All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Charlotte: Please give your location, preferrably post code, so the chances of reception might be checked upon.
Are you using an indoor aerial and if so, is there not an outdoor one you can use? You might need to get a suitable lead to plug into the outdoor one, for example, if there is a wall socket for it but the previous occupier didn't leave the fly lead that connects from the wall socket to the TV/recorder.
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Dudley: Not likely. See here for an explanation:
Will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
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John Poynter: In general terms, 86% signal strength is ample and receivers work perfectly fine with much less.
Perhaps your receiver has tuned to Norwich Central for BBC and ITV1/C4/C5 which would explain the breakup in picture.
Confirm that it is tuned to Tacolneston. Go to BBC One and bring up the signal strength screen and it should say 55 for Tacolneston. If it's 46 then you are receiving the signal from Norwich relay.
And for ITV1, it is 59 whereas Norwich is 43. If you have a HD receiver, HD services from Tacolneston are on Ch62 whereas Norwich is Ch52.
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Ken Collyer: You will not have the issue again when Crystal Palace switches over in April unless you retune. As there is no change in services from Bluebell Hill, then you should leave your sets as they are.
Once Bluebell Hill has switched, you might have an issue, although with all transmitters on high power (including the one you want), you might get away with it.
After Bluebell switchover, if you do pick up Crystal Palace, you can avoid this by having your aerial lead unplugged for the first 25% of the scan.
Sudbury/Rouncefell isn't so easy to avoid if it causes problems because the channels used are inbetween those used by Bluebell. Let's hope that doesn't happen!
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John Buchanan: I don't know how these things work. It might depend on your receiver. Perhaps the message appears not as a result of the channel you are watching, but as a result of those you have stored in your receiver's memory.
To avoid picking up Crystal Palace, do an automatic tuning scan with the aerial unplugged for the first 30%.
Then you will need to add Ch24 D3&4 (ITV1/C4 etc) from Bluebell and Ch27 Mux A (ITV3 etc) from Bluebell.
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david: All frequencies used by Salisbury now and after switchover in March are group C/D ones.
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Ray McConnell: Answer is both as there's two transmitters!
Hemel Hempstead Town is a low power relay located on the top of the former Kodak building:
mb21 - The Transmission Gallery
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The radiation pattern shown above for Hemel Hempstead has three nodes on it.
Yet the photographs on MB21 show it only has two sets of trough antennas for transmission:
mb21 - The Transmission Gallery
The pre-DSO digital panels (two sets of) can be seen lower down, and they too are pointing in the same direction of the ones used for analogue.
The two sets of antennas on nearly opposite faces explains the coverage map of the analogue signal which spills out much further in two opposite directions:
mb21 - Transmitter Information - Hemel Hempstead (Pimlico)
So is the clover-shaped radiation pattern (above) wrong or has there been subsequent work? Or have I missed something?
MB21 says they understand that there is no plan for the ones shown in the photos to be replaced for DSO.
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barclay: The only thing I can see that could be the issue is that ArqA and ArqB are on Group B channels (higher up frequencies).
Have you had your Group A aerial replaced with a wideband one (or a second aerial fitted for higher frequencies)?
I'm not saying that this is the problem, but it is an observation of a possibility.
Have you tried manually tuning in these channels? Does the bar show any signal whatsoever?
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Sunday 22 January 2012 2:26PM
Ron Knight: Yes, the power of the HD services from Crystal Palace will be increased when switchover occurs.
HD services are not part of the standard offering before switchover. Crystal Palace is one of four transmitters that were chosen to carry it before switchover though.
The current HD service is lower power than the current pre-switchover standard definition services (which are on lower power than they will be come switchover).
Try manually tuning to Ch31 for HD services from Crystal Palace now.