All posts by Mike Weatherley
Below are all of Mike Weatherley's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
MikeB: Occam's Razor - use it every day to shave. I'm a trained scientist. As for your theory: bollocks! There was obviously a transitory problem with the transmitter/weather/satellite configuration for that week causing the beak-up of the signal, as it's been clear again ever since, with exactly the same TV, set-top box & roof-top aerial. Occam's razor says: original theory proved correct. Don't be so dismissive & rude in future, but try offering genuinely helpful comments! So there!
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The only one who sounds like a 5 year-old, Mike B. is you. Perhaps if you answered questions civilly & helpfully in the first place, you wouldn't make anyone angry. There obviously ARE problems with the Bluebell Hill transmitter recently, as others have attested. With my TV, it's always BBC 1&2 reception that gets lost first, with ITV & Channel 4 being the last to go - so try blaming that on the receiving equipment! Also, BBC HD signals last longer than BBC ones before cracking-up. Years ago I had a similar thing, and the movie I was watching on Channel 4 kept cracking-up but the commercial breaks in between were perfect reception (well, we wouldn't want to upset the commercial sponsors, now would we). It turned out that engineering works on the transmitter were being done, but they made sure they stopped every time the adverts came on...
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Philip, you're quite right about the high pressure weather conditions destroying the T.V. signal from Bluebell Hill. I've said the same, here myself, recently (asking if anyone else had the same problem), but got a rather snotty reply from someone (an engineer?) who asked why people complain about the signal reception instead of getting new T.V.s or aerials (at extra cost & fitting charge of course). He even tried to blame the periodic loss of the digital T.V. signal (usually in hot weather at this time of year) on "...rainwater getting into the aerial lead on your roof and then taking days to dry out again..." which was a complete red herring. And since we've had a recurrence of the problem recently in North Kent - in the absence of any rain for the last month - that explanation can be seen to have been a load of cobblers. I actually notice it worst if the sky is clear (perversely) ie no clouds, in the evening when the Sun has just set. And since I'm directly east of Bluebell Hill, I'm wondering if the Sun's radiation directly *behind* the transmitter is swamping/disrupting the relatively weaker T.V. signal with electromagnetic 'noise'. At least, as a trained scientist, that's my current theory. And yes Philip, you're right: we never did have this problem before T.V. went digital!
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Where I live (due east of Bluebell Hill) the worst TV reception is this time of year at sunset, when the Sun is at its strongest and directly in line with the transmitter. The radiation from the Sun completely swamps the TV signals, and all reception is lost. We never had that problem with the old analogue signals, only since we went 'digital'. I know it's the same for other people, also due east of Bluebell Hill.
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Monday 19 February 2018 4:20PM
Hi, is anyone else aware of sunspots/weather being a problem in the last fortnight? My digital signal keeps breaking up (usually when the sunshine is strong in a clear blue sky) or I lose all signal completely. Switching to another set-top box makes no difference & there's nothing wrong with the roof-top aerial. So it must be a problem with the digital signals/weather. Cheers, Mike.