All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Paul: As you say you have a really strong signal so a piece of wet string is likely to work!
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Alison Fairgrieve: The question was answered by MikeB:
Can I use an existing sky dish with a freeview box? and if so can the two services share the same dish? | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice
Having read your follow-up posting here, I would say that the reference to "Freeview" in the earlier posting was correct.
The answer to your question is "yes".
As MikeB said, you would be using the TV as a monitor, i.e. to view what is fed into it from the Freesat box via a HDMI lead or scart lead. The fact that it has capability to receive Freeview is immaterial as that part of it would be left unused.
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Chris Bevins: I'm not quite sure what is being referring to. The Isle of Wight transmitter is Rowridge and cannot interfere with that from the Newhaven transmitter as they broadcast on different UHF channels (frequencies).
Have you or has your in-laws confirmed that they are tuned to the Newhaven transmitter and are not, unwittingly, watching the output of another transmitter such as Rowridge or Whitehawk Hill (Brighton)?
Newhaven transmitter only carries Public Service channels (BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and a few others), so if they get the Commercial ones (ITV3, Pick TV, Dave, 4Music and others) then those must be coming from elsewhere. Thus the question must be which channels are being referred to?
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Chris Bevins: The point about not retuning may have been made because it is now tuned the correct transmitter and therefore that any dabbling in with the tuning can only ever result in the same result (i.e. tuned to the correct transmitter as before) or worse, it being tuned to the wrong transmitter.
The point is that there are six multiplexes (signals) for terrestrial television. Each carries a number of services. See here for a list of the multiplexes:
DTG :: DTT Services by Multiplex
The PSB (Public Service) channels are available from all transmitters and serve everywhere that the former four-channel analogue was available. The COM (Commercial) channels broadcast from 81 of the larger transmitters, which doesn't include Newhaven.
Thus some viewers only get the PSB channels. Some may get intermittent COMs, and I wonder if your in-laws could be in that position.
Judging by the Digital UK predictor they may be able to receive COMs from Rowridge or Whitehawk Hill. In the case of Whitehawk, it is on the same bearing as Newhaven, so the aerial is pointing in the right direction. However, it could be intermittent if the terrain blocks line-of-sight.
If, having tried reception of COMs from Rowridge and Whitehawk they remain intermittent then there is not a lot else that can be tried. They must accept that they are not reliably served by these channels.
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Louis: If your aerial faces Sutton Coldfield then you have what is being broadcast from that transmitter. To receive East Midlands would mean using the aerial to pick up a signal from a direction other than that which it faces which could mean poor reception.
Looking at Streetview, most of the aerials I can see are due east, so are pointing to Waltham which is the East Midlands transmitter. If you're on Sutton Coldfield then could this be because there is an obstruction preventing good reception of Waltham? Some of the houses are three storeys and there are trees along the A38 which could perhaps be a cause of difficulty.
Anyway, if you wish to have a shot at it then if your TV has manual tuning, use it. If it doesn't then it gets more tricky - I will make suggestions if that is the case.
Wipe what's stored, probably by running the scan through with the aerial unplugged. Then tune in the six (five if it isn't HD) channels:
PSB1 - BBC One | W=C49 | SC=C43
PSB2 - ITV | W=C54 | SC=C46
PSB3 - BBC One HD | W=C58 | SC=C40
COM4 - ITV3 | W=C29 | SC=C42
COM5 - Pick TV | W=C56 | SC=C45
COM6 - 4Music | W=C57 | SC=C39
W=Waltham; SC=Sutton Coldfield
So, for example, for PSB1, which carries BBC standard definition TV and radio, manually tune to C49. I have given the Sutton Coldfield channels as well. I suggest that you use the three Sutton Coldfield COM channels (rather than those of Waltham) and if your set is HD its PSB3 as well.
In short, manually tune 49, 54, 42, 45 and 39. Also 40 if it's a HD set.
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Louis: One further thought: If it turns out that reception from Waltham is poor, but you would like to persevere in order to view local news, then you might wish to tune in Sutton Coldfield on all the standard logical channel numbers (i.e. BBC One West Midlands on number 1, ITV Central West on 3 etc).
To achieve this, having wiped what's stored, manually tune Sutton Coldfield's channels, 43, 46, 42, 45, 39 and 40 for HD.
Then manually add 49 and 54. These services will be put in your 800s. Depending on the design of the set you may be able to swap them round so that BBC One East Midlands is on 800 and ITV Central East is on 801. You should be able to identify which you are watching by viewing the signal strength screen - it usually gives the UHF channel number (e.g. 49 for BBC One East Midlands from Waltham). Some pieces of equipment don't give channel numbers, but give only frequencies in MHz instead, so you might need to convert.
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Louis: In your initial post (Thursday 31 October 2013 1:33PM) your last question was how can you get East Midlands news back.
If you previously had it at this address then perhaps you were lucky. If it was at a previous address whose aerial pointed to Sutton Coldfield then perhaps you received BBC and ITV from the Derby relay.
Some parts of Derby can't receive from Waltham, but can receive from Sutton Coldfield. To address the issue that these people got West Midlands programming, a transmitter was built at the Fire Service Headquarters at Littleover. This relays Waltham's PSBs (and therefore BBC One East Midlands and ITV Central East) and broadcasts directionally towards Derby. See the map for coverage: Derby (Derby, England) Freeview Light transmitter | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice (don't be drawn too much as to whether you're inside or outside the green area - use it as a guide only.)
Because of its location, Sutton Coldfield and it are on roughly the same bearing in the target area and therefore a single aerial pointing somewhere between the two allows reception of both. If you previously lived in that area then you could have had your aerial pointing to Sutton Coldfield whilst being able to receive East Midlands programming.
Judging by the coverage map you may be on the fringes. You could try scanning for its BBC One on C48 (690MHz) and ITV on C51 (714MHz).
Do as jb38 says and enter the frequency and then wait to see if it gives any indication of strength and quality before pressing the button to scan (which could be "OK" or "add services" or something similar).
Derby, like Waltham, is close to being at 90 degrees from the direction your aerial is facing, that is to the side, and the aerial is least sensitive 90 degrees to where its facing (which is what jb38 was referring to when he talked about the "null spot").
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Lee: Practically non-existant.
The reason is because the Commercial broadcasters (those that don't transmit from Calne and over 1,000 or similar small transmitting stations) don't consider the investment worth the return. They serve 90% of the population and the cost to broadcast from these other transmitters would be roughly equal to what they pay now on 81 of the largest transmitters. It would, however, only add 9% of the population to their potential viewer bases.
See here for a further explanation:
Londonderry (Northern Ireland) transmitter | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice
As Michael says, Digital UK suggests you might be in a location where the full-service from Mendip can be received. Have a look around to see if neighbours have gone for this option.
Calne aerials are vertical (elements up/down) and Mendip ones are horizontal (elements flat) and 44 degrees anti-clockwise of those facing Calne.
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Rex Eady: No, and aerial is an aerial. It isn't specifically designed for receiving analogue, digital, high definition or whatever, but it is the frequency of the signals in question which dictate its design.
If this has only started to happen recently then be aware that there are engineering works going on at Sandy Heath.
For BBC One HD check that you are tuned to Sandy Heath on UHF channel 21 (474MHz). Observe the strength and quality when it's good and when it's not so good.
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Tuesday 29 October 2013 1:21PM
Mick Jones: The information on this site is from Ofcom. Which page does it say "DAB coming (out of area)" as it isn't this one? Knowing that might allow some context to your question as on the above map there is no "out of area" and only a "coming soon" for Leicester.