All posts by Gilbert Wright
Below are all of Gilbert Wright's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Don't know where my previous post went, but I'll try again.
I would like to know who I need to go to to make a complaint.
In the July 31st changes to the Caldbeck transmitter, most HD channels were removed, and all the remaining ones were moved to UHF channel 22.
The signal for this channel is weak. My box reports signal quality 4, whilst reporting 10 for all the others.
My complaint is that there are dozens of rubbish channels that no-one ever watches on the strong UHF channels, and they decide to put HD BBC1, ITV etc on this one.
This means I no longer have ANY watchable HD channels as the signal drops out completely for about 15-20 seconds every 4-5 minutes.
I have spoken to 3 people on the Freeview helpdesk, and they are just typical call centre operators who have only scripted, useless, responses.
The only suggestion they came up with that I hadn't already tried was that the problem might be interference from 4G mobile, so i rang and got a filter which, of course, didn't help.
I have invested in an HD HDD recorder and a 4K TV, and I can no longer watch anything in HD.
I'm concerned about the bleed of bandwidth from TV to mobile.
I suspect that the next stage will mean that the colour breaks up so badly that we have to watch in black & white.
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Thank you, Gents, for your suggestions.
My postcode is CA4 8QH.
My aerial is in the loft. I have little idea how old it is, as it was already there when i move in in April 2015.
I have a signal booster and an @800 filter attached between the aerial socket and the TV.
I'm getting a perfect signal on all other UHF channels.
The signal on UHF channel 22 also seems perfect except for the regular dropouts.
I had the same problem with Channel 22 prior to the recent changes. Until then, though, the channels on there were less important to me.
I just did a bit more investigation on the signal quality - my box reported Quality 10 when I just retuned it, but when monitoring the signal quality subsequently, it dropped from 10 to 4 before dropping out completely 8 times in 5 minutes, and stayed for for over 10 seconds on two of those occasions.
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Sorry, StevensOnln1, the b&w comment was not one I meant seriously, just an observation on the direction of travel from TV to mobile in the priorities for bandwidth allocation.
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Chris SE:
Can't see any damage anywhere.
Tried removing the booster and monitoring BBC1 HD
Signal strength dropped from 10 to 9
4 drop-outs in 5 minutes.
Replaced booster. Signal strength returned to 10. 5 drop-outs in 5 minutes, but each one about 1-2 seconds shorter than without the booster.
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Chris.SE
Yes, straight to the TV
I did have a splitter in the loft, but I only use one socket, so I replaced it with the signal booster i had been using downstairs.
I have taken the best picture I could of my aerial.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjISj…fgpM
Don't see any plastic bung. I see 8 sets of straight rods, though one set is bent downwards for some reason.
It's very difficult to get anywhere near it with a compass, so I can't confirm that it's pointing exactly to 230 deg, but I can confirm that all the other UHF channels are perfectly fine.
I don't have a water tank, but there is an aluminium flue about 3ft away
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Chris.SE:
Thank you so much for your time, help, and advice.
I have taken more pictures:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjISj…7jjX
They show the bung at the end, before & after pictures of my attempt to straighten the rods, and the position of the flue, which I would say is abut 2 ft to the right of the reflector.
If necessary, I believe I would be able to buy a new, bigger, aerial, move the attaching pole to the other side of the roof beams to give it more room, and to rewire it.
I would not, however, be able to do much of a job of pointing it in the right direction with any accuracy.
What is the significance of the bung? Were you just making sure it was there?
Cheers,
Gilbert
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Chris.SE:
Thanks again.
I'll do some experimenting.
The major thing that seems to have had an effect so far is the removal of the old splitter from the equation. That has reduced the number of drop-outs considerably, but not completely, which means I still can't watch HD.
If the experimenting doesn't fix it, I'm thinking of buying a new aerial.
Here are the aerial and cable I was looking at:
https://www.screwfix.com/…0515
Webro WF100 10 m Low Loss Digital Satellite Coax Cable: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics
If I can't fix it for free with a bit of experimentation, 25 doesn't seem too much to me.
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Chris.SE:
The existing aerial is 850mm. The new one is 1240mm, but I can re-site it to have more room, and away from the flue. Also, it can be centrally mounted.
I tried adjusting the position of the current aerial, and may have got it marginally better.
HD now goes for up to 15 minutes before dropping out.
Since it's only 25, I minded to just get the new aerial and cable.
That one will surely do a better job, don't you think?
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Chris.SE:
Thanks again.
All ordered.
I'll let you know how I get on.
Cheers, Gilbert
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Page 1
Friday 9 August 2019 9:13AM
I'm very upset about the changes to Caldbeck transmitter on July 31st 2019.
All 6 of the HD channels I can now receive have been moved to UHF Channel 22.
Where I live, I get a much weaker signal than on the other channels and, as a result, I now have no watchable HD channels.
The signal is good when it works, but once every 4 or 5 minutes, it drops out completely for 15-20 seconds. The other channel on this frequency is More4+1, and this does the same.
I am already using a signal booster, and it still happens.
I spoke to two completely useless people on the Freeview helpdesk and got nowhere - one of them said it's nothing to do with signal strength, you must have interference from a mobile mast, but I got the filter they suggested, and that didn't help either.
When i'm updating channels with my recorder box, it reports a signal strength of 4/10 for Channel 22, and 10/10 for all the others.
I don't understand why they have to put the HD channels on this transmitter when there are 50 or so rubbish channels using ones that work.
I paid a lot of money for an HD recorder and a 4K TV, and I can't watch a single channel in HD.
I'm concerned that, when it comes to 6G, there will be so little bandwidth left for TV that the colour will break up, and we'll have to watch in black & white.
Is this really progress?