All posts by gtibb
Below are all of gtibb's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
The channel will be launching on all platforms, including being available to all TV customers on Virgin Media. The channel will also be in HD on all platforms excluding Freeview.
As to it being a success, well that will depend on them providing something the existing channels don't. Only time will tell.
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MBNA:
There have been issues with the local power supplies in the vicinity of the Hemel Hempstead transmitter recently that have caused sporadic interruptions to transmissions. The site is supplied via overhead wiring using 2 circuits, however one of these is out of action for maintenance ATM. These may have coincided with you trying to retune.
If your problem is constant then look for issues with your installation.
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Bilsdale is off air on all services until further notice following a fire in one of the transmitter buildings & a lower stage of the mast.
There are concerns the structure of this tubular mast may have become unsafe.
mb21 - The Transmission Gallery
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The temporary mast will not only be significantly shorter, but will also only operate at around 20kW instead of Bilsdale's normal operating ERP of 100kW on the PSB channels.
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Transmitter engineering: This interruption wascaused by a failure of the overhead electricity supply to the site & the surrounding area. UK Power networks restored the supply at 20.00 on 20 Aug.
All the Freeview equipment on the site is supported by a permanent backup generator that was installed following previous long interruptions. The Freeview transmissions cover a large area from this site so this was deemed a worthwhile investment. The other services from the site are basically infill (BBC3CR & Heart FM services are available locally on other frequencies, DAB will default to other transmissions that overlap in most of the area) & are not worth the expense of supporting.
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Chris.SE: Anyone south of the Bilsdale site is more likely to have issues until the temporary can be put up on West Moor. Arncliffe will be close to horizon for anywhere like Harrogate, & with reduced powers & more gain loss at the higher channel frequencies, the HD mux on 46 was always going to be tentative at such distances. Once the temporary is put up this can then be used on the allocated channels for the site & this will improve the footprint significantly even with severely restricted power.
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Maxwell : A lot of the films shown on channels like London Live are old royalty free movies that do not cost much to transmit. Also most are from the days when there were no such things as subtitles on anything but foreign language films. To subtitle these movies would 1) require the owner's permission. 2) require the broadcaster to employ someone to subtitle material that is not their property. This may cause not only logistical but legal issues going forward.
At the end of the day these local channels are very cash strapped. Old films are cheap fillers & being forced to increase the expense by subtitling every programme of their output it's likely these channels would simply close.
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Cornelius O'Donovan: The requirement to service the southern part of the Bilsdale area is a temp mast at the fire site. This requires all kinds of permissions as it is in an environmentally sensitive area, & will be done as quickly as possible. There are no other sites in the vicinity that would allow a significant number of customers to have a service returned. The only other feasible site was Acklam Wold, which would have returned services to the York area, but still left a huge area of the Derwent catchment without a service. Even if temp masts are put up, TV antennas are directional & still need to be pointing in more or less the correct direction to use them
An added problem with tubular mast designs like Bilsdale is the internal lift. If this is compromised then much of the mast becomes inaccessible & reconstruction is the only option. Luckily mast fires are rare (about one every 10 years), & most of these only compromise services for a few days.
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Brian Butterworth: London Live have also added relays at Reigate & Hemel Hempstead to their coverage. Hemel is mostly infill for the local area to supplement Crystal Palace reception that is already part of the CP map. Reigate fills a gap to the south that is outside the CP coverage shown.
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Saturday 16 January 2021 11:18PM
Following a lightning strike that damaged one of the four ATUs (antenna tuning units) on the Gold service (1548 KHz) in the summer of 2020, a reserve antenna is being utilised for this service. The result is that what is usually an end fire array that closely focuses on London, there is now a more Hypercardoid pattern in use creating a lot more signal to the north & west of London. Several attempts have been made to repair the damaged ATU without success. However, with the closest co-channel services on 1548 in Bristol & Liverpool now no longer in use it may be that this situation may become permanent.