All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Graham: I think that if you intend to have another aerial installed, then it would be best to consult with an installer because yours is not a good area for reception.
The other possibility, and you may be able to DIY it, is to use the older aerial that gives you all the channels and fit a distribution amplifier to supply signals to multiple rooms.
I am not a professional myself so wouldn't like to advise what to use, but instead I can direct you to sources of information.
The website of ATV Sheffield holds a wealth of information on aerials and TV reception. Even they say that reception is a black art and presumably none more so in locations such as yours at the bottom of a drop, the sloping road and where there appears as if there are trees in the way for at least some on your road.
See:
Belmont TV Transmitter
Aerials, TV Aerial and Digital Aerial
Television Aerial Boosters / Amplifiers, Splitters, Diplexers & Triplexers
Gain comes at the expense of "loss" elsewhere. Where there is a beam to focus on (i.e. where you can see the transmitter), then this might be good. But the more you get away from that, the more it may be a disadvantage.
The COM channels do not have as good a coverage as the PSBs, and so some viewers, including those who use Belmont, will only receive PSBs, or may receive COM4 but not COM5 and COM6. The reason for this is that the channels that they use are reused in closer proximity than PSB channels.
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kevin rowbotham: I've written the answer here:
Londonderry transmitter | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
The Licence fee goes to the BBC and, as a Public Service Broadcaster, you have the BBC.
The Commercial broadcasters have decided not to transmit from the small (few viewers) transmitters.
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Valerie Norris: I imagine that you might be receiving from Waltham which is undergoing engineering works which means bouts of low power.
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Dave Wilson: Anyone who suggests that you might be able to receive from Rosneath at your location must surely have been supping something!
See the terrain plot:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
Whilst it is only 9 miles from you, Bromley Muir is 80m above the top of the transmitter and you live 300m at the bottom on the other side!
Darvel is 30 miles away but there is also high ground in the way:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
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pam: Looking at Streetview, the houses I can see on your road have their aerials pointing to Rowridge.
If yours is the same, then have the aerial switched for vertical polarisation so as to take advantage of the stronger vertical COM signals (which carry the channels you're having difficulty with).
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martin: As KMJ,Derby says, this is usually caused by the memory being fulled and not enough to store the channels that are forgotten.
BBC from Winter Hill is on the highest channel (frequency). All of the transmitter's channels are at the top end of the group of frequencies used for TV. As a result, it could be that your box is storing the signals from other transmitters, by which time it comes to store your desired one there isn't enough memory.
The answer is usually to prevent it from filling the memory with some other signals. Have the aerial lead unplugged for the first 50% of the scan.
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David: I bought a new CRT television around 2004. I did look to see if there were any with digital tuners in-built but there weren't. In order to use the said set, I now must use a separate tuner.
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Friday 23 November 2012 10:18AM
George: I'm surprised that at your location, even before switchover, you would have needed anything but a regular-sized aerial. I'm not a professional though.