All posts by Anthony
Below are all of Anthony's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
MTN are on air but the signal outside of the main beam (basically Manchester as opposed to Greater Manchester) is very weak. Picture quality is similar to VHS, very poor. In Altrincham I get a stable service but the c/n ratio is only 17db as opposed to 35db on the main services, Fortunately there is nothing of interest on it, mainly Z list films. I have never met a viewer to either this or the previous Channel M service which does not bode well for the future of local TV.
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Yes it comes from winter hill but it is a very narrow low powered beam covering Manchester (as opposed to Greater Manchester). Picture quality is similar to VHS. Further info on the MB21 website.
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The 2013 BBC A and ARQ A channels seem to be missing on the above list. As the Manchester multiplex has 6 channels on it, I doubt that it is QPSK.
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I think that they have gone to even lower power. My Humax can get them but my Sony TV can't
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The Sony is after an old Tandy distribution amp, the Humax is before it, which doesn't help either. However as there is nothing that interests me on that multiplex it doesn't matter. Before Tuesday everything worked but the C/N ratio on that multiplex was only 15db (others are 37db) according to the Sony. Signal and quality levels were also low and there were post Viterbi errors but nevertheless it worked and there were no noticeable reception problems. (obviously just on the edge of the digital cliff). The Humax shows a signal strength of 27% (other multiplexes are 77%) I'm sure it was a bit higher than that before but I could be wrong, which made me suspect that DDD's problem was caused by a power reduction at the transmitter. I am to one side of their beam so not really in the service area either.
Someone has also reported this on Digital Spy as well.
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My reception an all the main multiplexes on all TVs in the house is signal level high quality 100%. I was only trying to help DDD with his problem with the Manchester Multiplex that I don't personally use.
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jb38.
It's not easy to re-jig things without tearing everything apart but feeding the aerial directly in to the TV doesn't restore the picture although the TV recognizes that a signal is there,(passable quality but very low level). It's only of academic interest as I don't watch those services anyway.
I used to use a One for all sv-954 distribution amp but when Chanel M switched to 16quam from QPSK nothing after the amp could receive it. This didn't matter as there was nothing of interest to me on it. I had occasional problems with cross mod interference on the ITV multiplex from probably a taxi, it was always between 6.30 and 6.45 in the evening, so I tried an old UHF only Tandy amp I had. That cured the problem and also the Manchester multiplex appeared on the TV. I noticed that it had disappeared last Tuesday,as reported by DDD and someone on Digital Spy. The last time this happened a rigger at winter hill had trodden on one of the log periodic transmitter aerials and it wasn't fixed for some time.
I understand that the new local franchise will use new equipment at 2KW QPSK so it will probably be OK.
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The Manchester Multiplex has reappeared overnight on my Sony TV, this has also been reported by someone else on Digital Spy. C/N is now 19db it was always 15 previously.
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You are probably receiving Haslingden instead of winter hill, this transmitter is a nuisance in many areas.
Disconnect the aerial, start auto scan. When the scan is about 1/3rd of the way through reconnect the aerial and let it continue.
Hopefully this will clear the problem
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Tuesday 20 November 2012 5:01PM
One of my tvs is on a low level feed and I have noticed occasional power reductions on Arq A&B from winter hill recently, no other multiplexes are affected. I assume it is due to maintenance even though no notification of work has been posted.