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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.


Robin Mutch: Perhaps it is the signal level that is verging on the excessive and increasing, perhaps marginly, at times thereby overwhelming your tuner:

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

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Robin Mutch: It may appear to be the opposite which how too much signal appears because its action is to overwhelm the tuner thereby making any readings unreliable.

If you have three TVs fed from one aerial with a distribution amplifier, perhaps it is overloading the amplifier which is like turning up the sound on a hifi beyond that which the speakers can cope, which means that the sound becomes distorted.

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Harry C: Yes it's a coincidence!

The Waltham transmitter is 13 miles away which is much further than mobile phone signals work across.

According to 'Sitefinder' Mobile Phone Base Station Database there is a Vodafone base station on Manor Drive where there is a mobile phone tower shown on Streetview. Sitefinder may not be up-to-date.

Has a building gone up between that base station and the area you have difficulty getting a signal in?

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Harry C: At the same location, Sitefinder indicates there is an O2 3G base station. The O2 coverage checker indicates base stations and this one is shown, which may be an indication that it is still there.

The base station is at the front of Soar Valley Timber.

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Full technical details of Freeview
Tuesday 18 June 2013 10:36AM

Zoe: If your set has a manual tuning option then try a manual scan of UHF channel 49, which is that for the services you are now missing.

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Full technical details of Freeview
Tuesday 18 June 2013 5:28PM

Yaz: All the aerials I can see on Streetview are pointing roughly due south, which is to Bilsdale. COM4 (SDN, the multiplex which carries 5USA and others) is on C43 from Bilsdale and C50 from Pontop Pike which is the opposite direction.

If it was tuned not to the transmitter to which the aerial faces then this explains why reception has changed.

Bring up the signal strength screen on the TV and see which it is tuned to.

Pontop Pike's channels are in roughly the top half of the band and Bilsdale's are in the bottom half, so unplugging the aerial after the first 50% of the scan should help miss out Pontop Pike.

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Full technical details of Freeview
Tuesday 18 June 2013 7:06PM

Zoe: Do you have any other box, notably a Sky box, which could be interfering with the C49 signal?

If you do try feeding the incoming aerial lead directly into your TV and then perform a manual scan of C49 again.

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Annie: Perhaps the trees that are in the signal path (i.e. between you and the transmitter) coming into leaf.

There are an awful lot of them on the other side of Manchester Road. I see on Streetview that a few houses have their aerials on high poles, presumably in an effort to 'see' over the trees.

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Jeff Harris: Interference from a noisy electrical appliance is always a possibility. The Sky box of a neighbour won't interfere, certainly not in the way which one might if you have it connected into your aerial lead.

If you have an amplifier that was installed in order to pick up the digital signals before switchover it might be worth removing it.

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Full technical details of Freeview
Tuesday 18 June 2013 9:17PM

Bill Morrison: Yes, HD is available from Gartley Moor.

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