All posts by Nigel Dixon
Below are all of Nigel Dixon's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
David: When you're in or around York, it's Emley Moore. Head up towards Catterick and you'll need Bilsdale.
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DONALD KIRKBRIDE: No, unfortunately you can't get British Eurosprt for free. It's part of SKY's subscription packages, and although it used to be totally free in the old analogue days, I'm afraid those days are long gone!
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The digital radio switchover has been put back, and the powers that be say people are not taking up digital radio nearly as fast as expected. I think the reason for the low take up is that coverage is so bad in most out of town areas. I live in Castleford West Yorkshire, and get variable levels of reception in different rooms of my house. People want to get a radio, tune the various station groups, and listen to the radio. But that not the case, is in many areas digital signals are weak to the point that the receiver much be really carefully placed in order to get a signal. Listeners are used to turning on an FM radio and listening to their favourite station, they don't want all the messing about in order to get the digital set to work!
Digital radio is great for all ages. It can provide music and programmes of every type. But the public won't take to it if it doesn't work as well as the radio they already have. People don't want to go back to the 1960s/70s, with radio antennas fitted to almost every chimney stack!
My point? Increase the power and the take up will be massive, carry on as we are and normal people won't be interested.
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Colin Foxton: I had a similar problem with my local radio station in Wakefield, West Yorks. The DAB service of Ridings FM had a strong AC buzz on top of the audio. At first I thought the problem must be in my DAB radio, but as the problem was still there when I tried to listen to the station two weeks later I decided to email the station management to ask if there was a problem. I got a reply two hours later thanking me for bringing the matter to their attention, and to let me know that an engineer from the multiplex provider had been to the digital transmitter and fixed the fault. It's no wonder that digital radio isn't as popular by now as it should be, if even the station using the channel had no idea that their output was unlistenable for weeks, and had to be advised of the problem by a listener!
If I was you, Colin, I would get in touch with the station concerned, to ask if there's a problem with the transmitter. I realize that your problem is with an AM transmitter, and mine was digital, but you never know,there could be a fault at the transmitter that hasn't been detected by the radio station itself.
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Linda Campbell: You'll be absolutely fine, Linda! The satellite is a little like a torch shining down at the ground. In the center of the beam the light is usually brightest, and it's a little dimmer towards the edges. The target area of the Astra Satellite is called the 'foot print', and most of the UK is well inside the foot print, enabling the small dishes to be used that you see on most house.
So unless your house is surrounded by tall trees or buildings to stop the signal getting to your dish you won't have any problems. If the people living around you have dishes on their houses, all will be well for you.
Out of interest, there is an area of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, that's notorious for poor satellite reception, but the problem is caused by microwave beams which cut right across the area on the way to a communications tower.
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Why is it taking such a long time to have Emly Moore broadcasting local services in HD? I'm sick of seeing Granada when I should be watching Yorkshire TV. Are thousands of companies that advertise, happy with the fact that their locally aimed advertising is being seen in the wrong area?
ITV Yorkshire is already available in HD for Freesat viewers, so why not from Emly Moore? I would have thought it quite possible to disconnect the HD Granada feed, and replace it with Yorkshire HD. I know that if the advertisers were to threaten to withdraw their advertising for out of region stations, the change over would be done in double quick time!
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I posted a comment a couple of years ago asking why we are being forced to watch ITV programmes in HD from the Granada region even though we're in Yorkshire receiving programmes from the Emory Moore transmitter. And here we are almost half way through 2018, still being forced to watch HD output aimed at viewers over at the western side of the Pennines!
So many times I read that HD take up isn't happening as fast as it could be, and viewers with Freeview tend to watch their regional programme on channel 3 in SD quality and don't bother messing about switching between 3 and 103. Of course they do, it's the easiest way! What about the advertisers, are they happy in the knowledge that their campaigns aren't reaching all possible viewers on their targeted area? Do they fully understand that they are not reaching the viewers who do stick with ITV HD because the quality is much better than SD, so they just stay on channel 103 even if it means missing out on their local news and advertising?
After all this time most regions should by now be showing their own output in HD. I've heard all the lame explanations about the technology involved and how difficult it is to get regional programmes up and running in HD, but all these years down the line it's becoming a joke, and viewers are being treated like idiots. We, the viewing public, are forking out hard earned cash for large screen HD TV sets, but we are being badly let down by broadcasters who should by now be providing a fit for purpose HD service.
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Friday 5 August 2011 10:34PM
Terrestrial Digital transmissions started around about the same time as SKY Digital transmissions in the UK. Why the heck is the terrestrial version of digital TV so ridiculous to set up! With sky you do nothing, as channels are added you get them, if frequencies change, you still do nothing, the change just happens. How can a 90 year old be expected to re-tune!!! Basically, Sky got it right, UK Digital stayed in the dark ages!