All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
norval: Unfortunately not.
The Commercial broadcasters (those that don't transmit from the Leek transmitter) don't consider the outlay worth their while. The only thing you can do is investigate the possibility of reception from a full-service transmitter such as Sutton Coldfield. Due to the nature of the area, you may have no chance, but their is always the possibility that an alternative transmitter may be usable at your location.
There are over 1,000 small transmitters like Leek and these serve 8.5% of the population. The Commercial broadcasters achieve coverage of 90% of the population from 81 of the largest transmitters (largest by viewer population). The cost to them to broadcast from the 1,000 plus relays is roughly the same as that of the 81 transmitters they currently use. As they exist purely for profit, they decided not to double their cost of transmission to increase their reach by only 10%.
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Alan: Different receivers have differing tollerances and therefore I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that there is a fault.
The thing to be aware of about Bilsdale is that aerials may require replacement because some channels are out of the former analogue group.
In the days of four-channel analogue, each transmitter used four UHF channels (frequencies) from within the same "group". Each group is a portion of the band of frequencies used for TV.
Aerials that were installed were usually grouped meaning that they are most sensitive of one particular group and that they drop off in sensitivity outside of the group.
Bilsdale was Group A (C21 to C37) for all five analogue channels and all pre-switchover digital multiplexes, except for one (Mux D which carried Film4, Yesterday etc). Group A is the bottom third of the band.
Post-switchover the Public Service (PSB) channels are on Group A channels, but the three Commercial (COM) channels are in Group B (middle third of the band). COM5 is the highest of the COMs which is on C46.
The channels are (those in brackets are the pre-switchover channels of the equivalent multiplexes):
PSB1 | BBC One | C26 (C34)
PSB2 | ITV1 | C29 (C21)
PSB3 | BBC One HD | C23 (n/a)
COM4 | ITV3 | C43 (C31)
COM5 | Pick TV | C46 (C27)
COM6 | Film4 | C40 (C42)
Prior to switchover the booster may have been needed because the digital signals were on much lower power. It is, of course, always worth a try without it. But I wonder if it may in practice be being used now to compensate for the weaker signals due to them being out of group.
To understand the sensitivities of aerials, see these example gain curves:
Gain (curves), Again
If, having tried removing the booster, it doesn't work and you decide to replace the aerial I suggest that you get a Group K aerial if you get a yagi type or if it's a log periodic, then these are wideband but have a flatter response than yagis (see gain curves on above link).
See here for some pointers:
Bilsdale TV Transmitter
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Briantist: According to Ofcom and DUK Postcode Checker, Caldbeck's COMs are at 15kW until 24th October. Presumably this is to protect against interference with Divis.
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60snatch: What is the model of the TV so we may check to see if it has a HD tuner in-built?
"Full HD" simply means that it can show the highest resolution of HD pictures which is 1080p and gives no qualification to the ability to receive HD signals off the air.
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60 snatch: Specifications say that it only has a DVB-T terrestrial tuner:
TX-L37V10 -Specification -Panasonic UK & Ireland
DVB-T is the mode of standard definition broadcasts and DVB-T2 is that of high-definition ones.
Can you receive high-definition services via the in-built Freesat tuner instead?
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marlene james: This is because your receiver has tuned to the signal from Bilsdale instead (for at least BBC channels).
Which transmitter should you be receiving from (and to which your aerial faces)?
If it is Emley Moor, then simply run the automatic tuning scan with the aerial unplugged for the first 30%. This misses scanning of channels used by Bilsdale, although if Emley Moor isn't your target, then the workaround may differ.
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60snatch: Yes, it started yesterday.
If you have Sky then you must have a dish. If there is no spare feed from the dish, then you should be able to run another. If there are no spare ports on your LNB, then you should be able to pick one up for around £10 online. Obivously you will also need a length of double-screened coax cable, e.g. WF100.
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Paolo: The user manual is here:
http://www.humaxdigital.c….pdf
Page 53 outlines the manual tuning procedure. There is a field called "Transmission" which needs setting to DVB-T2 which is that of HD broadcasts; standard definition ones use DVB-T.
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Jan: Try manually tuning for them. 5+1, 5USA, 5* and Quest are carried on COM4 which is on UHF channel 43 from Bilsdale and Dave and Challenge are on COM5 which are on C46.
Perhaps you need your aerial replacing to receive the COM channels. I covered this in response to Alan in the posting immediately before yours.
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Thursday 27 September 2012 12:00AM
ken breslin: I should add that you receive from one transmitter or the other, this being dependent on the direction and polarisation of your aerial.
So if your aerial is directed to Limavady, then the introduction of Sheriff Mountain plays no part in your reception. However, at the same time Limavady's power increases which should help you (if indeed you receive from Limavady).