All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Ken Johnson: Lochwinnoch receives its signal over the air from Darvel. Elsewhere there is a complaint from someone who receives from Arrochar which gets its signal from Ardentinny which gets its signal from Darvel.
Arrochar (West Dunbartonshire, Scotland) Freeview Light transmitter
Maybe this is something with the transmitter.
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Jean: It sounds like local interference I wouldn't assume it to be a faulty set-top box.
Have you or a neighbour had solar panels installed?
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Mike Mcateer: Interference, I should expect some electrical appliance nearby that it timed (I'll let you guess what times it operates). A battery-powered AM radio tuned away from a station might help you locate the source of the noise.
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Jean: As I say, I suggest it's local interference. A battery-powered AM radio might help locate its source.
Replug the scart lead (unplug and plug in again) and do this at both ends. Does this make a difference?
I suggest you try the set-top box in other rooms, watching it for a period of a couple of hours to see if it goes "no signal" or the picture degrades in a similar interval.
If it's worse in its normal location, and good or better in the test location then consider what it's closer to in its normal location. Is this against or near to a party wall which might mean that the cause is from a neighbour? (These are ideas and the sort of thing I would be trying in order to work out the cause.)
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Jim McQuarrie: I doubt you will, and certainly not if your aerials point to Rosneath as it's only broadcast from Black Hill directionally towards Glasgow at 5kW.
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Keith Tomlin: Keith Tomlin: To understand this you have to think how a network of transmitters provides coverage. You are simply looking at your location and observing a poorer BBC signal. It's worth pointing out that if your complaint is one of the BBC being "too low" solely because the D1 commercial is higher that if the commercial were to reduce its power that would pacify you.
I think it unlikely that the "BBC are not willing to put out a strong enough signal that would give [you] comparable results with ... D1 National DAB". No service is there just to serve you and therefore measurement of "good" coverage isn't whether it serves you or not.
The BBC is a public service broadcaster and as such is to provide coverage. The likely reason for the power of D1 being greater than the BBC from Huntshaw Cross is that D1 doesn't have a transmitter somewhere the BBC does and that the higher power is effectively so as to serve "some" of the area that the other BBC-only transmitter serves.
The point is that the D1 network is a commercial one and as such transmitters have been sited based on number of likely listeners.
An example to illustrate the point -- this is with FM but the principle is the same. You might think that Classic FM on FM broadcasts from the same transmitters as BBC Radios 1 to 4 on FM, but you'd be wrong. As a commercial service it picks and chooses where it wants to transmit from.
And so to the example: Suffolk is poorly served by Classic FM on FM. The high power transmitter at Tacolneston in Norfolk carries all five FM services, but the one at Manningtree, between Colchester and Ipswich, doesn't carry Classic FM. The point is that there is overlap between the two so in that area Classic FM is available, but only from Tacolneston. Classic FM must have done a cost-benefit analysis as to how many *extra* listeners they would reach with Manningtree (and not a simple question of how many can it reach). The cost-per-listener that would be served by Manningtree but not Tacolneston is likely to be greater for it than other transmitting sites which Classic FM uses.
That's why the networks aren't the same. Things "might" be changing, what with plans to improve DAB coverage, but this nonetheless outlines the differing objectives of commercial broadcasters as against the BBC.
In your situation it may be the case, therefore, that the higher power D1 signal is so as to cover an area that BBC has its own transmitter for (and therefore covers better). The BBC transmits from North Hessary Tor but D1 does not. The reason that I suggest that might be so is because of the above. I would not assume that it is because the coverage of the BBC network is inferior per se.
This may not help you, but that is likely to be the reasoning. Of course, the outcome of higher power D1 relative to BBC is that there will be pockets where the BBC signal won't reach but where the D1 will. But then if D1 broadcast from an adjacent site that is BBC-only then it would probably lower its power. So, the commercial operator isn't doing this out of the goodwill of it's heart to serve those pockets! Such pockets are generally where line-of-sight with the transmitter is obstructed such as in your case (as the high ground at Silworthy is in the way). Because the power of the BBC is just over half of D1 does not mean that it serves just over half of that of D1 -- transmitter powers don't work linearly to number of people served!
The BBC announced a long list of future transmitters over a year ago but I can't see any that might help you:
Where will the 162 new BBC DAB transmitters be?
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r Shaw: I imagine that the name of the relay station you've alluded to is Brighstone.
In answer to the question as to your suffering, you don't have to endure receiving less than half the available channels. Simply turn off your TV and then you have no channels.
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lee: There's no absolute answer -- the answer is quite possibly, with the reasoning for me saying this as follows:
A terrain plot suggests you might be able to see the Angus transmitter at 6 miles:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
Line-of-sight is most important. However, the plot doesn't take into account any obstructions on the ground which could hamper reception.
I can see on Streetview that you are set-down a bit and that there are possibly taller buildings on Kinaird Street in the way.
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Tuesday 10 February 2015 2:57PM
Carol Illingworth: I've observed that the Arrochar transmitter gets its feed from the one at Ardentinny, which is 13 miles away and broadcasts at only 14W. Therefore it's not beyond the realm of possibility that reception might be hampered by the weather.