All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
When the BBC makes a mistake, including perceivably wasting money, it did so in pursuit of provision of a Public Service. When a commercial broadcaster makes a similar mistake it did so in pursuit of profit for itself and shareholders.
I view such mishaps accordingly. With the BBC I recognise that its mistake was not done due to its own greed.
The BBC, as a Public Service Broadcaster, makes many different types of programmes for different interests. The notion that only people who wish to pay the BBC should do so would mean that productions which have a smaller audience would either not get made or there would be a higher charge per viewer/listener.
Clearly there is a sizeable proportion who can only think in terms of getting as much for themselves at least possible cost. This is the basic law of capitalism. These people have no regard for others. In this case others who will suffer the most are those with a minority interest.
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Chris Harris: Without knowledge of your location it is impossible to answer the question as to how likely you might be to pick up these channels, this being because they are on lower power than the main Freeview channels.
C37 is not on air yet. C31 uses DVB-T2 mode so if there is an option on the manual tuning screen for DVB-T or DVB-T2 then it must be set to the latter.
On the manual tuning screen, entering/selecting the desired UHF channel number and waiting (not pressing the button to scan/add services) should allow the device to be used as a signal meter, thereby giving you an idea of whether there is a signal there but which is not good enough.
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Alec: The HD streams of BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three and CBBC are carried by all transmitters.
The new multiplex which carries BBC Four HD and BBC News HD, among others, is not available from Brougher Mountain and isn't likely to be so. The only transmitter in Northern Ireland to carry it is Divis, and this is on lower power than the other channels.
I cannot see that this has anything to do with RT as from Brougher it is on C30. At switchover channels 31 to 35, and 37 were cleared and are now available to the operator of these new quasi-national networks.
Across the whole of the UK there are only 30 transmitters carrying these multiplexes and they are doing so on lower power than the main Freeview muxes. Prior to switchover there were 80 transmitters carrying low-power Freeview, so the coverage is less than pre-switchover digital.
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Laura Campbell: Probably not.
Thee is a two-tier terrestrian television transmittter network. The Commercial (COM) channels, which are those which you can now no longer receive achieve coverage of about 90% of the population whereas the Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) channel serve about 98.5% of the population, them having a requirement to provide a public service, as their name implies. The COM networks have no such obligation.
Because Perth is in a valley you are unlikely to be able to receive the full complement of channels from the Angus transmitter. I see you reside in a block of flats. If you are using a communal aerial system then it is beyond your control.
The Freesat route would give you other channels, although Dave, Yesterday and others aren't available. This is because they are only carried on satellite via Sky's subscription platform.
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Laura Campbell: I have explained the reasons for the two-tier system here:
Londonderry (Northern Ireland) Freeview Light transmitter | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice .
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Chris Harris: In which case C57 isn't likely to be available to you because broadcasts directionally towards Manchester. You may, however, be able to receive the local Liverpool station when it comes on air. It will be on C56 at 2kW.
I suggest that in order to pick up C31 you may require a wideband aerial.
The transmission power of it is, according to Digital UK, 24kW, as against 100kW for the main channels.
But 24kW is in now way "low"; the fact that it is about a quarter of the others does not mean it only carries a quarter of the distance. It is a minority of viewers who live in spots where the transmitter can't be seen who really need the extra power to have any fighting chance.
You have line-of-sight, or probably near linee-of-sight, were it not for the higher ground at Halton, as this terrain plot shows:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
If your aerial is a Group C/D one (best at C48 to C69) then it is likely to be less sensitive on C31, hence a wideband being suggested.
Wideband log periodics have much flatter response curves than wideband yagis, as is shown here:
Gain (curves), Again
For that reason a log may be the better bet.
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Margaret: With DAB, a single signal (known as a multiplex) carries multiple radio stations. See if you have Classic FM and that you can listen to it, as if you do then you are receiving the national multiplex which it is carried on and therefore the radio is in a position where you can pick up LBC.
You will need to do a retune for LBC because the old "LBC" on your radio will be that which was carried on one of the regional London multiplexes.
A manual tune to channel 11D might help, this being the national commercial multiplex which LBC is now on.
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MikeB: What you say makes much sense.
Nothing is perfect and having a system where providers are in it for their own gain still does not result in everything going the way consumers would like.
As I say, the BBC makes a mistake and it does so in an effort to provide a public service. It picks itself up and learns from it.
A private company makes a mistake and it does so in an effort to fulfil its own interests.
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Chris Harris: Indeed. If/when the next lot of TV frequencies get cleared to sell off to the mobile operators then that will mean Winter Hill will have to move downwards further, which will put it outside Group C/D.
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Tuesday 18 February 2014 11:01AM
Lucinda: You need to be able to receive the national commercial multiplex on channel 11D. If you have the following stations then you have 11D and you may need to perform a rescan or reset:
Details of 11D_D1_National DAB multiplex | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice