All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
As engineers have to commute to relays, they can take longer to get back up and running, particularly if there's many of them.
Digital UK published the times at digitaluk.co.uk/heathfieldrelaytimes
Some relays are due to be back on mid-morning and others are due mid-afternoon.
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Mark Agius: The Channel Islands' transmitters are PSB-only. Only the three PSB tables on that page have a "CI" column, the rightmost in the COMs is "NI".
ITV3 is carried on PSB2 on the Channel Islands because there is no +1 variant for ITV Channel Television.
I imagine that the services that PSB2 carry are decided on the basis of which is likely to yield the most revenue from advertisers. So I guess that ITV1+1 and ITV2+1 are seen as more lucrative than ITV3 and ITV4, for example.
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D Williams: Because sadly that is the way things are going these days.
"Public Service" and "Universal Service" tend to be allowed to give way to profit-driven organisations.
The Commercial broadcasters which don't transmit from Cynwyl Elfed and over 1,000 other similar small relays can choose where to site their transmitters.
Due to them operating to generate profit by selling advertising, their interest is to have as many potential viewers as possible at the lowest possible cost. They broadcast from 81 of the largest transmitter sites (largest by viewer population) and achieve coverage of 90% of the population.
For them to include all the other relays would roughly double their cost of transmission whilst only adding 8.5% of the population to their potential viewer base.
The "Freeview Light" transmitters carry only Public Service Broadcaster services. The Commercial broadcasters don't have a Public Service obligation.
The hilly areas that require relays to fill in the gaps are worst affected. Wales is particularly badly affected, with the Highlands of Scotland and the Lake District also being poorly served by the Commercial broadcasters. See the map here Where are the public service (Freeview Light) transmitters? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
Also see Will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice for a more in-depth explanation.
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Dholder: Due to your close proximity to the high-power transmitter, I suggest that it could be too high a signal level which is overwhelming your tuner. See here for an explanation and solution which is to install an attenuator inline with your aerial lead:
Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
In the mean time, you may be able to restore service by reducing the level of signal. Try a 12 inch piece of wire or a set-top aerial maybe.
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daniel badman: Post code checkers should be used as a guide only. I view the predictor as a guide to *possible* likelihood of success.
They exist because of the demand from people for such a service. Signals aren't carried by Royal Mail and there are so many variables that could never be taken into account that they can't be perfect. A whole post code can have widely varying signal levels, local obstructions (buildings and trees) aren't taken into account. Neither are the properties of a viewer's aerial, which also affects reception. There are other variables....
Prediction of the weather is much the same thing, although perhaps there is more chance of techniques being improved with it.
I'm a little puzzled by the results that the predictor returns for TN35 5EF because at the top where is lists the transmitters it includes Hastings, but then below where is gives the prediction for each one that is listed it doesn't include Hastings. By the way, "Hastings Old Town" is a different transmitter to "Hastings".
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JVO: According to information from Ofcom, 27, 24, 21 and 48 are using the "transitional S1 antenna" until 27th of this month. This affects the signal in your general direction, so see how it goes after 27th.
This is so as to protect against interference with transmitters in the south east that complete switchover on that date, although I can't work out which one uses C48 until then.
If the change requires outdoor work (on the mast), then obviously it may be delayed due to the weather.
If you find that you get C48 from 27th, then let us know on here as it will help inform others who are in the same position. You may also like to make a note of the signal strengths on 27, 24 and 21 (HD) to see if they go up on the same date that 48 becomes available to you.
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Bill: The answer to the question can only really be found when the retune is attempted.
It might be worth pointing out that before switchover Heathfield was Group C/D and after it is Group B. In marginal areas such as yours, this "may" be an issue. Only when retuning is attempted will you know whether this is a problem; it is just something to be aware of.
Refer here for an explanation of aerial Groups: Aerials, TV Aerial and Digital Aerial
You will see that there is a bit of overlap between B (middle third) and C/D (top third). PSB1 and PSB2 are in the overlap region and PSB3 is on the channel immediately below the overlap (47). The COMs are below that.
So if there is going to be difficulty receiving any, it is likely to be the COMs which are those which Newhaven doesn't carry. There is the added fact that the signal type used by the COMs is less robust than the PSBs and this being so that they can get more services in. This comes at the expense of fringe viewers.
This said, aerials don't receive nothing outside of their Group; they drop off gradually. See here for some examples: Gain (curves), Again
I make this point so if you find this to be the case, then this may be the answer.
See here for a list of services by multiplex (those with bullets in the "E" for England column): DMOL Post-DSO Multiplex Channel Allocations
If this does prove to be a problem, replacement with a Group B aerial (on Heathfield) "may" be the solution.
You "may" be able to receive from Heathfield at your location. Of course, up to now there has been no difference in what could be received from either. Digital TV from Heathfield was out of the question and it didn't carry Channel 5. Where only the four analogue channels would have been receiveable so there was no benefit in struggling with Heathfield when Newhaven carried an identical service with much better signal.
Now that we have the two-tier terrestrial television transmitter network people are going to want to receive from full service transmitters where reception is marginal instead of a "lite" transmitter whose signal is good.
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John: Without knowing your location it's not possible to know the likelihood that this might be the case, but if you are close to the transmitter, your receiver could be suffering from too high a signal level which is overwhelming it at times. See here for an explanation and solution:
Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
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Doreen Birks: That is correct.
COM4 (SDN) from Heathfield remains on its pre-switchover frequency until 27th. This is due to its final frequency being used by transmitters in Kent until they switch-over on that date.
See this page: DMOL Post-DSO Multiplex Channel Allocations
Scroll down to the table for COM4 to see which services this affects. They are ITV3, QVC and others. If retuning isn't carried out, then these will be unavailable from 27th.
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Tuesday 12 June 2012 11:45PM
Stuart Mcfarlane: See this page and identify which multiplexes are affected:
DMOL Post-DSO Multiplex Channel Allocations