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 Brown: I'm not sure whether there is anything you can do.
Crystal Palace would appear to be your best bet (assuming no local obstructions). Its switchover is 4th and 18th April at which time your post code is predicted to have "good" reception across the board.
If reorientating the aerial is out, then you could always try tuning one or more Crystal Palace multiplexes in and seeing how good they are. Come 4th April, BBC will go to full power and on 18th April, the rest will follow.
If you look at Tradeview predictor for your post code, you will see a number of transmitters are suggested. However, all apart from Crystal Palace (excluding Forest Row which isn't on air yet), have some multiplexes that are co-channel with others. None are sparkling and you may have to try it and see how much they interfere (if at all). Of course, your aerial will, to a degree, be less sensitive in directions other than that which it faces, so that might help avoiding interference.
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Bernard Roughton: Piddletrenthide is only a Public Service transmitter; the Commercial broadcasters do not wish to pay to transmit from this and 1000 or so similar small relays. They achieve around 90% coverage by using 80 of the biggest sites (by viewer population).
To transmit from the rest would roughly double their cost of transmission They were asked if they wished to increase coverage and they declined. They are private profit driven organisations and generate a return by selling advertising which they show to as many people as possible at lowest cost.
See here for a further explanation:
Will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
The Digital UK Tradeview predictor suggests that your reception from Rowridge may be "good" for the Public Service Broadcaster or PSB services (those are the channels relayed by Piddletrenthide), but "variable" and "poor" for the Commercial or COMs (the ones that you don't get now).
I guess that the reason for the lower rating of the Rowridge COMs is due to possible interference from Stockland Hill as its COMs are co-channel with Rowridge's COMs (although its PSBs are not).
Mendip is predicted as "good" with some multiplexes being "variable". Two of its COMs are predicted as "good" with one being "variable". Going fully with Mendip would mean a change of regional BBC and ITV programming. Having looked at your road on Google Streetview, I see that there are a mixture of Mendip aerials and Piddletrenthide aerials. They are roughly in the same direction, but the former are horizontal and the latter vertical.
Some suggested possibilities (which will probably need an expert opinion, such as aerial installer, to say how feasible they might be) are:
1. Change entirely to Mendip which will mean a change of regional programming. This will require a single aerial.
2. Diplex (combine) your current aerial with one on Mendip so as to receive its COMs. This will give you BBC South and ITV Meridian, as now, but with the COMs. Be warned that whilst from a signal point of view this is perfectly find, some PVRs have issues where different multiplexes come from different transmitters.
3. Attempt reception of all services from Rowridge. You will have to wait until 18th April for this as its COMs are on low power until then. Once that date has passed, Rowridge will be broadcasting horizontally (as it was before switchover) and vertically. The COMs signals will be more powerful vertically, but the vertical element of the COMs will only become available on 18th April, which is why you will probably need to wait until then to do that. Receiving Rowridge vertically will also help reduce the possibility of the possible interference from Stockland I mentioned as it is transmits only in the horizontal plane.
4. Increase the number of channels you have with Freesat. There are some services such as Sky News and Dave that aren't on Freesat but are on the full Freeview service. If you used this in conjuction with a Mendip aerial, you could then get all the channels available on Freeview (but not on Freesat), plus you would be able to receive BBC South/ITV Meridian via satellite, negating the need to connect the current Piddletrenthide aerial. It might be a good idea to retain (even if you don't use) the current aerial as a back-up or if you decide to change the arrangement.
P.S. One other thing to mention is that in the future it is expected that there will be three more licences granted to Commercial broadcasters. Expect these to not bother with Piddletrenthide but transmit from Mendip and Rowridge.
Because of the UHF channels they are likely to use (somewhere from 31 to 38 from all transmitters), this could perhaps present a problem, particularly if you go with option 2. It may be that in the future you may need a second aerial for the new services from Mendip. You might like to raise this potential issue with the installer, should you decide to go down this route.
If you go with option 3 (a single aerial on Rowridge) you will be OK.
If you go with option 1 (a single aerial on Mendip), then this will need to be a wideband aerial. If it is a Group C/D aerial, then you will need a second aerial for the new services. Again, best to raise this with an installer.
I add this P.S. as a warning, so that you aren't taken by surprise (and perhaps annoyed) that in a few years time you find that you have to have more work done in order to receive the future Commercial services.
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M.Rowell.: Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 are available via terrestrial services from BT Vision and TopupTV:
Gone Digital | Sky Sports on Freeview how do you get it?
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Graham: Providing you can receive ArqB multiplex, then you are able to "receive" Sky Sports 1 and 2 because they are carried on that multiplex.
There are five standard definition multiplexes and on HD one. Each multiplex carries a number of services (programme channels). Yesterday is also carried on ArqB, so if you have it, then you can watch Sky Sports, providing you have an appropriate subscription.
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John Hewlett: I am wondering if the problem is that it will only work in 2k mode and not 8k mode. After switchover, transmissions are in 8k mode.
Digital UK Tradeview shows that SDN/C30 (ITV3 etc) and ArqA/C37 (Pick TV etc) are still in 2k mode. It says that ArqB/C33 (Yesterday etc) is in 8k mode now.
There is a retune event on 18th April when the rest will increase in power and move to 8k mode.
Digital UK has put together a list of 2k equipment here:
http://www.digitaluk.co.u…ment
Also see this page:
TVs and boxes that do not support the 8k-mode | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
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jb38: You say that boxes should always be left in standby and not turned off at the mains.
I have one in my bedroom and switch it off at the mains at night, primarily due to the "Update" it does at 2am and 5am, necessitating the fan to run.
There are two other PVRs in the household and they (both Pioneers) perform these updates.
Can you shed light on what they're doing during the Update?
Do all Freeview receivers do these updates at standard times of day? And if so, this must surely show up on the electricity distribution grid as all devices spring into life at the same time.
So why not have the Updates carried out at random times, as well as allow time periods to be set during which they are never carried out? Do the 2am, 5am etc Updates coincide with when some information is transmitted (which is not transmitted at other times)?
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Jan Clay: The choice is region is simply a choice of which transmitter to tune to.
Because the Fens are flat, signals from multiple transmitters are available.
If you have selected the wrong region, then it is not surprising that you are experiencing poor reception. What you are doing is receiving signals from a direction to which your aerial doesn't face.
The signals from other transmitters may be sufficient to make your receiver aware that they are there (and therefore add them to the Regions list), but they aren't good enough to produce uninterrupted reception.
In order to work out which region you need to select, we need to know which transmitter your aerial is pointing at. If you do not know, then what direction is it pointing in? And are the elements of the aerial horizontal or vertical?
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S Rogers: As above. Signals are carrying further than they normally do due to the inversion effect caused by high pressure.
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Richard: Yes, a Group A aerial perfectly fine with Rowridge.
COM5 is on channel 37 (offset upwards) and C37 is the top of Group A.
Rowridge will be transmitting all six multiplexes horizontally and vertically after 18th April.
The PSBs are 200kW in both horizontal and vertical planes (and they are that now). The COMs will be 50kW horizontally and 200kW vertically. The vertical component of the COMs will not be introduced until 18th April, on which date you may get better reception by changing your aerial to vertical polarisation.
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Friday 23 March 2012 10:54PM
Andy: According to the Digital UK Tradeview predictor, you would probably get a better signal from Findon. However, it only broadcasts the Public Service multiplexes.
The Rowridge COMs (SDN, ArqA and ArqB) will be on full power from 18th April. From that date they will also be on higher power vertically, so you will be best advised to switch your aerial to vertical from that date.