All posts by Steve Donaldson
Below are all of Steve Donaldson's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Robert Anning: Whereabouts are you? Which town are you in?
Rod H: This is interesting. There is another report of poor reception on the Digital One DAB multiplex in Northampton:
Northampton (Northamptonshire, England) DAB transmitter | free and easy for 21 years
The transmitters at Daventry and Sandy Heath appear to be the ones providing much of the Digital One signal in the Northampton area. You are obviously at the other side of Daventry, so perhaps this points to the Daventry transmitter being worked on, possibly off-air.
| link to this comment |
Colin: Today there have been several reports to this website from Northampton and one from Leamington Spa about this problem. It would seem that the Daventry DAB transmitter for D1 National is at fault, and perhaps off air, judging by the scale of the reports.
| link to this comment |
Chris.SE: I didn't include the Wellingborough transmitter in the above analysis because having noted it was just 20W, I figured it wasn't powerful enough to reach Northampton. I'll include the analysis so others can come to their own conclusion on this.
From the sample location at Kingsthorpe Golf Course:
14.9km 9.3mls 74deg 0.02kW -3dB
The terrain plot shows that even in the 9.3 miles, the ground rises up and down six times, obscuring line-of-sight. The antenna being 63m above ground, is 10m below the highest peaks:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
I appreciate that the lower frequency isn't so much affected by obstructions as TV signals, but would such a low power signal with those hills in the way really be able to be receivable in Northampton?
Additionally, there is one report in Leamington Spa, hence my suspicion is now on Daventry as this transmitter sits in-between Northampton and Leamington.
We will have to wait and see whether other reports come in and where they are.
| link to this comment |
David nicholls: The transmitter at Boughton doesn't carry the D1 National (Digital One) multiplex on 11D. It broadcasts only the BBC National DAB multiplex on 12B and the Northamptonshire local DAB multiplex on 10C. This is according to the latest set of radio transmitter parameters published by Ofcom on 13th June 2023.
| link to this comment |
Tom: There was recently a report to this website of temporary traffic lights apparently causing an issue elsewhere in the country. Are there temporary traffic lights near you?
"one.network" (which shows roadworks across the country) shows temporary traffic lights on Ashford Road near to Hamstreet Primary Academy, the responsibility for the works being the County Council. Have they moved further south and near to your cul-de-sac?
| link to this comment |
Tom: Noting Chris.SE's comment about the BBC reporting a fault with the transmitter, it would seem a likely cause, and then perhaps not likely to be any nearby temporary traffic lights. Although if symptoms appearing coincided with traffic lights being turned on then it might be worth considering as a cause, expecting them to stop when the lights are taken away.
| link to this comment |
Andrew Steele: Retuning following the change to regional BBC One HD wouldn't make any difference to the signal, providing when the retune was carried out it tuned to the signals from Stockland Hill, and not those of another transmitter.
You may have already confirmed this, but just in case, the channels from Stockland Hill are PSB1=C26, PSB2=C23, PSB3=C29, COM4=C25, COM5=C22 and COM6=C28.
Without know where you are it isn't possible to specific, so it is only possible to be general. This is why a postcode is requested.
A tree or trees could cause degradation of reception, this quite possibly affecting one or more but not all channels (multiplexes). This could be a tree close by, in the immediate vicinity or on ground, typically a hill, somewhere between you and the transmitter. April and May is when the leaves grow on the trees which could impede reception. It sounds like this was the time when you noticed degradation in your reception. You say that the mast-head amplifier resolved some of the issues. If you need an amplifier when you didn't before, it sounds like something has changed in the path between the transmitter and your aerial.
| link to this comment |
Robert Price: In addition to that said by Chris.SE, there are an awful lot of tall trees at the end of Crescent Road where it meets Vineyard Road. Growing taller year on year they can slowly creep into the space in front of the aerial and degrade the signal, this often affecting one or more multiplex channels, but not all. For deciduous trees, the situation can worsen when the leaves come and improve when they fall.
I wonder whether it is the trees that are the cause of your issue. That said, I don't see why trees would affect reception less at weekends!
| link to this comment |
Fiona Beattie: This doesn't sound like a reception issue. It sounds like you have the multiplex and that there is a problem resolving the one service, RT One on the Humax. At this stage it's a case of trying things to see whether it rectifies the issue.
I wonder if it could be an issue with the multiplex. As discussed elsewhere, a missing or out-of-place character in the stream can cause a problem for some receivers and not others. It would be interesting to know whether other Humax Aura users have the same issue with the NIMM.
What I would do is carry out a retune with the aerial unplugged with the objective being to clear the tuning memory. Once completed no channels should be tuned. Then, do a manual tune on UHF channel 48, the objective to tune in the NIMM only and see if it works. There are four services on the multiplex:
LCN 53: TG4
LCN 54: RT One
LCN 55: RT Two
LCN 729: RT RnaG
"LCN" stands for "logical channel number", the number the service appears on the EPG and the number used from the remote control to watch it.
With the one multiplex tuned in you "should" have the four services listed above. If you can watch and hear RT One then go ahead and tune in the other multiplexes which are UHF channels 27 (BBC standard definition TV and radio), 21 (UTV, C4, C5 etc), 24 (HD channels), 23, 26 and 30.
I said it's a "try and see" sort of thing, or "poke and hope" as my dad would say.
If it works OK with just the NIMM tuned then see if adding the others breaks it or it continues to work.
Whatever your findings, share them here as this may help others with the same issue.
| link to this comment |
Sunday 13 August 2023 5:43PM
David Nicholls: There is a report just in on this website reporting weak signal on Digital One in Leamington Spa. This is, of course, the other side of Daventry and therefore, unless another transmitter is off or being worked on, we might suspect that it is Daventry that is the cause of your issue.
I repeat my suggestion that you try siting the radio somewhere east-facing and west-facing to see which works better.