Full Freeview on the Heathfield (East Sussex, England) transmitter

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:42 PM

Linda Taverner: When you say "all are the same" if you are saying that all flats have , then this clearly indicates a problem with the system. You probably need to raise this with your landlord.

There was a retune required (from) yesterday for for ITV3 and some other . This only affected a small proportion of services and did not affect BBC, ITV1, , Channel 5 (and quite a few others were unaffected).

K

kaz
8:28 PM
Eastbourne

Okay, now the final retune has taken place, and my mother's TV still can't pick up 44 (ArqA), although she has now got channel 42 (Mux A / SDN).

Does anyone know of any valid reason for a rooftop on a bungalow on a hill in to NOT pick up just channel 44? I'm pretty sure it's not an HD channel, which would have been a valid reason as she doesn't have an HD tuner, but even manual attempts to tune it in fail - the TV just continues to search as if channel 44 has nothing on it :(

Thanks again for any.

kaz's 9 posts GB flag

kaz's: K's Freeview map K's terrain plot K's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage

R

Rosemary
10:07 PM

Many people in cannot now get 10, 12, 15, and some radio channels. They were available before the retuning started. Who is responsible to talk to?

Rosemary's 1 post GB flag

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:43 PM

Rosemary: See the page for the transmitter (follow the link).

For people whose aerials face the East Grinstead transmitter, there are no Commercial which include on numbers 10, 12 and 15. This is because it carries Public Service channels only.

If those people (who have aerials pointing to East Grinstead) received any before , then they MUST have been picking it up from another transmitter as East Grinstead did not broadcast any Freeview before switchover.

Transmitters that carried (full) Freeview before switchover carry fulll Freeview after switchover. In general terms, those who could receive pre-switchover Freeview can receive the stronger post-switchover full Freeview. However, where this was/is done using an that faces another transmitter, then intermittent or no is possibility and whilst the bit about picking up Freeview after "may" apply, it's much less cut and dry. At the end of the day, in such cases the aerial is being used for something that it wasn't installed for; is installed to receive from the transmitter that it is directed.

Of course, there may be areas of East Grinstead that have aerials directed at another transmitter, such as , and they would be expected to be likely to get the full service.

Obviously I can only be very general. However, the first question I would ask is where does the aerial point?

- If it points to East Grinstead transmitter, then only the Public Service channels will be available. East Grinstead transmitter is to the south of the town on Saint Hill. Aerials will be vertical.

- If it points to another transmitter such as Crystal Palace, then the full service should be available and it therefore warrants further investigation as to why it might be that the Commercial channels aren't available.

K

kaz
11:05 AM
Eastbourne

Okay, now the final retune has taken place, and my mother's TV still can't pick up 44 (ArqA), although she has now got channel 42 (Mux A / SDN).

Does anyone know of any valid reason for a rooftop on a bungalow on a hill in to NOT pick up just channel 44? I'm pretty sure it's not an HD channel, which would have been a valid reason as she doesn't have an HD tuner, but even manual attempts to tune it in fail - the TV just continues to search as if channel 44 has nothing on it :(

Thanks for any.

kaz's 9 posts GB flag

kaz's: K's Freeview map K's terrain plot K's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:51 PM

kaz: It could be that your mother has a Group C/D which was the type usually installed in the days of four-channel , particularly before digital came along during the previous decade.

Group C/D is the top third of the band of used for TV. 41, 42 and 44 (and 47[HD]) are in the middle band, which is Group B. PSB1 and PSB2 are on channels where B and C/D overlap.

Refer to this page for channel numbers of each Group:

Aerials, TV Aerial and Digital Aerial

(I haven't directed you to that page to read all the wordy explanation!)

Aerials are sensitive outside of their Groups to a degree. They don't receive "nothing" outside of group.

Further down that page is a graph with some curves. The green one is C/D and you can see that it slopes downwards. The gain is the sensitivity or the amount it can "hear" signals. This is just an example curve of one particular aerial to illustrate the point.

With this in mind, I suggest that you compare strengths of each UHF channel on the same device. Signal strength meters vary between receivers, so don't compare between different ones (only compare different multiplexes on the same ).

Digital requires the signal level to be above a threshold level. If it is, then it will work.

So it could be that the level of is just below that which the receiver needs to show a . Depending on its design, it may indicate signal level when you manually tune. (Some receivers give more clues than others.)

Compare the levels of BBC One () and ITV1 () with those of the two COM channels you have which are ITV3 () and Yesterday (). If the latter two are markedly lower then perhaps it is a C/D aerial.

If you can see that the tip of the aerial is green, then this indicates that it is a C/D one.

Do these checks with the receiver in question connected directly to the aerial socket (and not via the box). If there is a socket with an aerial fly lead from that to the receiver, then try swapping it. Maybe you have one that you can try.

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:18 PM

kaz: As well as everything mentioned by Dave Lindsay I would like if you could clarify on one point and confirm on the second.

Number one being that although a manual tune on Ch44 didn't actually pick up anything did you see any indication of a showing on the strength bar "immediately" after you entered Ch44 in the box? the point being that on practically all devices this is a true indication of whether or not any signal is there or not irrespective of the level necessary to resolve a signal, this only coming into force once you press or search.

The second point being, have you visually verified that your mothers is actually facing 352 degrees for and is mounted horizontally? my only reason for asking being I noticed you mention in an earlier posting that Ch40 from was picked up, and as its located at 69 degrees from your mothers location that's not terribly far off an aerials minimum point "if" its correctly aligned for Heathfield.

jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:34 PM

kaz: I had a look on Streetview at the road of the postcode associated with your postings.

I can see the distant horizon inbetween the bungalows to the east.

The Streetview photographs are dated April 2009, so they were before and therefore pre-date the existance of the , as it was only introduced at switchover.

At that location, the Bexhill and transmitters are in the same direction (to within one degree). Most of the bungalows on the right (as you enter the close) and some on the left and those at the end have their aerials vertical and directed at Hastings.

A terrain plot suggests that there is line of sight to the Hastings and Bexhill transmitters (so nothing in the way). Because I can see the horizon, I can well believe it.

jb38 has suggested that the could be directed to Bexhill, which in view of the fact that it is has only been in service for a few weeks isn't likely.

So if the aerial is vertical and pointing at what might appear to be Bexhill, it is actually pointing at Hastings (owing to the fact that they are in the same direction).

The view in the direction of doesn't look quite as good (I, of course, am only giving my opinion based on the Streetview photos). There are some trees behind the end bungalows that in the photos don't have any leaves on and these "could" be reducing the from Heathfield. Perhaps replacing the out of group aerial (if it is so) may make available.

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:05 PM

kaz, jb38: I eat my words!

The new , which is located on the of the Direct building, is horizontally polarised and not vertically so as I assumed.

The downside is that it only carries Public Service (PSB) , so will probably only be used where a full service transmitter is not receiveable.

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

9:29 PM

Dave Lindsay / Kaz: I wasn't quite so much suggesting that Kaz's mothers was pointing at , but more the case that the picking up of any from it at all could suggest that the aerial in question which is supposedly facing ? was possibly out of alignment for picking up the latter, as something has to be wrong when Ch44 from Heathfields 20Kw located 12 miles away is not being picked up when Ch40 from Bexhills 400 watt transmitter @ 9 miles away is, especially when both stations are transmitting on the same horizontal polarity which generally gives a more positive null point at right angles to an incoming , the null point (or not too far off being) referred to should be facing towards Bexhill if the aerial was properly aligned for Heathfield.