All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Ah, KMJ beat me to it, didn't see his reply.
Mike: we can't help you unless you put your postcode into the box at the top RHS of the page.
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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.
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Gareth: If you had problems with the Arq B (COM6) multiplex prior to Sept.28th when it was on C67 then you will now have problems with Arq A (COM5). This is because Arq A as well as moving to C67, has had a mode change from 2K to 8K (now the same as Arq B,) which gives the effect of lowered received signal strength. There has been no increase in power to compensate. Full power won't occcur for both Arq A & B until March 2012. The mode change was not supposed to happen until then. To have done that now is incompetent IMHO as many that had marginal reception of Arq A previously may now not receive it until the power increase next year when it also moves to it's final channel of C56.
Higher channels (C68 is the highest) are also more prone to signal loss in poor/deteriorating quality coax and aerials (and poor weather).
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Ralph: I am unclear as to why you are not receiving ITV, 4 & 5 etc now that DSO is complete when you were getting them prior to DSO. All the PSB muxes are on full power (100Kw) ITV, 4 & 5 etc are on PSB2 (D3+4) so there should be no problem. With your RF background, I assume you've checked you don't have interference on C60 (from VCR's, Sky boxes or the like) in which case you may be receiving too much signal, so remove any booster and see what results you get. I hope your neighbours are not being conned into changing their aerials if they were getting all digital channels before DSO. Some equipment (usually older) may not cope with the -ve offset being used on C60 (& C59) at Oxford. All that should now be required is removal of boosters or/and the fitting of attenuators is they are missing muxes due to overload.
The only exception to this is for those in West Swindon getting their signal from Mendip where they may not be getting Arq A & B until the increase to full power next year.
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Andrew: As you are missing 2 muxes, the distibution system may be channelised or it (or your set) may suffering overload now the powers have increased. If you are getting the SDN (COM4) mux ok, it won't have anything to do with the COM muxes being on lower power until next year, as in your location you should be able to pick up everything an a bit of wet string! Unless it's just your set suffering overload, you'll need to get onto your building/distribution system managers to get them to sort it out, but check with your neighbours first to see if they are all having the same problem.
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Jack: re Transmitter engineering - the date the information is posted is there, so "over the next week" usually means the current week when posted at the beginning of a week.
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Keith Ratcliffe: If all your neighbours have the same lack of channels, it's probable that your distribution system is channelised, as your missing channels were not previously used at Sutton Coldfield, but do check with all your neighbours first to be sure it's not an overload problem of your set.
But also as you mention about channels in the 900's you really should do a full reset/new install with your set/box first. Follow the instruction from the link "Freeview reset procedure" in the yellow box below.
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M Rawson: It is probable that you are suffering signal overload now that Sutton Coldfield is on full power (200Kw) on all the muxes, but do a full reset/new install first following the link "Freeview reset procedure" in the yellow box below.
If you have the same result, then remove any booster you have from circuit and see what results you get.
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Gareth Smart: glad the explanation helped.
Re your Dad, the power of ITV (PSB2 mux)and BBC (PSB1 mux) are the same, so will need to know his postcode before anyone can comment on any reception problems.
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Thursday 6 October 2011 12:17AM
susanne: yes you should if your aerial is pointing at the Moel-y-parc transmitter which is slightly west of south from your location. The aerial rods would be horizontal and you would be receiving BBC Wales & HTV (ITV Wales).
Film 4 is on the Arq B (COM6) multiplex broadcast on UHF C48 from there.
If your aerial is pointing at the local West Kirby relay, the rods vertical, approximately to the east of you, getting the Granada region, the answer is no as the relay only transmits the PSB multiplexes.