All posts by NJ
Below are all of NJ 's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
MikeB: no signal on all channels would indicate a signal path problem. Lost of all channels on one mux either indicates a transmitter problem or interference on that particular carrier frequency. This could be a multipath phasing problem or co-channel interference. In my case, over the same period, I am reasonable sure that the problem is co-channel interference.
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It would be interesting to see the detail of Ofcom's cost/benefit analysis of the changes to the spectrum.
I suspect that the benefits to the country are grossly overestimated and the cost are underestimated.
I would like to know how much money will flow out of the UK as a result of these changes, given that most of the new equipment required will be imported and the phone operator profits will be exported. As always it is the consumer who is expected to pay.
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Reading through the Ofcom proposal for reusing the 700MHz band, it appears that only mobile phone interests are important to Ofcom. This is strange given that the profits from the sale of phones and operator profits will all be exported. The police, fire and ambulance communication system is to be moved onto the public services GSM network, while managers and politicians seem to think this is ok, front end staff are not so sure, particular as the tech required is unproven and wine features of the tetra network will be lost, such as direct mode, the only advantage is the improvement in data bandwidth. Ofcom is not bothered by the inconvenience to TV viewers, with possible interference issues glossed over. At least Ofcom has been unable to speed up the move to T2 transmission, leaving the switch to 2022.
My main objection is the cost to the countries of importing all the new equipment and scrapping the old.
Interestingly, it is the expansion of mobile data traffic that is driving these changes, all so users can stream video to mobile devices. I will be amused if consumers confound the predictions of the experts and find something better to do with their the than watch TV on mobile devices.
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I suggested a while ago that the government's intention was to turn off all the free view transmitters.
The response I received was ridicule, with me being told that it was unlikely to happen for years and years.
Well it appears to be happening much sooner than most expected.
I suspect the drive for faster broad band is largely driven by the intention to broadcast tv over the internet.
Such an arrangement lays the ground to do away with the tv licence and switch to pay per view. Is it a coincidence that net neutrality is being replaced in the US or that telcos are buying up media production companies, I think not. In some ways switching to internet distribution of TV makes some technical sense, as this is really the only way to send super high definition (high bandwidth) television. The radio spectrum lacks the bandwidth.
The question is who is going to buy all this free spectrum. Not sure why the mobile companies would want it, given the carrier frequency requirements for gsm 4/5 LTE is in the microwave part of the spectrum. I suppose it might be of use in rural areas, but even that is questionable. It would be ironic if the freeview spectrum is being given to mobile phone operators, so phone users can watch tv on tiny screen devices, that are really unsuitable for the task. One the questions to be answered is does the internet backbone have the bandwidth capacity to distribute all those super high definition channels in real time? Ultermatly the target must be to distribute the bandwidth gobbling high definition 3D content media. We may end up watching tv using 3d goggles rather than wide screen SHD TVs.
One thing the government may have over looked in its rush for cash, is the social aspect of broadcast tv. The government may find they have lost the ability to communicate with the electorate. With so many channels on offer who is going to strive to tune into the latest political comment/news, or worse still pay to receive it.
The future of freeview tv was in doubt, when the advert revenue was split over so many channels. A further warning was when the adverts started to last longer than the programs, although this might be an illusion. Clearly the freeview tv companies are having real problems competing with the likes of Amazon and Netflix. One only needs to look At the number of repeats and the way repeats are being repackaged in seasons to know they are short of cash for program making. Sky have been holding on to program IP with rather than selling it on, presumably with the intention of putting the freeview competition out of business. While freeview exists the cost of streaming services is limited, as the customer can always fall back to watching the free to air channels.
As with everything government does, more choice is used to justify charging the consumer more for a poorer grade of service. The long term result of all these changes to the way tv is delivered is that the consumer just loses all interest and goes and does something more interesting with their life's.
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Nick: the clue to this problem I suspect can be found by looking at the signal condition. Most TV sets provide a means to see both the signal strength and the signal quality( relate to message error rate) as part of the tuning menu. I would bet that you will see a high signal strength while the signal quality is low to non existent. The cause is co-channel interference. When the UK is under high pressure the poor frequency reuse distance between transmitters proves to be inadequate to stop the transmitters interfering with each other.
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After the refund of Sandy Heath today, all channels report stronger signals and better quality( 10 out of 10 for both signal and quality), apart from channel 35 which is signal 6 out of 10 and quality of 4 out of 10. Most of the time this is unwatchable.
My location is in the Wisbech area.
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Page 2
Saturday 28 January 2017 7:17PM
MikeB: the no signal can also indicate co channel interference. Sets that have a menu option which shows bot h bit error rate and signal strength provides more information. Maybe showing a strong signal with very poor BER . . In my location high pressure or fog results in the loss of the signal from the BBC mux, with other channels unaffected. This I assume is due to co- channel interference.