All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
keith: You may be better off using the Margate relay transmitter which is on the roof of Invicta House. It only carries Public Service (PSB) channels, but if that's all you get from Dover then you will be no worse off.
For a full list of Freeview services by multiplex, see:
DTG :: DTT Services by Multiplex
You mention good reception of PSB2 (ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 etc) only.
Ensure that you are tuned to Dover for all channels by observing the UHF channel tuned on the signal strength screen of the following:
PSB1 | BBC One = C50
PSB2 | ITV = C51
PSB3 | BBC One HD = C53
COM4 | ITV3 = C55
COM5 | Pick TV = C59
COM6 | Film4 = C48
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george rudd : Movie Mix and Dave are carried on COM5 multiplex (a multiplex being a single digital signal). See here for the full list:
DTG :: DTT Services by Multiplex
COM5 from Whitehawk broadcasts on UHF channel 56 (vertically). Unfortunately Midhurst also broadcasts on C56, albeit horizontally but at high power (20kW) and it is only 20 miles away, albeit slightly out of sight due to the terrain, but with such power that might not make much difference.
Perhaps, therefore your reception of COM5 may be variable, depending on whether the Midhurst signal is carrying more than normal or not. None of the other Whitehawk multiplexes are co-channel with Midhurst.
If you have a receiver with a manual tuning function then access that function. Select UHF channel 56 but do not press the button to scan/add services because at this point receivers often give an indication of strength and quality even if those readings are too poor to produce a picture. Do the same for C57 and C48. See if C56 has the strength but not the quality, any poor quality perhaps being caused by interference from Midhurst.
For BBC standard definition services, your receiver should be tuned to UHF channel 60 for Whitehawk. This information is usually given on the signal strength screen. It is possible that it is tuned to another transmitter and that this is the reason for poor reception (because the aerial is pointing the wrong way for the signal being received). Other possibilities are Findon on C44 and Rowridge on C24.
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george rudd : Further to the above posting I checked out your location and found you live in a block of flats which appears to have a communal aerial on the side!
I would suggest that you should check with others in the block to see if they have lost COM5 which carries Pick TV, Dave, Really, Movie Mix and others.
It is possible that the communal aerial system is filtered and therefore there will be no possibility of your TV tuning to the signals from another transmitter (as described above) because they are blocked.
With that in mind it could be intereference from a 4G mobile base station operating at 800MHz which is just above the BBC standard definition services on C60. It is down to whoever is responsible for the aerial system to sort it out, by having an appropriate filter fitted.
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Ann: If you live in an area where the full complement of Freeview channels is available and have a suitable terrestrial aerial then you will be able to watch it.
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david: You said that the installer added a booster to the downstairs TV. If there is a single aerial for both TVs then what you have assumed to be a booster may in fact be a power supply for a booster which is on the roof (or wherever the aerial feed goes two ways).
Removing the power supply from a booster (amplifier) is likely to mean no or little signal coming out of it. Therefore, if it is as I have suggested, turning off the downstairs "booster" will also result in loss of signal to the upstairs TV.
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Brian: See:
DVB - Digital Video Broadcasting - Zimbabwe
SADC has accepted the DVB-T2 signal standard with MPEG4 compression for the pictures.
In the UK Freeview standard definition uses the earlier DVB-T standard with MPEG2 compression.
However, Freeview HD uses DVB-T2 with MPEG4 so a Freeview HD receiver "might" work.
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Richard Cullen: Ah, so it appears that the amplifier was pushing the level of the signal up to above that which your TVs can cope.
Whilst it doesn't always work, you may find that you can run the three TVs from the same aerial using an unpowered splitter, this being because the signal is strong enough owing to your proximity and the high transmission power.
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Raoul Schepen: Your aerial possibly being of not the best type is not the issue!
There is no such thing as a "digital" aerial and a high gain aerial isn't always the answer.
The high power transmissions of 2kW from Reigate Hill, which if my understanding is correct you are only a mile from, will be more than enough to make up for any potential shortfall in sensitivity of your aerial. In any case, the Public Service (PSB) channels, of which those you identify are one, are C57 which is that formerly used by ITV's analogue signal.
The point is that "if" your aerial a Group C/D one then it is most sensitive on the top third of the band of frequencies used for TV, with sensitivity sloping downwards through Group B (middle third) and Group A (bottom third). The PSB channels are on C/D channels, as were the four main analogue channels. The other channels (the COMs) are on Group A channels. The high power of these channels is what means that a C/D aerial will work at your location.
If anything I suggest that you investigate the possibility of there being too much signal:
Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | Digital switchover | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
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Vince Mathieson: I should imagine because the contract with the operator, Switch Scotland (part of UTV), has ended.
At the same time, Capital FM and Heart were removed from the Central Scotland multiplex and added to the Glasgow one.
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Sunday 14 July 2013 10:41AM
keith: Maybe the greenhouses of Kingsgate & Kenver Nurseries are the cause of your difficulty.
I comment as someone who isn't an aerial installer, but it would seem likely that they have metal structures. I'm not sure whether so much glass might potentially be an issue.