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All posts by Chris.SE

Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.

C
Mendip (Somerset, England) Full Freeview transmitter
Saturday 3 December 2022 1:14AM
Worcester

Paul Jennings:

Hi, the reason is you are living in the wrong house, move next door to no:11, ah, but then BBCA and D3&4 could become less reliable,or down the road to no:1 where you might get good reception of all multiplexes from Malvern!!

OK, I jest somewhat, however predicted reception across your postcode is VERY variable. Being more serious , you are rather a long way from Mendip - 109km but nevertheless the Freeview & BBC predictors suggests good reception of a variety of multiplexes but which ones depends on where you are in the postcode and that even for your most likely transmitter Malvern (also the closest).

I started compiling this reply a while ago and got interrupted. I see StevensOnln1 has made some suggestions.
It's obvious you live in a very awkward spot. The question we don't know the answer two is are you using Mendip because you want the West Region, whereas Malvern is Central, but with hills and trees you might not get reliable reception. The reason it can be so variable is not just the very local obstructions and terrain, but the path to the transmitter of interest as well as paths to other transmitters that might give interfering signals.

A knowledgeable (must know your specific area!) local aerial installer should know what might be achieved, an aerial even in a different location on your house could give different reception! Using street=view, I see someone down the end of your road seems to be getting their signals from Waltham on a very tall mast!
Looking at the Freeview predictor, Malvern, Mendip and Waltham are the only potentially serious contenders for likely reliable reception.

I would not however use a wideband aerial. I would choose a high-gain Group K Log-periodic. There are now a few manufacturers doing Grouped Log-periodics. Group A and Group K are both available, but you need Group K (for whichever of those main transmitters is going to give you the best reception).

If you are finding things too variable, you might consider Freesat. A lot of modern TVs have a satellite tuner built-in so you'd only need a dish and LNB.

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Ray Taylor:

Hopefully the site owner can update the lists here soon. Freeview didn't announce the change of mux as they no doubt expected everyone to do FULL retunes as a result of the other minor changes. Most people won't do that!

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StevensOnln1:

Not as I understand it from the performance curves and manufacturers statements that I've seen. Quite a few still have the same number of elements. There's a definite cut-off above C48 690MHz as the design has been "tuned". How exactly they do that I don't know as I'm no expert in aerial design but it's the claimed performance that's important.

As you know Log-periodics have the advantage of a flat (+/-) performance over the frequency range so will do a bit better at the lower frequencies is you have the gain. Whereas a traditional (yagi) wideband, & even grouped, see a fall-off in gain at the lower frequencies.
There's been a significant increase in Log-periods appearing in many places (and certainly round here) especially in the lead up to the COM7 closure and since. They also have the advantage of less side lobes.

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bruce tearle:

There was a change with some "minor" channels on the 23rd November. What Freeview didn't mention was that Quest moved from SDN/COM4 to ArqB/COM6. Only those that did a full retune discovered that after finding nothing or a retune message at LCN12.
The 790 LCN is the old COM4 version which will disappear at a future date.
The lists on this site have yet to be updated by the site owner.

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C
All free TV channels in the UK
Saturday 3 December 2022 5:49PM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/work-warning/news/hd-2023

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Iain:

There's currently no reported problems for the Chatton transmitter and it's not listed for Planned Engineering.

Have you checked that your aerial looks intact and is still pointing in the correct direction, and that the downlead is secure and not flapping in the wind?

What sort of weather conditions have you been having during the evening?
f you provide a full postcode we might be able to advise is there's any specific issues that affect reception in your locale.

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Les:

I've tried to post a reply to you twice now, but it has not appeared. I'll try again shortly.

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Les - I'm going to split my reply into two posts to see if that helps.

As you haven't given a full postcode, we can't advise if there are any specific issues that may affect reception in your area.
I can't find any recent faults reported for the Oxford transmitter and its not been listed for Planned Engineering in recent weeks.
PSB2 is transmitted using the same power as PSB1 and PSB3.

This sounds like it could be an interference problem either in your particular area or even with your installation. If there really was 0% signal from the transmitter, believe me, this board and elsewhere would be full of complaints.

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Les - I'm splitting the post again to find the problem

We could do with a bit more information about the problem and the installation.
Does this start at any particular time of day?

Do you have any reception problems with the HD channels on 101-106/109?
What sort of quality figures (or BER - Bit error rate) do you typically get for the PSB2 multiplex UHF C44 and the HD multiplex on UHF C47?
Do you have problems with any other groups of channels (muxes) eg. COMs4-6?

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Les - I've been editing bits of the post to try and solve the posting issue!

Roughly how old is your aerial installation? Do you know what type of aerial it is?
Do you have any amplifier/splitter to feed more than one TV? If so, what make and model is it?

Have you checked all your coax plugs and connections behind your TV?
Make sure that you don't have any HDMI cables running close to your aerial cables.

Have you ever received a postcard from restoretv.uk ?
Don't forget that full postcode.

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