All posts by Chris S
Below are all of Chris S's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Depending exactly where you are the strongest signal could be from Tacolneston , Sudbury or Sandy heath .
I would recommend using "tv coverage checker" (see previous posts on this) with your post code to find the best transmitter .
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Gareth . sorry I read north west Suffolk ! north east suffolk ( say west of Southwold) the transmitter would be Tacolneston . From the coverage checker seems that an outdoor amplified aerial is needed. Preferably a type K aerial though B or E should work.
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there has been some work going on in the last few days at Tacolneston. Probably this is mostly a final transmitter tuning to ensure that the reception is as intended on com7 and com8. All the other multiplexes should be fine or even slightly better than before but the reduction in the number of available frequencies has forced com7 and com8 (which have always been designated as temporary bonus channels) to lower their power. As the weather warms up there are also going to be periods of high pressure which will throw a red herring into reception problems. I think the transmitter authorities have done their best . They have no control over the amount of frequency space they have available which is allocated by government policy.
Near the Norfolk/Suffolk coast the best you can do to get Com7/8 is to use an amplified group K or B aerial or high gain wideband type . (Not the cheap DIY store wideband) . Personally I switched to freesat.
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JP. due to the government making less frequencies available for tv (given to new radio/phone services) the transmitting authorities have been forced to reduce power for tv groups (multiplexes) com 7 and com 8 which carry channels like BBB4 HD and BBC news HD. So in some areas viewers may need a wideband and/or amplified aerial for these channels.
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DJB .I have the same situation with a youview box compared to the tv. I believe that the box is just less sensitive than the tv . Its not surprising really knowing that COM7 and COM8 were around 1/3 power of the other multiplexes . They are now a bit less than 1/5 power. We need a bit more amplification or an aerial having greater sensitivity at the COM7 8 frequencies . Note there is a limit to how powerful an amplifier to use because there is such a thing as too much amplification..
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I agree that if DJB is seeing 100% on com7 or 8 amplification might be too high . In my case on the youview box the level fluctuates between 44% and zero on com8 . Its zero on com7. Its hard to read strength on the tv but the picture is usually fine with no pixelating.
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DJB looking at your post code it looks like you have a difficult situation . ie you are quite close to Sudbury so you should be able to get all its channels reliably with no amplifier . To get com7 and 8 you need to tune to Tacolneston but that will require an amplifier . There is also the possibility of some small signal from crystal palace ,Dover and a local relay!! In such a situation I think a careful choice of aerial (or even aerials !) and type of amplifier would need to be made . It could be that a wideband amplifier like you have cant cope with such a mixture of strong and weak signals . I think the ideal set up would be a non- amplified aerial pointed at Sudbury combined with an amplified aerial pointed at Tacolneston. But the amplifier should be a tuned type only covering UHF 50 to 58. (a relatively expensive set up) The Youview box maybe having trouble with the mixed signals not just a lack of sensitivity . My set up is almost identical to yours but in this location its just weak signal and continental interference that is the problem so I have gone for Freesat .
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The fact you got all channels in the loft suggests that a better amplifier would solve the problem. A wide band adjustable gain one should be ok. Otherwise if youre giving up on com7/8 I would turn the aerial to pick up Sudbury to get all the main multiplexes probably without needing any amplifier.
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Paul . the frequencies on this page under "march 2018 " are correct . But they shuffled the final allocations so that PSB1 (BBCA) is actually on channel 40, for example, as Stevens says.
In addition com7 and com8 are on 55 and 56 . These two are on a lower power so may be a bit difficult to get in fringe areas.
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Wednesday 6 June 2018 10:50PM
Gareth . I think you should get a good signal in north east Suffolk (Bury ?)
Possibly you are tuning into the wrong transmitter.