followed by the same test again but on ITV1 likewise noting that seen, the main point of the test being to observe the levels seen over a period of at least a minute or so in order to check if the quality is detected as having any tendency to dive up and down, and if it does is the fluctuation also noticed on the strength?

If though not all channels are being affected then just carry out the test on the ones that are, but still noting one that's OK to use as a reference reading against the others that aren't.

Another way to check the signal strength / quality levels is to go into the tuning menu / manual tune and enter the mux channel of the transmitter you want to check, but this action NOT being followed by pressing search or scan, as on most devices as soon as the channel number is entered the strength / quality of the signal will be indicated.

Dovers mux numbers being /

50 (BBC1) - 51 (ITV1) - 53 (HD) - 55 (ITV3 etc) - 59 (Pick TV etc) - 48 (4Music etc)

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CLIVE JOHNSON: Yes, 58 is indeed Walthams HD service, but on checking my previous reply I have just noticed a typo error I made on the ITV3 mux,, this being C29 and not C28.

As far as C58 is concerned, I just carried out a signal check on that channel and although its being received OK in the Stamford area the strength is down on what it usually is, and with a considerable level of fluctuation on the quality being seen.

HD is more critical over SD as far as bad connections on the coax is concerned, but if you are receiving ITV1 OK and also ITV4 (mux 57) then I would just wait and see if the situation improves any over the next day or so, if it doesnt we can take it from there as interference from 4G affects channels from C60 downwards, that is should you reside in an area not terribly far away from a source of 4G.

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CLIVE JOHNSON: By the way, the red triangle referred to is just the TV warning you of an insufficient level of signal being received for the decoder to operate correctly.

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