All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Alex Gumbrecht: Until 18th April Hannington's SDN (ITV3 etc) on C41 and ArqB (Yesterday etc) on C47 are on low power (particularly low in your direction) so as to protect against interference with Guildford transmitter which uses the same channels and which relinquishes them at final switchover on 18th.
If you prefer Hannington, then I would point the aerial at it and attempt retune.
By the way, due to the channel allocations for those two transmitters, you should be able to get one and not the other during the scan. To get CP and not Hannington, unplug the aerial lead when the scan gets to 30%. And to get Hannington and not CP start the scan with the aerial unplugged and plug in at 30%.
If you are testing each for signal strength, then the aerial should be facing the one you are tuned to.
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Barbara Abbosh: These channels are on low power until 18th April when you will have to do a retune for them. You will probably have to sit it out until then.
This is the nature of digital transmissions. Whereas analogue will fade in that it will be grainier when weaker, digital pictures will either be there or not there. So a slight fluctuation in signal level could result in loss of picture which of course could come back at some point.
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Noddy: The Digital UK Tradeview predictor suggests that your reception of Rowridge's vertical PSBs will be "good" but it COMs "poor", probably owing to the fact that Stockland Hill's COMs are co-channel.
As Stockland is in the opposite direction to Poole and Rowridge, you may be able to mount the aerial such that the signal from Stockland is reduced. For example, put it on one side of the house, although this will probably reduce its height.
If your Poole aerial is a Group C/D one (top third of the band), then this will be less sensitive for Rowridge which uses Group A channels (bottom third of the band). So the lower signal strength from Rowridge may be increased by use of a Group A aerial.
Wideband Yagi aerials have lower gain (less sensitive) at Group A frequencies, so this may perhaps not be the best bet. A Group A aerial on Rowridge may be the solution, although this will depend on its COMs being reliable as if they're not, then it's a waste of time and money.
Failing picking up COMs from Rowridge, you would appear to be in a good area for Mendip, albeit that it transmits West regional programming. Unfortunately due to the channels used for its COMs and Poole's PSBs, combining two aerials into one downlead is not an option.
However, if you can receive PSBs from Rowridge but not COMs, then you could perhaps pick-up the COMs from Mendip. A PVR may not function well when receiving from more than one transmitter. If faced with such circumstances you could perhaps used Mendip as your main transmitter and switch over to Rowridge for BBC One and ITV1 Meridian during regional programming.
These are just some thoughts I'm throwing your way. The first preference must be to investigate receiving all services (including COMs) from Rowridge or perhaps the COMs from Rowridge and PSBs from Poole.
NB: PSB stands for "Public Service Broadcaster" and it is the PSBs only that Poole transmits. The Commercial broadcasters are the "COMs" and they transmit from the main stations like Rowridge and Stockland Hill.
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Loraine Hurd: I Googled the word Viera followed by "invalid system time" (in quotes). This brought up a raft of links to user manuals for Panasonic Viera models.
One says that the meaning/action for this message is "Cannot get the time information and cannot edit Timer Programming screen. Check the connection of the RF cable."
The RF cable is the aerial lead and I presume that as you've tuned, it is connected correctly.
"Invalid system time" suggests that the clock has not been set. Have you checked that the time and date are set correctly?
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m smith: The only thing you can do is investigate the possibility of receiving the full Freeview service from one of the main transmitters, probably Tacolneston or Sudbury.
Switchover saw a taller mast come into service at Tacolneston, so it will reach places it didn't before.
Go to the Digital UK Post Code Checker, enter your post code and house number and tick the box to say that you're in the trade for a prediction of coverage:
Digital UK - Postcode checker
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J Tate: I think that you have answered your own question because you say that your aerial is directed at Mendip and that you can't alter it. So the answer would seem to be you can't!
Without knowing your exact location it is impossible to be certain, but if an aerial in Wales is directed at a transmitter in England, then surely that will only be done where there are is not a Welsh transmitter to receive from.
The taller the block of flats the more unlikely it would seem to be that a Welsh transmitter is not available.
So if the aerial installers couldn't find a spot (presumably on the roof) to receive from a transmitter in Wales, then you won't pick up such a signal with an indoor aerial. So the only route would seem to be satellite.
Having written the above, I am now confused and wondering whether you are actually receiving from a Welsh transmitter (e.g. Wenvoe) and not Mendip.
The reason I say this is because there are less ITV1+1 regions than there are ITV1 regions. Thus some ITV1 regions have to have others' ITV1+1 regions. According to what I've read, ITV West which is what Mendip broadcasts, carries ITV1+1 Wales. So if this were the case, then you would get ITV1+1 Wales anyway. Alternatively, if Mendip has swapped and now broadcasts ITV1+1 West, then perhaps Wales has swapped as well as they are (or were) both one region as far as ITV1+1 is concerned.
Have you looked at the aerial and can you see that it is pointing at Mendip rather than Wenvoe?
If it's the latter, then perhaps it is picking up sufficient level of Mendip's signals that your receiver goes with them when it performs it automatic tuning. The higher the aerial and the clearer the line of sight to Mendip, the more likely it is that this may be the case. In the aerial systems of larger blocks these "other" signals are usually filtered out so never make it to tennants' receivers.
First off, never assume that any receiver has tuned to the correct transmitter.
If you receive ITV1 Wales, but ITV1+1 West, then I would suspect that this is correct as they are both on the same multiplex (the same signal from the transmitter). Go to ITV1 and bring up the signal strength screen. It will hopefully give you the UHF channel number that it is tuned to. For Wenvoe it will say C44 and for Mendip it is C54. Do the same for ITV1+1 if you like.
Do you get BBC Wales or BBC West?
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Nick John: A non-HD tuner will not "see" HD signals. So if you automatically tune the HD services will not appear on your receiver's list of those available and if you manually tune (to UHF Channel 21 for Rowridge) it will say "no signal" even if a HD signal is present.
If you can get standard definition services, then you will be able to receive HD ones. It is the Commercial channels that don't reach all areas; the HD services are "Public Service" channels.
The coloured coverage map is simply indicating where the signal will be at or above a particular level. That does not mean that outside the area no reception will be possible.
You are probably not in the best reception area, but if you can receive all the standard definition channels now, then you should be able to receive HD no problem.
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David Brinkman: Does your Panasonic Freeview HD recorder receive all the channels?
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Sunday 8 April 2012 11:10AM
Guy: Based on those channel numbers, you are receiving from Hannington. You should be aware that SDN which carries ITV3, ITV2+1 etc on C41 and ArqB which carries Yesterday, Film 4 etc on C47 are on low power until 18th April. This is so as to guard against interference with those receiving from the Guildford transmitter which uses those channels until it completes switchover.