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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.


Pauline Carabine: There are free-to-air satellite channels available via "Freesat".

For a comparison of full Freeview vs Freesat, see: Compare TV Freeview/Freesat | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice

Contrary to its logo appearing on that page, ITV3 is available on Freesat.


The Commercial (COM) multiplexes (signals that carry multiple services/channels) do not have as wide a reach as the Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) ones.

The Commercial broadcasters achieve coverage of 90% of the population from 81 of the largest transmitter sites (largest by viewer population). There are over 1,000 small "filler-in" relay transmitters like Matlock which are PSB-only. For the Commercials to broadcast from these would roughly double their cost of transmission whilst only adding 8.5% of the population to their potential viewer bases. As they operate only to make profit by showing advertising to as many viewers as possible which they aquire at lowest possible cost, then it's not surprising that they declined the offer to increase their coverage.

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Steven Nancarrow: It was announced earlier this month that S4C Clirlun is to close at the end of the year.

Transmitters in Wales carry S4C Clirlun in lieu of Channel 4 HD. I don't know whether it is likely to replace S4C Clirlun when it closes.

Failing that, Channel 4 HD is available on Freesat.

Or you may be able to receive it from a transmitter in England such as Mendip. For this you will need a second aerial combined with the Kilvey Hill one.

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Steven Nancarrow: If Wenvoe is receivable at your location, then Mendip may be roughly in line with it, which makes me wonder whether a single aerial may allow you to receive all services from Wenvoe and 4HD from Mendip.

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Nick: If your box has manual tuning, then the easy answer is to unplug the aerial so as to miss out C59. Then manually add the missing ones, 58, 60 and possibly 56. If it doesn't, then if you have another aerial that picks up all Sudbury's channels such as that on your shed then take the box there and tune it in.

I don't quite understand. If aerial 1 works, then why not install it on your roof to provide you with the full complement of channels in your house? If this is so, then it would suggest that it is possible to pick them all up, although as jb38 suggests, it might be worth trying it over a period of time to see if they all hold.

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Elaine: I put the message (as you gave it within the quotes) into Google and it came up with a number of pages where people were commenting that it has something to do with the BBC interactive (Red Button) services. The fact that the BBC channels are viewable through the Guide suggests that they are there.


"BBC Red Button" should be on Logical Channel Number (LCN) 105; this normally gives a blank screen. You should also have two streams on LCNs 301 and 302, the latter being a temporary one for the Olympics. Check that they are there and not in the 800s, for example.

Failing that, maybe there is a way to disable the interactive services on your receiver. This will of course disable the Red Button.

These are some general thoughts and pointers as to what I'd try in your situation as I don't have an exact answer.


If you do find a solution, please let us know what you did as it might help others with the same query. Also, it might be useful to know the make and model number of the receiver you are using.

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Spam filter changed to Akismet
Monday 30 July 2012 12:07PM

I have a few postings in the past, pressed the "Post your comment" button, only to be sent back to the thread without my posting appearing. I then had to write it again.

I have just tried posting several times unsuccessfully on the thread:

Changes to BBC services for the Olympic Games | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice

Is this the spam filter (my posting did include a hyperlink)? I tried it several times and it wouldn't post, but on removing the hyperlink, it posted.

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Divis (Northern Ireland) transmitter
Monday 30 July 2012 1:10PM

Malachy: Yes. HD services will be available from Divis starting on 24th October.

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Margaret Holland: Three-quarters of the scan (which is from C21 to C69) makes it about C57. As ITV1 is on C60 from Oxford, then it would appear that it hasn't scanned Oxford for this channel yet.

Try running the automatic tuning scan through with the aerial unplugged, and then again with it unplugged up to 60%.

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Aubrey Stafford : If you have a directional aerial and are wishing to receive from different transmitters, then perhaps you would be better off with an omni-directional antenna.

The bearings of the stations from your location are:

- Holme Moss 291
- Fishpond Hill (Mansfield) 221
- Belmont 89

BBC Radio Nottingham on 95.5 MHz comes from Fishpond Hill and BBC Radio Lincolnshire on 94.9 MHz comes from Belmont.

The four BBC national FM stations and Classic FM are broadcast from Holme Moss and Belmont.

So at present, BBC Radio Nottingham is being received at 70 anti-clockwise of the antenna's greatest direction of sensitivity. If it is horizontally polarised, then its sensitivity is its least at 90 (clockwise and anti-clockwise) of the direction it faces, so you aren't too far off that.

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jb38: Where are the coverage maps you refer to?

I know that mb21 has some, but I can't find one for Radio Nottingham on there.

Also, don't the coverage maps just indicate where the strength is calculated as being above a particular level at a particular height above ground (assuming no local obstructions)? Therefore there may be places outside of those areas where reception isn't greatly less than within. Also, assuming that Aubrey is using an external aerial as I believe he implies in his posting (or certainly a directional one) then the signal will be better and therefore the chances of reception will be greater.

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