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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.

Full technical details of Freeview
Friday 7 June 2013 6:18PM

Hary Coventry: I had a look at your close on Streetview. I see there's a few VHF aerials still on the rooftops!

What I have seen is a high-gain UHF aerial pointing to Crystal Palace and it is on one of the houses at the end. There is a wheely bin on its back with a "10" on. It might be worth enquiring with them whether they can receive all channels and whether it is reliable or breaks up at times.

The photographs were taken in October 2008, so prior to switchover. The aerial may or may not bring in all the channels (as I say, you will have to ask).

The COM signals (those you can't get from Naphill but which broadcast from Crystal Palace) are less robust than the PSBs which means that some fringe viewers may find they can only get the PSBs reliably. I say this just so you don't assume that because reception from Crystal Palace is possible that this will give you more channels than you have now.

If you are looking to put up an aerial for Crystal Palace don't get a wideband one as they aren't as effective on the low channels which it uses exclusively; use a Group A one:

Rowridge Transmitter

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Full technical details of Freeview
Friday 7 June 2013 6:26PM

Hary Coventry: It was number 10 Cherry Tree Close I was looking at.

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Peter Ball: Refer to my posting to Paul Stone, here:

Waltham (Leicestershire, England) analogue radio transmitter | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice

What you need to do is ascertain whether BBC One, ITV, ITV3, Pick TV and Film4 are tuned correctly. If they are not, find out what they are tuned to then you know what you're dealing with and what you're trying to avoid by doing the unplugging aerial trick. That is, what you are trying to avoid depends on when the aerial needs unplugging.

Digital UK suggests that Sutton Coldfield may also be possible at your location. It uses channels 43, 46, 42, 45, 39 and these are in order (i.e. PSB1, PSB2, COM4, COM5, COM6, respectively). See the link I've provided for more information and ideas.

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Peter Ball: The trick is to focus on the five services that are the first one on each multiplex:

PSB1 BBC One
PSB2 ITV
COM4 ITV3
COM5 Pick TV
COM6 Film4

If they are all present and correct then all other services on the same multiplexes would be expected to be.

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Diagnostics - old version
Friday 7 June 2013 9:18PM

Inez: Do you have a Sky box by any chance and does it put out an analogue signal (to feed to other TVs) on or near UHF channel 49 which is the new BBC channel?

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Barbara Hill (please do not put on websi: Your postcode resolves to a block of flats which makes me think that you are using a communal aerial system.

If you are using a communal aerial system and your neighbours in the building are also affect then it is down to whatever party is responsible for the aerial system to rectify it. Even if this were an issue where a filter is required, which I strongly think it isn't, the filter should be fitted within the aerial system rather than a filter in each flat.

So all told it is down to the party responsible for the aerial system. If I were you I'd get in touch with them rather than moaning to EE.

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A Briggs: I am surprised that Samsung would write to customers to let them know that a transmitter is changing its channel and so a retune will be required. It's not its job and a profit-making company I'm surprised to find that it would do such a thing.

Obviously Samsung, or any other company for that matter, cannot know with certainty which transmitter any one person is using.

I wouldn't think that it would have tuned to Bincombe Hill because its channels are higher than Weymouth's and so it will be picked up after it during the scan.

Have you tried doing a manual tune?

For Weymouth, BBC is on C47 and ITV, C4, C5 etc are on C44.

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Ron: Yes. It won't mean a visit from the Murdoch Heavies.

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Anonymous: I am sure I would be concerned about TV reception. Whilst I may observe that it happened at the same time as another event, this doesn't necessarily mean that one is as a result of the other. For that reason I wouldn't be contacting EE in this instance, but instead the party responsible for the aerial system who can call out an engineer who will have test equipment that can determine with certainty whether it is indeed outside interference.

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Feedback | Feedback
Saturday 8 June 2013 2:17PM

CRJ343: What does the ghost look like and when does it appear? Does he have a bright suit and tie on and does he appear during episodes of Countdown? You say yes... That'll be Richard Whiteley then.

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