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All posts by Dave Lindsay

Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.


Qwerty: The answer is because you are on a hill and can therefore receive from Crystal Palace.

The High Wycombe transmitter does not currently broadcast digital services and after switchover it will be a Public Service only transmitter. That means it will carry only BBC, ITV1, ITV2, Channel 4, E4, More 4, Channel 5, HD channels and a few others.

So those in the valley who consequently can't receive directly from Crystal Palace will not get ITV3, Film 4, Dave, Pick TV etc.

The only possibility you may have when switchover happens is that your receiver may tune to the High Wycombe transmitter for the services that it carries. The way around this is to only have the aerial plugged in for only the first 30% of the automatic tuning scan. I am assuming here that your aerial is directed to Crystal Palace (it will be horizontal) and not High Wycombe (it will be vertical).

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John: In circumstances such as lost channels due either to interference or reduced signal level, the outcome of retuning can only ever mean that those channels are lost from the receiver's memory, thus necessitating repeated retunes. If the outcome is that the channels have returned, then they would have returned anyway.

In an effort to restore remaining channels, you need to manually tune to the respective channel numbers as rescanning just wipes what you have and leaves you at risk of effectively loosing more:

ITV3 = C25 (SDN)
Pick TV = C22 (ArqA)
Yesterday = C28 (ArqB)

These transmission power of these services from Stockland will increase on 18th April to their full final power of 25kW. They are all at 10kW at the moment.

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Jack Hughes: Yes, on 18th April (which is the final switchover date for Crystal Palace) the power the Commercial multiplexes from Stockland will rise from 10kW to 25kW.

Because the same channels and modes are being used, it will not be necessary for you to retune.

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Mike Miles: Yes, the restriction will be lifted on 18th April when they will go up to their full final power of 50kW each.

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Mike: I must point out that the multiplex that carries Film 4, ITV4 and others is on low power until 27th June from Sudbury. Therefore, it is likely that the problem will rectify itself then (if not before) and therefore that any remedial work (and expense) will be to provide reception of those channels between now and 27th June.

What has probably happened is that the level of the signal has dropped slightly, putting it below the threshold that your receiver needs to resolve a picture. You will need to keep manually tuning to channel 63 until it comes back.

Had you not carried out a rescan, you could have simply switched over to one of the affected programme channels to see whether they are back. In circumstances such as yours, the outcome of rescanning usually only serves to loose the programme channels from the receiver's memory.

Where a signal is below the level at which the receiver will work, retuning won't make any positive difference. If the signal level increased a little to produce a picture, it would do it irrespective of the retuning and if it didn't, then you loose it from the listings.

For Sudbury, there is no need to retune until 27th June, it will not achieve anything.

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Rob R: Could you receive Freeview channels before 7th March?

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Rob R: In addition to the above question, go to BBC One and then bring up the signal strength/quality screen and let me know what UHF channel it is tuned to. It may be 24, 41 or 60.

Do the same for ITV1. It may be 27, 47 or 53.

If it doesn't give a channel number, it may give a frequency in MHz instead.

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Helen: Because those services are on low power until 27th June. On that date it will be necessary to carry out a retune to continue watching them. Don't carry out any retunes until then as there is no need to and you may just end up loosing them from your TV altogether.

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David Parker: 4seven is carried on COM6/ArqB, so it is only available from the full Freeview transmitters.

See DMOL Post-DSO Multiplex Channel Allocations

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