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
Thursday, 6 October 2011
S
Suzanne12:20 AM
Bicester
Chris,JB: Thanks for latest advice,and I will stop apologizing,just so appreciative of your help. Have to admit to needing some chill-out time with all this digital and forgetting about Ch59 ;-) However, I will endeavor to muster the confidence to try the rather Amateur flex test into the co-ax socket. Will deal with it tomorrow, I promise and report back...along with getting an aerial(set-top) to try. The neighbour next door with the Sky-dish, is a 90 year old lady, so could be difficult trying to ask her to assist with anything. But you guys are so knowledgeable, I'm sure I will conquer whatever it is with your help.
SIMON: I sympathize completely, lucky I say you've been away for a couple of days, at least you have escaped the continuing saga of the lost ch59. And Ch60 also giving you problems, gosh how awful. Digital is NOT all it's cracked up to be..well not for us anyway.
Suzanne
| link to this comment |
Suzanne's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE1:03 AM
Suzanne: The Amateur with a capital A is an acceptable expression (Amateur as in Amateur/Ham Radio) ;))
Do not even consider changing your aerial, attenuators are a lot cheaper than aerial riggers and aerials, and will achieve the same result. I'll repeat what I said in my previous post -
So Suzanne, see what results you get from the wet string/flex/flylead test. If no joy, try borrowing a set-top aerial as suggested by jb38 - I wouldn't buy one because set-top aerials will suffer problems of people walking round the room & outside, cars etc. but it'll give us an idea of how strong the signals are. AttenuatorS will be the way to go, but the values are yet to be guestimated.
With regard to your 90 year old neighbour, well, it depends on how with it & bright she is. The simplest explanation may be something along the lines of telling her you are having a problem with freeview reception and you've been advised to turn of all unnecessary radio & TV equipment for about 30 minutes whilst you do a test and it would be helpful if your next door neighbour could turn their equipment off at the same time as well - sky boxes, VCR's etc.
We'll wait for your update tomorrow.
| link to this comment |
C
Chris.SE10:45 AM
Simon: hmmm.... You did comment that your signals had improved with the removal of the booster. I assume that it's not a masthead amp and if you've just removed the power unit you will be left with a huge attenuator at the mast.
Asd your box is that Sharp one you said doesn't like mixed modes, I'm wondering if it doesn't like the -ve offsets used on C60 and C59 at Oxford.
Try a full reset/clear channels again , but don't do an automatic scan, do a MANUAL tune on the UHF channels in this order C60,C59,C53,C55,C62 all without the booster.
What aerial is it by the way?
If the results are the same, try and borrow a known good box just to check your installation. I still think you may be suffering overload. Have your neighbours had any issues?
| link to this comment |
S
Simon 11:05 AM
Buckingham
Hi all,
An update from me, so I have just tried the coat-hanger as an aerial test (after a full factory reset) and confirm that I get no signal on any channels.
I then plugged my roof aerial back in (with no channels tuned) and can confirm that I still get no signal on C59, whilst the other channels receive their signal as before.
The fluctuation of the signals received on almost all the channels makes me want to plug my signal booster back in as this affects their viewability (clearly not a real word!).
Since this switch over last week I have lost all the channels on C59 and my viewing experience on the channels I do receive has been downgraded. It's hardly progress!!
Any help gratefully appreciated.
Simon
| link to this comment |
Simon's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Simon 11:12 AM
Buckingham
Hi Chris,
you replied as I was writing my reply!
when I removed my signal booster I removed both the power unit behind the TV and the box in the loft from the circuit. I did say my signal had improved before but back then we had a high pressure system with clear skies and no wind. I now think that this may have caused the improvement, as now the weather has turned the signal is worse than ever.
I've done a full reset this morning, I didn't let it automatically tune, in manual tuning I selected C59 and there is no signal, this is all without the booster.
I've no idea what aerial is on the roof, I rent the house and it was installed long before I arrived!
As for trying the channels on a good known box, I've already tried it on the inbuilt freeview tuner on my Samsung TV with exactly the same results.
I really don't think I have signal overload, I have a fluctuating signal on all channels which disturbs my picture and sound, and I have no signal on C59. I think this all points to a problem with the new signal being sent from Oxford.
Thank you for your ongoing support, I look forward to any further ideas.
regards,
simon
| link to this comment |
Simon's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Suzanne2:18 PM
Bicester
Hi Chris, JB,
Guess who again! I think I may have made a bit of "girly faux pas" as I completely missed the fact there were two tv's in my house. Bare with me ( and yes, I'm about to apologize again) but I feel so stupid not to have mentioned it, let alone thought about it. But now I've broken the news, here is my latest update on the elusive Ch59.
The two Tv's are using the same aerial cable through the loft (spur connection) for the sake of this posting, Tv1 ( living room) lost all channels after switchover, hence no Ch59. However, this morning I checked Tv2 (bedroom) and all channels were received perfectly, including ch59 ( hoo rah) in fact it picked up a total of 101 channels ( radio inc in that I presume) So swapped the TV that was working perfectly to living room, lost all channels again, no Ch59. Took the living room TV to the bedroom, re-tuned and ALL the channels were picked up. The swapping of TV's and rooms were to decipher if it was the TV's tuner or the aerial connection.
So my thoughts are: it's the aerial cable or connection that that carries the signal, and not either TV. Do hope this is making sense.
My question is now, is it possible the aerial before DSO was suffice, but with increased signal power and being so close to Oxford, could there have been a surge that caused some malfunction in the main TV1? I'm about to renew all the aerial co-ax cable and connections, do you recommend any particular type or does it not really matter?
I wonder if Simon has looked at his co-ax aerial cable and connections - just a thought! Once again thanks for your continued support and advice. I look forward to your reply.
Thank you.
Suzanne
| link to this comment |
Suzanne's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE3:01 PM
Suzanne: Doh & yes it all makes perfect sense, standard technique for checking things. I would not rush to get new cable just yet, do you have a wall socket in the living room and in the bedroom? If so are they the same - exactly - check connections at back of living room one.
How is this "spur" connection in the loft done? Describe as exactly as you can, it may simply be down to that.
......Girly faux pas ......mumble mutter mutter ;)) :))
| link to this comment |
A
Andrew Wilkiins3:09 PM
It is interesting reading the comments about Suzanne's problems with Freeview Ch 59 and the suggestion that it may be aerial problems. I live about 10 miles west of Beckley and we have 5 TVs in the house of which 3 are attached to loft and set top aerials. I had one bedroom TV connected to a bif loft aerial but when acquiring a further bedroom TV decided to try connecting it to a set top aerial and chose the Which best buy - the Telecam TCE 2000. To my surprise this produced a higher power signal than the loft even though it was in a less poorer position for reception. The loft aerial sometimes gave blocky pictures so I replaced it with another Telecam TCE 2000 placed in the loft and the signal improved enormously. Now since DSO, the loft Telecam produces 10 out of 10 signal strength and the bedroom Telecam has gone from 6 to 8 out of 10. I bought my Telecam aerials for £10 from Argos as I could take it back if it did not work but Argos does not stock it now but Amazon does at £13. Suzanne might find this worth a try.
| link to this comment |
S
Suzanne3:43 PM
Bicester
Yes Chris, it was pretty dumb of me to overlook the two tv's...but as I say, a girly faux pas, and hopefully all is forgiven. Going to check the "spur" connection, but frankly just want to nip Wicks or Homebase and get a new aerial cable( not aerial) and get connected again.
May even be able to enjoy a G&T watching all those lifestyle women's programs tonight. :-)
Will report back shortly.
Suzanne
| link to this comment |
Suzanne's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Suzanne3:46 PM
Bicester
Chris:
The "spur" is a Co-ax two way splitter. Not much more I can add, as that's it's description.
Suzanne
| link to this comment |
Suzanne's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Select more comments
Your comment please