Arqiva press release on Oxfordshire switchover
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV From Arqiva press office:
NEWS ALERT
Date: 28 September 2011
DSO completed for Oxford transmitter group
The Digital Switch Over process for the Oxford transmitter group, serving Oxfordshire and parts of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, has been successfully implemented by Arqiva.
The public-service multiplexes are now being transmitted at full power from the main station at Oxford and, for the first time, from its five dependent relays at Ascott under Wychwood, Charlbury, Guiting Power, Icomb Hill and Over Norton.
The 'commercial' multiplexes (Oxford only) do not reach their final DSO powers until April 2012, as planned.
Following the analogue switch-off for BBC Two on 14 September, the remaining analogue signals for BBC One, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 ceased by 00:01 on Wednesday 28 September. The new digital signals entered official service at Oxford at 06:00, with the last of the relays completed by 12:33.
Help with Freeview, aerials?
In this section
Sunday, 2 October 2011
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Suzanne10:18 PM
Bicester
JB: I look forward with great anticipation to the information you may uncover on Ch59. Strange that no one else seems to be suffering this problem. As you mention the possibility of the signals vanishing at a certain point, perhaps this is the problem. If this was the case, would this be down to Arqiva or the transmitters themselves. And how would it be resolved. For now, I shall be patient and wait for your 'posting' tomorrow, and hopefully with some hope of retrieving Ch59.
Thank you.
Suzanne
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Monday, 3 October 2011
Chris.SE: There is no script. I have to fix them myself...
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Ron Valentine2:59 PM
Aylesbury
I have a BEKO tv with an integrated feeeview box. I had good digital reception prior to these changes. Now BBC is vgood but itv 3,4,5 drop all the time. I have retuned several times and also reset the receiver.
I have also unplugged the aerial and retuned as suggested.
To add to the confusion the BBC signal that works well seems to be coming from Cambridge although my aerial points to Oxford. The ITV channels that don't work seem to be getting their signal from Oxford.
I have another TV with an external freeview box which seems to work ok. I cant be sure but i think it is also picking up Cambridge.
Its all very confusing, Can anyone help?
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Simon 5:31 PM
Buckingham
Thanks JB,
To confirm there are no sky boxes or VCRs in the circuit. The aerial plugs straight into the box, and the box via HDMI into the TV.
It looks as you say as if there may be blind spots at 8 mile intervals, but strange that no one else has reported an issue. I must go and find out from my neighbours and report back!
Many thanks,
Simon
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jb386:05 PM
Suzanne: Popped into the service depot today whilst on my travels and managed to have a check on your particular model of TV, the result being, that on the "very" limited level of information provided by Bush I cant really say that there was anything I would consider to be of great concern, although I would have preferred to have been able to cross check the chassis with other Brands that use the same chassis.
So for the time being anyway I would exclude your TV as having a problem, especially due to Simon reporting that he couldn't get a signal from Mux Ch59 on another set either, this getting back to the angle that both Simon and yourself are located at from the transmitter, and whether or not the signal radiated is temporarily restricted in a N/NE direction as well as its power being kept low, as its something that rings a bell about having read this somewhere a while back on another technical site, albeit this not seemingly published.
That said though there doesn't seem to be any problems for people residing South of the station.
The result of your check on Mux Ch55 cannot really be classed as good either, as you obviously realise, but to enable proper evaluation of this indication maybe you could report what is it on Mux Ch53 or even Mux Ch60?
Aren't there any neighbours around that you could make an enquiry with as regards to whether or not they can view programmes such as Dave / really / E4+1 / Create and Craft etc? these being on Mux Ch59.
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Suzanne6:24 PM
Bicester
JB,
Hi, thanks for further info and advice. I have just checked signals for the two channels you suggest: Shown below green bar scale is Bad-Normal-Good. Mux Ch53 GOOD all green bars showing bar one - Mux Ch60 GOOD 100% green bars showing.
As for neighbours, will have to look into this one, as I don't know them that well, not been here that long. Interesting that no problems have been reported as you say South of the station. Why would power be kept low, restricted, as surely this would inevitably cause problems of receiving some channels in some areas. And if the power has been restricted, how can I find that out, I'm a complete novice at all this, so the time you have taken to help is really appreciated.
Thank you.
Suzanne
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Tim8:01 PM
Didcot
Simon : I'm in Blewbury, Oxfordshire and have also lost the same channels - Dave, Really, etc.
We had them after the switchover and then lost them sometime at the weekend. We're about 20 miles south of Bicester.
No signal at all. A rescan found the mux, but the channels aren't in the channel list.
I'm using a Humax HDR Fox T2 with no SKY boxes etc.
It's not just those North of the transmitter!
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jb389:46 PM
Tim: Well I suppose my reason for saying that people South Oxford doesn't seem to have any problems is because another person I am presently communicating with in the OX10 area (Wallingford) reported that Mux Ch59 was perfectly OK there.
Your particular code indicates you as 15 miles from the transmitter at a bearing of 9 degrees, and to have any chance of having the channels back in their correct order you will have to carry out a factory reset type of tune.
You could of course use the "edit channels" menu, but that's a long winded process and a reset as described is always the best.
Of course another way that you could do it to avoid the possibility of it going wrong again by picking up low Mux channels from Sandy, (or anywhere else) is to factory reset it WITHOUT the aerial connected, then once complete start an auto-tune whilst watching the scanning progress bar, and when it gets to Ch50 immediately re-connect the aerial and that will allow only Oxford to load.
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jb389:52 PM
Simon / Suzanne:
Simon: Yes thanks, as I would be interested in what any of your neighbours might report.
Suzanne: I will get back to you on your query, as I am a call out engineer this week and have to depart again in a few minutes.
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Tim10:17 PM
Didcot
jb:
Thanks for the tips. I did a rescan with the aerial out and then again with it in, and I now have all my channels back.
BUT! Mux59 (or ArqA as I think it's now known?) is still a very weak signal. I get a blocky picture that breaks up frequently.
I didn't quite understand the last bit of your message - how do I tell which transmitter I'm receiving from, and shouldn't the Oxford one do all of my channels strongly enough?
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