All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
William Carter: You are not alone:
Newhaven (East Sussex, England) Freeview Light transmitter | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
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William Carter: It's not necessarily a transmitter problem.
It may be, as I suggested in interference from another transmitter such as Dover. Due to atmospherics the signals of another transmitter may be travelling further and interfering with the local ones.
The Digital UK predictor suggests Whitehawk may be "variable", so, whilst such systems must always be taken with a pinch of salt, it could be an indicator that at times the signals from another transmitter may be too great.
That said, you appear as if you might have line-of-sight, or not be far off. This makes me wonder why the Digital UK system "thinks" your chances are way below excellent.
There is a test of 800MHz 4G mobile base stations in the Brighton area. I'm not sure whether it stretches as far east as Peacehaven. You might want to give at800 a ring, which is carrying out the test:
at800 Brighton 4G test
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William Carter: Refer to the page for the Newhaven transmitter as there has been yet another report of the same problem.
I'm not an RF engineer, but I am thinking that this must interference from a distant transmitter caused by the inversion effect which is where signals that would otherwise go up into space are reflected back down to earth. There's nothing you can do about that.
In the days of analogue, the image of the interfering transmitter may be visible over that of the local one, or at least there would be bad horizontal lines. With digital it may be able to tollerate it to a degree but eventually - due to digital being an all or nothing system - it will be too much and the picture is lost.
You might be able to tune to Rowridge, temporarily, if you can receive its signals with your aerial pointing a little clockwise; they might not be being interfered with.
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William Carter: Look in your 800s for Rowridge's channels. BBC One from Rowridge is on C24 and all others are in the 20s.
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Another report of momentary losses of reception, this time in Peacehaven:
My Freeview | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
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Angela: Try swapping the aerial lead that goes from the wall socket to the TV, this being so as to discount it as being a possibility. If it goes via a recorder box then try connecting the TV directly to the wall socket.
If the set has manual tuning then go to it and select/enter UHF channel 27 but don't press the button to scan. Instead, it will hopefully give you an indication of strength and quality on that channel (you will have to give it five or ten seconds to settle). Once you've done this, if the strength/quality of a signal is indicated, try scanning.
I would do the manual scan in lieu of performing repeated automatic scans as it potentially gives more information (strength/quality on the BBC channel) and is quicker.
It is also worth seeing if neighbours also have the same issue, but ensuring that they are using the terrestrial aerial system (Freeview) rather than the satellite one (Sky/Freesat). If they have do then this points to the aerial system and so you need to find out whether your neighbour has already reported it.
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Greg Jones: At some point after the power is resorted to the site, I should imagine.
Go to Power Cuts
Enter the postcode HD7 5XA, which is that of the transmitting station. CCC
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Derek: Unfortunately not. See here for an explanation:
Londonderry (Northern Ireland) Freeview Light transmitter | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
I suggest that for additional free-to-air services, including ITV3, you look at Freesat.
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Keith: Some of the 4G services will run at 800MHz. However, EE was permitted to use some of its 1800MHz allocation for 4G services.
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Friday 28 June 2013 7:42PM
Merfyn Jones: You may be able to avoid the BBC West Midlands signal being picked up by having the aerial unplugged during the scan.
Winter Hill (BBC North West/ITV Granada) are on high channels, and so are picked up near the end of the scan.
At your location you "may" be able to receive BBC West Midlands from two transmitters:
- The Wrekin on UHF channel 26 (514MHz)
- Sutton Coldfield on C43 (650MHz)
Which you have will probably be given on the signal strength screen (channel number and/or frequency).
Start the scan off with the aerial unplugged and plug in at 50%. There is a very narrow window between the highest Sutton Coldfield channel and lowest Winter Hill one.
If, having done this, you are missing some channels then you may be able to manually add them (if the set has manual tuning) or plug the aerial in a little sooner.