All posts by Nick
Below are all of Nick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Norm, I am looking at the info at the top of the page that says various commercial channels from Sudbury carry programming/local news as from Meridian rather than Anglia..
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I was wondering why some of my comments re Sudbury seemed to have disappeared and have just realised UK free tv has two sites for the transmitter. Wonder why.
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Dave, if you happen to have a phone a friend who knows about DAB I would be grateful, have posted some qs on the Aldeburgh tv and dig radio pages without success.
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Thanks Brian, but it does not explain why Sky is apparently happy to let us see Challenge on freeview, if we are not on one of the under-privilged 'light' transmitters.
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Thanks Dave.
I have experimented with a DAB dipole on a long pole, but only on the shed, aerial about upstairs window height. I can get the radio to log on to some commercial channels, but not strong enough to hear, so hopefully at roof height it might work. I would like to use a directional aerial, but don't know where to point it as the signals are probably either from Manningtree or Mendlesham, but as on same frequency, don't know which. If you have any idea why the commercial channels are on lower power than the BBC, I would be interested to know.
What do you think of a booster 6 inches from dipole for tv?
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Thanks JB. It is already in a metal casing, I am just keeping the rain off. I don't know its gain, but it gives the same benefit as a 28db one I have to analogue Dover. The gain does decrease with each drop in voltage, till it does nothing at 3v.
Would you recommend immediately behind the reflector? I only see them half way down the mast.
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What is the reasoning behind this transmitter broadcasting on two polarities? If people have reception problems, can they have two aerials at different polarities to give a super signal?
Is this an experiment, for other transmitters to follow?
What effect would you get putting the aerial on the slant? Best of both worlds?
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No, KMJ, nothing from Oulton. Do you know why the local and commercial stations are on lower power than the main BBC transmitters from the same site? It seems they want to make things as difficult as they can with coverage. At IP12, they don't provide DAB at all.
JB. It responds instantly to the voltage drop. Perhaps the length of phone cable reduces the voltage a bit.
Perhaps with Dover, where the signal is barely detectable, having the booster immediately behind the reflector captures what little there is, whereas with Sudbury it matters less as there is a good signal to start with. I had to have some means of reducing the Dover signal as it is variable. Most times it is snowy, even with the booster, others it is very strong.
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Thanks KMJ. I wondered why there were so many DAB transmitter, but not enough, whereas FM uses much higher power with far fewer transmitters. Daft rules again. They will have to get their act together before switching off FM.
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Thursday 26 April 2012 11:28PM
Nick: Dave, thanks re booster. Surely this reinforces the idea that it be placed 6 inches from the dipole rather than more than six feet?
Incidentally, I am trying a crafty move as I don't want to take the aerial down if the signal should be too strong. I have a behind the set box which does nothing there but seems to have three transistors which to me indicates it is high gain. I have housed the amplification part in a plastic box, intending to put it near the dipole, dispensed with the transformer, replaced it with one which offers 6, 7and a half, 9 0r 12 volts, and connected the two via a length of phone cable, and reduce the voltage if gain is too high. I have tried this with analogue Dover, where I am well out of range.