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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.

Divis (Northern Ireland) transmitter
Thursday 8 November 2012 10:04AM

Keith: Divis uses only Group A channels and wideband yagi aerials are less efficient on those channels.

Use a Group A aerial:

Rowridge Transmitter

Digital TV Transmitters

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Gill: I experienced dj vu when I looked on Streetview at your block!

You made a posting in August which replied to:

Heathfield (East Sussex, England) full-Freeview transmitter | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice

If your TV is tuned correctly to Heathfield for ITV3, then I suggest that the cause of poor reception is likely to be the same as why you are unable to receive COM6 (Film4, Yesterday, Magic etc).

ITV3 is on UHF channel (frequency) 42 from Heathfield, so bring up the signal strength screen and ensure that it is tuned to C42. Midhurst's ITV3 is on C54, so if it is tuned to it, then it needs correcting (assuming that your aerial faces Heathfield).

Prior to switchover, 41 and 42 weren't used for either analogue or digital and therefore may be being filtered out by your block's aerial system. This is a matter for those responsible for it to make necessary adjustments.

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Freesat on Freeview HD
Thursday 8 November 2012 10:31AM

a hollland: Freeview is a terrestrial system and Freesat is a satellite system. There are a few TVs that have Freesat built-in. I believe that they also tend to have Freeview as well, but you could just not use it.

A brief Google brought up these (and other) results:

freesat HD TV - freesat

http://www.sony.co.uk/hub…1947

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BBC One
Thursday 8 November 2012 11:22AM

mark: If you can see the mast from your roof, then I don't understand why on earth you would have a high-gain aerial installed, let alone have it replaced!

Have you tried attenuating the signal?

Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice

For example (other models and suppliers are available):

TV Aerial Attenuator Variable 0-20Db Freeview Digital | eBay

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d.Gwilt: I think that you need to go to the opticians!

As stated above a number of times and in discussion with others the likely answer is NEVER.

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John Gallard: The usual cause of the services not taking up their designated logical channel numbers is because the country has not been set to UK/GB.

The only other thing that I can think is if you are in Northern Ireland where you may be bale to pick up Saorview from the Republic and that this is your cause of difficulty. If so, then perhaps avoiding having the aerial plugged in during the part of the scan that the Saorview signal is on might work. Knowledge of your location may help if this could be a possible issue.

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James Hyde: Relay transmitters mainly serve small areas that aren't otherwise served by high power "main" transmitters. They are so-called because they relay the signal from their parent, that is they receive it off-air and rebroadcast on their own frequencies.

As most relay transmitters only serve a small number of households, the Commercial broadcasters aren't interested in having them carry their channels. See here for an explanation:

Londonderry transmitter | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice

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martin cunningham: The reason that the Newcastle transmitter does not carry all the channels is outlined here:

Londonderry transmitter | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice

Whether your house "may" be able to receive the full service from Divis cannot be answered without knowledge of where it is!

The difficulty in your general area with receiving from Divis is that Slieve Croob and nearby peaks are in the way.

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Mark Littlejohns: The 1,000 plus PSB-only relays aren't likely to be upgraded to provide the full service. Bath transmitter continues to relay only the three PSB multiplexes.

Identify which UHF channel (frequency) that the other channels are coming in on, and hence what transmitter they are coming from. Do this by viewing the signal strength screen whilst on the following: 10:ITV3 (COM4), 11:Pick TV (COM5) and 15:Film4 (COM6).

The three COM channels from Mendip are 48, 56 and 52 respectively.

The result for digital reception (a picture being shown) is pretty much all or nothing. Thus the signal level may have been "just below" before and is "just above" now which is a "slight" change. This is to explain why you may have no reception in one instance, and some in another.

Your aerial is obviously facing the wrong way, it is vertically polarised (Mendip's signals are horizontally polarised) and it is probably a Group A one (which is more sensitive on the lower channels that Bath uses and hence less sensitive on the highest channels which Mendip uses).

I wouldn't like to say whether you will be able to get continual reliable reception from Mendip even with your Bath aerial giving some sort of reception. A professional installer on-site is only likely to be able to say.

It is possible that you are receiving the Mendip signals because there is something that has changed and is reflecting them. Or they may have been there all along, albeit a "slight" increase. Or perhaps something in the path between the transmitter and you has changed and allows more signal through.

The difficulty with Mendip is that you don't have line-of-sight due to residing in a valley. This in itself does not necessarily mean that reception isn't possible.

Look around to see if others have had Mendip-facing aerials fitted. These will be horizontal roughly south west.

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David Brown: The Weardale transmitter at Frosterley does not broadcast any DAB. It relays the four BBC national FM radio stations only.

As the BBC has seen fit to install FM transmitters, then perhaps there are similar gaps in its DAB coverage.

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