All posts by Dave Lindsay
Below are all of Dave Lindsay's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Bryan: Perhaps the memory issue I described isn't at play and maybe it is all down to it doing a full retune every night. Either way, it's probably best to carry out the procedure of manual tuning to void the wrong channels.
Good to hear that you got it sorted.
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Chris: Refer to my posting, above, of 18 April 2012 @ 11:09AM.
Sheriff Mountain will not broadcast RT or TG4 after switchover. It will broadcast only Freeview Lite (PSBs only) channels.
"If" reception from Limavady is a possibility at your location, then this may provide you with a full Freeview service, although it too will not carry RT/TG4 either so you will still have to rely on Holywell Hill for those.
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Nick: In order to answer the question, knowledge of which transmitter you are using is required as there may be a number of possibilities at your location.
Top of the list is Bilsdale which is south south east. If you haven't had your Group A aerial replaced, this may cause difficulty with reception of the COMs after switchover. See here for an explanation:
Bilsdale (North Yorkshire, England) full-Freeview transmitter | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
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Christine: That is strange. Freeview services are transmitted in groups known as multiplexes. Each multiplex is a single signal and the usual problem is that one multiplex is not being received which means that all services on that multiplex are missing.
Refer here for a full list of those on COM5 (which Create & Craft is on):
DTG :: DTT Services by Multiplex
Do you have Pick TV, Dave, Really, E4+1 and the others on COM5?
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Kevin: Possibly but...
Looking at phots of the area there are a lot of trees that could be an issue.
The aerial on the roof of Goodway House is on Sutton Coldfield, but this is probably to be epected because it is higher up. I spotted an aerial on the terrace to the south west of Goodway House on Sutton Coldfield as well.
It might be worth looking around to see what neighbours are using.
It's clear that the signal path is close to the ground for a number of miles near the your location, so there could be clutter on the ground that reduces likelihood of reception:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
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Matt: Have you confirmed that it is not picking up Emley Moor's BBCA on C47 instead of Bilsdale's which is on C26?
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Could someone suggest why it might be that the DUK Postcode Checker "thinks" that the Bilsdale PSBs aren't as good as the COMs in the Saltburn-by-the-Sea area?
There appears to be no co-channel transmitters that could degrade reception and the COMs are on half-power to the PSBs. So surely the COMs would be most likely to be not as good as the PSBs, if any.
Postcode Checker - Detailed View
Postcode Checker - Detailed View
Up the coast at Seaham, all are "good", but the figures for served and marginal are slightly down for the PSBs:
Postcode Checker - Detailed View
I appreciate that the DUK is a calculation and therefore there may be variables that aren't totally correct. But what could make the predictor give this result. Could it be Caldbeck?
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Katie: If there is a manual tuning facility on the TV and your aerial is directed to Bilsdale (south), then manually tune to UHF channel 29 for ITV1, C4 etc.
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John Constantine: There are a number of factors and things to appreciate.
Firstly, the COM channels do not have as great a coverage as the PSBs (23, 26 and 29 from Bilsdale). This difference is down to many small relays not carrying the COMs and those that carrying them at lower power and perhaps having other restrictions.
Basically what this means is that some fringe viewers of Bilsdale may only receive the PSBs and others may have to go a bit further to get the COMs as well.
I believe that you would have good reception were it not for the higher-ground at Bilton being in the way. If it weren't, then you could probably see the transmitter which would mean excellent reception.
Harlow Hill is why reception from Emley Moor is impossible or difficult at your location.
For COM reception from Bilsdale an aerial may need replacing:
Bilsdale (North Yorkshire, England) full-Freeview transmitter | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
If yours is still a Group A one, then this probably needs replacing with a Group K one (which is Group A for the PSBs + Group B for the COMs).
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Thursday 27 September 2012 9:05PM
Bryan: The "forgetting" channels usually happens because there isn't enough memory. This is caused because when the scan is performed it stores all the signals (from all transmitters) that it finds. In this case I suspect that your receiver may be opting to go with Mendip's BBC multiplex on channel 61. See whether this is the case by bringing up the signal strength screen on BBC One.
I assume that your aerial is directed to Wenvoe which is to your south west (231°) and horizontally polarised. In which case, wipe the channel memory (probably by running the automatic tuning scan with the aerial unplugged). Then manually tune in the six multiplexes: 41, 44, 47, 42, 45, 49.
C47 is the HD once and C49 will move to C39 in March next year.
The manual can be downloaded here:
http://www.sony.co.uk/pro…#tab
Page 36 describes the procedure. It also mentions "Automatic Service Update" on the bottom right. If this in practice does a full scan when unattended then it probably wants setting to Off else you'll likely have the same result.
Why doesn't selecting Wales region not choose the right BBC channel? Good question, I don't know.
Picking up the wrong transmitter (and hence possibly wrong region) happened just as much in the days of analogue because there are many places of overlap.
Going back to what I said about running out of memory, this is only caused because signals from multiple transmitters have been picked up. Mendip is on the highest channels and is therefore scanned last. In fact C61 is the highest of the lot. The trick, therefore, is to prevent it from scanning other transmitters before one's own. This is akin to ensuring that a child doesn't fill itself full of sweets before mealtime (so that there is enough room for the proper meal).