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All posts by Dave Lindsay

Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.


Roger Strange: If your aerial (there is no such thing as a "digital aerial" BTW) is pointing at Newhaven, then you are receiving signals from another transmitter as Newhaven doesn't broadcast any digital at the moment.

From your location, the angle between Newhaven and Whitehawk is only 4 degrees, so it is probably irrelevant which it is actually directed at. The only difference is that Newhaven uses Group B channels and Whitehawk is C/D. This may be of concern if the aerial is a Group B one (intended for Newhaven), but if it's wideband it should be OK.

When switchover happens, you will only get the Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) channels from Newhaven whereas Whitehawk will provide a full service. Assuming the the iffy signals you are receiving now are coming from the latter, then you will probably be able to receive Whitehawk when it switches over which is 7th and 21st March.

The switchover for Newhaven (as a relay of Heathfield) is 30th May and 13th June. Once Newhaven has switched over, whenever you tune or retune your equipment, you will have to watch that it doesn't pick up Newhaven PSBs.

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Barrie Williams: If your TV is "HD Ready" then it will only show HD pictures from another source. Could this be the issue?

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ITV 3
Wednesday 8 February 2012 11:27AM

Mikeb: Another thing to try is to fit a variable attenuator to reduce the signal level.

Your problem *could* be that the high power signals (i.e. all but ITV3 etc) are acting to desensitise the receiver thereby making it not sensitive enough to "hear" the ITV3 signal.

You might find that reducing the level of the signals going into the receiver will increase its sensitivity to ITV3 etc. It will be a balance because you will be reducing the level of the ITV3 signal and there is no guarantee that it can be struck.

Get yourself an attenuator such as this:

1-20dB variable digital tv aerial signal attenuator | eBay

Others are available and from other sellers. This one is the cheapest when searching eBay for "variable attenuator".

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Hannington (Hampshire, England) transmitter
Wednesday 8 February 2012 12:04PM

John Pratchett: Crystal Palace uses channels 22 to 34. Hannington uses channels 40 to 46 (in two weeks time this will be 39 to 47).

If your receiver gives channel numbers (21 to 68) as it scans them when you run the automatic tuning function, then have your aerial unplugged whilst scanning CP channels and plugged in for Hannington.

If it only shows a percentage progress, then have it unplugged up to 30% to achieve the same result.

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Hannington (Hampshire, England) transmitter
Wednesday 8 February 2012 2:59PM

Briantist: Providing the user with a menu for regions where multiple ones exists is a good idea.

Am I right in understanding that the Network name and Network ID (is that what it's called; the four-digit hexadecimal number) is the same on all relays? If so, this means that this menu of Networks will alleviate issues where another Network is being picked up (where they overlap) but will not help in instances where one can receive a relay and its parent.

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DJP: You need to tune to channel 25 for HD services from Wrexham Rhos transmitter.

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DJP: Try running the automatic tuning scan with the aerial unplugged and then again with it plugged in until it gets to 25% (or until it's picked up channel 28 (which is BBC from Wrexham).

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Stuart Davies: All transmitters in your area carry HD services as they have switched fully to digital.

Any prediction system of where signals are available which are based on post codes should be taken with a pinch of salt. They exist because of the demand for such a service and not because they can ever be in any way totally accurate.

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DJP: ITV1 HD does not necessarily provide the same regional feed as ITV1 standard definition does because there are only four ITV1 HD feeds nationwide. For example, in Yorkshire we get ITV1 HD Granada. I'm not sure which one transmitters in Wales carry.

What's the make and model number?

Go to BBC One (standard definition) and bring up the signal strength page. What UHF channel is it tuned to? And again for ITV1 standard definition? And same goes for BBC One HD?

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DJP: I've just seen your posting after I posted my latest message.

Good to hear that you fixed it. It might be worth writing down what you did as it might help when you come to retune at a later date.

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