All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Mike Sear: I should emphasise that it is just your aerial which need switching for vertical polarisation. A wideband aerial isn't necessary for Rowridge, and indeed a wideband yagi isn't as effective as a Group A one, which it will probably be, particularly if it dates back to four-channel analogue.
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M Flynn: No.
Have you set the RF out channel on the new Sky box to the same as that on the old one?
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phil: You have posted on the page for Freeview from Redruth. The page for DAB is here and Kevin made a posting expressing similar sentiments to yours earlier today:
Redruth (Cornwall, England) DAB transmitter | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
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Mike Cole: Yes, you receive your Freeview from Beacon Hill, near to Marldon.
There was a retune last Wednesday. Is this when ITV3 was lost?
If your set has manual tuning then go to it and scan UHF channel 42.
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John: As you have said, you are using a communal aerial system. You have therefore identified what needs to be done: contact the party responsible, e.g. landlord. It has been a week now and if no one has bothered to do this the result may be nothing gets done.
Moaning to the BBC is a waste of your time and its time and therefore a waste of Licence Fee payers' money. The BBC has not "sold" the spectrum, that was done by the Government.
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Steve Leonard: I suggest you use an AM radio to track down the source of the noise:
How do I know if the 4G broadband will overload my Freeview? | 4G-at-800 | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
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Chris Bell: The power of Blaenplwyf's COM channels are 10kW and its PSBs are 40kW. The COM channels also use a transmission mode that is less robust and therefore more susceptible to being affected quality-wise due to objects in the signal path. This is done in order to fit more services (more shopping channels) in.
The prediction for your postcode (taken from your website) suggests that Carmel may be "good" for the PSBs and non-existant for the COMs. However it gives a poor rating for the 24W Mynydd Pencarreg relay 13km away! The COM channels of Carmel and PSBs of Mynydd Pencarreg are the same. I suspect that this is one of those strange results that the predictor throws up sometimes. The non-existant COMs from Carmel may be on the assumption that Mynydd Pencarreg interferes.
I then inputted into Digital UK your house name, which means that the area predicted changed from your whole postcode to your property (that's the theory). The poor prediction for Blaenplwyf and that of Carmel disappeared completely so perhaps you are in a spot that is generally poorer than some other parts of your postcode.
Blaenplwyf uses Group A channels exclusively so a wideband yagi aerial is the wrong type:
Rowridge Transmitter
If you require a high-gain aerial then I suggest that you haven't got one for what you're using it for if it's a wideband.
With yagis, the directivity and therefore gain drops off on lower channels. A higher gain aerial focuses on a narrower beam (has narrower acceptance angle). This could potentially be a disadvantage the further away from line-of-sight you are.
The distance to Blaenplwyf is 24km and Carmel is 38km. You might try using Carmel instead.
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Christian: There have been no changes to BBC services.
On 29th May, COM4 or "SDN" multiplex which carries ITV3 and others changed UHF channel (frequency) and so communal aerial systems may require adjustment to allow for this.
For BBC standard definition services try manually tuning to UHF channel 53 (730MHz).
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Monday 10 June 2013 11:58PM
Mike Sear: Turn your aerial vertical.
Rowridge is unique as a main station because, for over a year now it has been broadcasting all channels horizontally and vertically. The Commercial (COM) channels - which carry 5* and others - are not as strong horizontally.
The reason for this restriction is because the COM channels from Stockland Hill broadcast on the same channels (same frequencies), whereas the Public Service (PSB) channels of Rowridge and Stockland aren't co-channel. Stockland broadcasts only horizontally so using vertical polarisation for Rowridge will help "rejection" of interference from Stockland, should it be present.