All posts by Richard Davis
Below are all of Richard Davis's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Hi, Brian -
I'm concerned to hear from you that all the Brighton TV transmitters will be changing region to what is effectively the "London and surrounds" region when switchover happens! To my mind this would be a retrograde step - the BBC local news from Southampton currently gives much better editorial cover of Brighton than does the London region. Are you sure about this change, and where did you get the information from?
Incidentally, I looked at your Twitter page to find out what your name actually is (I didn't want to address this to "Dear Briantist"!) and was interested to see that, like me, you're in Brighton.
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Hi, Brian -
I notice you list the power of the D1 MPX from Whitehawk Hill as being 500W. The RLG (which, admittedly, is at least 6 months out of date) gives it as 200W. Has the power been increased?
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I drove into Brighton this morning, and it looked as if there was a crane on site (I couldn't get very close due to other comittments). This evening there seems to be a new aerial on the platform at the top of the mast - slightly longer than the Ch 5 ae, alongside and it a bit to the south. Again couldn't get close due to time committments. Possibly a temporary ae for the analogue services so they can replace the (old) main aerial?
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I've had a chance to have a closer look, and it appears that what I thought I saw from a distance and posted here on the 20th was wrong - I can see no evidence of the new aerial that I thought I could see, so sorry to mislead!
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Jay -
The reason for the duplicate channels (principally BBC4, BBC Parliament, Cbeebies, and some BBC radio channels) is that the new, improved BBC A MPX which has now started on Ch 60 is now carying these as well as BBC1, BBC2, etc., whereas its prececessor, the lower capacity Multiplex 1, didn't. However, all these services are also still on Multiplex B, which doesn't change until the 21st, so when your RX scans the band it'll find each of these programmes twice! It took me a while to figure this out yesterday, since my first thought was that I was getting a signal from Patcham - it's only about a mile away with a line-of-sight path, although my aerial is firmly pointing at Whitehawk, and I can get a weak analogue signal from it. Anyway, the problem with finding the programmes twice should disappear on the 21st when all the multiplexes switch to their final configuration - in the meantime, it shoudn't matter which of the two versions you use.
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Like Martin David, my TV, which is a Philips 32PFL5605H/05, doesn't seem to be able to find the HD channels although everything else is fine, and it can display HD when fed from a Humax Foxsat box. The TV's manual is not very well written and hence is rather confusing, but it does give the impression that I should be able to get HD from the built in tuner. Does anyone else know different?
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jb38 - Thanks for confirming my fears about the Philips 5605. Oh well, I'm no worse off than I was before - I can still get HD via the Humax box, and the Philips displays it well as you said. By the way, is there a web site where you can find out which TVs have HD tuners?
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J Green: Thanks for your suggestion. However, I don't need to buy another STB as I already have a Humax Foxsat box which gives me the HD channels. It's just that I expected I'd be able to get them on the Philips TV itself after switchover, and was wondering whether I had a problem with it. As I now know that the TV is working as it should I won't worry any more.
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Simon: From what you say it does sound as if the signal is now too strong - the fact that in the interim period you had problems with the new MPX but not the old ones tends to point to this. As you've tried an attenuator in your set's aerial lead without success it sounds as if the distribution amplifier for the block may be overloading, which means that the attenuator needs to go in that amplifier's input. I wouldn't put too much faith in what the managing agents say!
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Sunday 5 June 2011 12:30PM
A small point - when you refer to transmission "polarity", I assume you mean "polarisation". Perhaps it was just a typing error!