All posts by Richard Tonkin
Below are all of Richard Tonkin's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
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Mendip, Bristol and relay transmitters - retune require on 27thSunday 31 March 2013 6:46PM
Caldicot
jb38: Here are the figures you requested plus the Wenvoe equivalents for comparison. They were obtained using my Humax PVR 9200T because I find it gives more useful information than does my Sony Bravia TV.
Ch49 Mendip Strength 45%, Quality 10%. No stations were found.
Ch54 ITV1 Mendip Strength 58%, Quality 100%.
Ch41 BBC1 Wenvoe Strength 74%, Quality 100%.
Ch44 ITV1 Wenvoe Strength 61%, Quality 100%.
When I tried to use the TV although I could set the channel to 49 it started searching upwards and I couldn't find a way to prevent this happening, hence the Humax data.
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R
Mendip, Bristol and relay transmitters - retune require on 27thSunday 31 March 2013 9:47PM
Caldicot
jb38: I have two separate arials, one each for Mendip and Wenvoe. They are at approximately 90 deg to each other which bears out your comment about the null spot. (I think I mentioned two aerials in my original post.) The Mendip aerial looks to me to be a high gain one whereas the Wenvoe one is a normal one. The signals are combined on the mast (in a diplexer?) and then go through a powered amplifier into a powered distribution system in the loft. As I said earlier, it has worked satisfactorily for years, only occasionally giving problems under extreme atmospheric conditions when one of the channels (usually Mendip) suffers from pixelation. This is fairly rare.
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R
Mendip, Bristol and relay transmitters - retune require on 27thTuesday 2 April 2013 7:02PM
Caldicot
I just wondered whether people suffering lack of Mendip BBC channels all have two aerials (Mendip and possibly Wenvoe) diplexed together (and in my case also going through a distribution system) or are people with a normal system (one aerial into one TV, no amplifiers etc) also suffering?
I phoned the given BBC number 03700100123 earlier today and the reaction was 'what problem? we don't know of any problems'. So how is this going to get resolved? Perhaps a twitter campaign is needed, that sometimes works so I'm told. I'm not a twitterer myself so I'm not the man to lead it.
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Mendip, Bristol and relay transmitters - retune require on 27thTuesday 2 April 2013 8:25PM
Caldicot
Fiona: That's what I wanted to hear. So if you get no signal then there's no hope for the rest of us!
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Having had a good look at my Mendip aerial and googled around on the net I think that my problem may be the aerial itself. It has 8 shallow Xs on the main part and six horizontal bars on the angled reflector at the back, three on the top bit and three on the bottom. My guess is that as it was installed pre-digital and I'm assuming it is a C/D group aerial then at the freqency for channel 49 its response is dropping off (signal strength is 49 and quaility is 10%)compared with that when the BBC was on 61 before March 27th. It still seems to be good enough for ITV which is on channel 54 even though the signal strength for that is 54.
I would welcome comments from the resident experts regarding a better aerial. I will also contact the gentlemen who set up the aerials originally as he's very good and has a lot of local knowledge.
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Saturday 30 March 2013 8:53PM
Caldicot
I have tried several retunes since 27th March but still get no BBC channels from Mendip although the ITV ones are there loud and clear. My postcode is NP26 5PF (near Chepstow) but for several years I have been able to receive from both Wenvoe (1 plus) and Mendip (800 plus) with no problems at all. My system combines the Wenvoe and Mendip aerials (so this may be the problem) and as far as I can remember (it's in the spidery loft) go through an amplifier into a distribution system although this could be bypassed as I only have one outlet in the lounge. I don't see why the ITV programs should be received from Mendip but not the BBC ones.
I have searched the BBC site in vain (no help at all) and wondered if they are even aware of the problems people are having and planning to do anything to rectify it in the near future. Are there any associated problems with the Mendip mast?