All posts by F Farrar
Below are all of F Farrar's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.Annoying news. Topography means Midhurst & Guildford Transmitters are undetectable. It seems odd that an area with the highest concentration of households outside Greater London is only badly served by signals unavoidably leaking out of the back of directional Crystal Palace & Hannington transmitters. Strange no apparent effort has been made to rectify this in the 58 years it has persisted for National TV services? DTV is worse for this area - bearably snowy on analog is equivalent to incomprehensibly broken-up on DTV. Reception from space just should not be necessary where you could see powerful transmitters on a clear day from a reasonable height.
If only Freeview transmitters were reconfigured to be vaguely omni-directional!!
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MUX 2 Hannington & Crystal Palace both exhibit reasonable signal levels but very high bit error rates - suspect the common signals feeding these multiplexes are faulty in both instances. The result of this is that reception from these multiplexes is likely to be poor except close to the transmitters.
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From January to June this year, reception here in Camberley from Hannington MUX2 was lost after having been just about satisfactory for as long as I can remember; but early in June the signal level jumped up approx 5dB and reception is back again. I don't think this can be entirely due to a change in weather pattern; but suggest that engineering work to prepare for switchover etc. has had unexpected effects those carrying it out have sometimes been oblivious to or have denied because they don't monitor the results of their actions.
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Yippee. Here in Camberley, after yesterday's first stage in the switch-over, digital signal levels are now back up to what they were before engineering changes for the switchover started to make things worse about a year ago!
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Can anybody explain the root of the new, bizarre UK MUX names:-
PSB.. - As if there were more than just the BBC
ARQ.. ??
SDN??
Or are they all designed to make things just a little more confusing than say: MXP1 to MXPn for Public, MXC1 to MXCn for commercial with whatever SDN means fitted in somewhere. Or maybe even simpler - just MPX1 to MPXn?
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Mike Dimmock: Many Thanks for your prompt & detailed reply which I translate as:
The new MUX names are un-necessarily bizarre & over-complicated, pointlessly embodying a load of irrelevant history & not implying any rigid definition or solid adherence to anything.....
Or am I a bit cynical?
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Now I can receive Freeview HD which seems to be capable of providing excellent visual quality; it seems BBC SD channels invite you to "view in HD" for material actually made in HD - whereas the other broadcasters appear to label as HD such "real HD" and also stuff originally SD then upscaled less well than my TV does.
Or is this my imagination??
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Transmitter Engineering at Hannington should be congratulated for managing all the hard work involved in the switchover with no problems apparent here - it cannot have been easy when in the real world, despite every careful plan; something awkward usually crops up.
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Rick: You are lucky to have had ANY HD so far. HD is presently transmitted with only 10kW - the power of 3 fan heaters, so reception is severely affected by all adverse weather/atmospheric conditions, interference, engineering works & bad luck.
Basically, your reception is on the edge and will stay that way through the retune 4th April until 22nd April, when transmitter power goes up to 200kW (including the HD MUX). This should solve all your problems without any subscription fee......
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Saturday 29 January 2011 12:31PM
Camberley
Camberley Surrey always had inadequate TV coverage from Band I/III VHF 405 line & later UHF 625 transmitters, & is currently on the "not receive" overlap of Freeview Hannington & Crystal Palace - although uncertain reception is usually available. Nothing whatever can be detected from the nearby dim-lightbulb Guildford vertically-polarised transmitter. "Iffy" coverage seems very strange in a populous area only 26 miles from London - not exactly the remote Hebrides. Will stable reception of Freeview Std or HD be available after switchover?