All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Alan Woodward: Refer to my posting immediately above yours!
There is a power outage to the site so, unless you have a spare generator, the answer is "some time after the power is restored" !!
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Peter Rostron: No, BBC Four HD won't be available from Waltham on 10th December because the multiplex which carries it, COM7, will not be on air from Waltham until next year.
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Simon: You may be able to restore service, at least using a temporary measure - my sympathies go to you as three more days to wait, and then there is the potential inconvenience of having to have someone at home, if occupants work.
A set-top aerial might be worth a shot, the objective to reduce the strength of the apparent offending 4G signal. Do you have a signal amplifier (booster) as these can be prone to overloading due to strong signals on nearby frequencies (such as 4G at 800MHz).
Have you received a filter?
Click Reception map at the side of your posting - it gives the known locations of mobile base stations. We have no idea how up-to-date this data is and which station it is that is carrying 4G at 800MHz.
There is a base station outside the Burnt Post, which is probably in the same direction as your aerial is pointing. There are other base stations nearby along Kenpas Highway.
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Trevor: Speak to at800 and see if your issues coincide with the introduction of a 4G base station operating in the 800MHz band.
Perhaps your signal strength is excessive, which is what was causing the quality to be below 100%.
Remove any amplifier (booster) that may be in-circuit.
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nerijus: I would think it pretty much impossible to put an aerial on the roof in your area and get nothing from Waltham, providing it's pointing in the right direction and is set horizontally.
If there is an amplifier (booster) connected to the aerial lead then if it's not powered it may well give nothing out.
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deirdre thompson: It is worth giving at800 a ring to see if any 4G base stations operating at 800MHz have started up and whose introduction coincided with your issue.
There is a mobile base station 100m away from you on Chillingham Road. It is next to the bus stop adjacent to Warton Terrace, and outside Motor World. This does not mean that it "is" the issue, but raises the possibility due to the close proximity.
at800 is the organisation set-up by the 4G mobile phone operators and is responsible for rectifying viewers' reception issues caused by their signals.
at800's contact details are here:
Contact at800 / DMSL | General Enquiries | at800
Have you received a filter through the post from at800?
If you have a Freeview TV or other Freeview device, you may find that can show Sky News - this being a temporary workaround until a perminant solution is found.
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John McCann: I comment on here as a technical bod rather than an aerial installer and for that reason I'm not qualified to say whether the installer was right or wrong.
However, I have made the following observations:
We have exchanged messages on here before and I have previously said that you do not have line-of-sight to Heathfield, whereas you would appear to have so to Tunbridge Wells:
Tunbridge Wells (Kent, England) Full Freeview transmitter | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice
(Unfortunately the terrain-checker I used then has since died.)
The terrain plotter on ukfree.tv suggests that the signal path is low to the ground in some spots, which are wooded or have trees nearby. So it's not surprising therefore that you might have difficulty.
Since switchover Heathfield and Tunbridge Wells have operated as a Single Frequency Network (SFN). This means that they broadcast on the same channels (frequencies), something which the digital system allows for. Therefore, the signals complement one another. The only thing is that Heathfield uses horizontal polarity and Tunbridge Wells uses vertical polarity, thus the complement is not as good as it might be because the aerial is opposite polarity for one of them.
The transmission power of Tunbridge Wells transmitter is slightly greater in real terms than that of the former four-channel analogue.
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John McCann: It might be worth enquiring with your neighbour to see if he/she has started to have difficulty with the HD multiplex, that is if they have a HD receiver.
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John McCann: The transmitter at Heathfield is 31km away and radiates at a power (ERP) of 20kW. Tunbridge Wells is 15km away and its ERP is 4kW.
"If" you had line-of-sight to both transmitters, the strength of the signals at your location would be about the same - Tunbridge Wells being a tiny fraction less than Heathfield.
So it seems that Tunbridge Wells should not be ruled out, unless there is some obstruction that rules it out.
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Thursday 5 December 2013 8:21PM
Mark A.: The standard definition "switch-off" would, based on comments posted on this site, affect Commercial (COM) channels and therefore would not mean the ceassation of BBC Four, CBeebies or BBC News in standard definition.