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Sandy Heath, Sudbury, Heathfield, 9 relays have extra retunes on 27th June 2012

Some small changes are made to the transmitter network on 27th June 2012 - if you use the Sandy Heath, Tunbridge Wells, Wivenhoe Park, Woodbridge, Sudbury, Burnham on Crouch, Clacton, Felixstowe or Heathfield transmitters, you may have to retune your Freeview equipment.

Some small changes are made to the transmitter network on 27th
published on UK Free TV

The following changes, in addition to those in the North and East Kent switchover completes on Wednesday 27th June event:

  • Sandy Heath: D3&4, BBCB, ArqB using transitional S1 antenna until 27th June 2012.

  • Tunbridge Wells - SDN from 13 to 27 June 2012, services will be restricted to 100W

  • Wivenhoe Park: From 20 July 2011 to 27 June 2012, Wivenhoe Park will broadcast D3+4 on C64, C54afterwards; BBCB on C57 before, C49 afterwards.

  • Woodbridge: From 20 July 2011 to 27 June 2012, Woodbridge will broadcast D3+4 on C64 before, C52 afterwards; BBCB on C57, C54 after that.

  • Sudbury: SDN will temporarily operate on C49 (at 14kW ERP) from the first stage of Sudbury's switchover until 27th June 12. Arqiva A Until 27 June 2012, services will be provided on C54 at 3,000W. Arqiva B from 16 November 2011 until 27 June 2012, services will be provided on C63 at 2,200W.

  • Burnham On Crouch - BBCA from 6 July 2011 until 27 June 2012, Burnham on Crouch will broadcast onC48 at 100W. D3+4 From 20 July 2011 to 27 June 2012, Burnham on Crouch will broadcast at 100W. BBCB from 20 July 2011 to 27 June 2012, Burnham on Crouch will broadcast on C51

  • Clacton - BBCA from 6 July 2011 until 27 June 2012, Clacton will broadcast on C48

  • Felixstowe - BBCA from 6 July 2011 until 27 June 2012, Felixstowe will broadcast on C52

  • Heathfield - SDN until 27 June 2012, services will be provided on C48 at 2,000 Watt


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Comments
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
H
H. Brown
2:03 PM
Ipswich

1. Very little warning .....
2. Now cannot get usual channels even after
"automatic retune" without breakup.
3. Butterworth's appraisal on Freeview news
is technical gobbledegook and of no use
whatsoever to domestic users.
4. What should I do next?
5. and I'm trying really hard not to be rude or
disrespectful ......

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H. Brown's 2 posts GB flag
H.'s: mapH's Freeview map terrainH's terrain plot wavesH's frequency data H's Freeview Detailed Coverage
P
Peter
2:06 PM
Frinton-on-sea

My screen had total "snowstorm" on BBC 1 last night about 8pm. On switching on around 1pm today it is still the same. Amessage flashes up briefly about "All Terrestrial Channels" 27th July 2012.

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Peter's 1 post GB flag
Peter's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
Jonathon Green
2:34 PM
Braintree

H. Brown:

"4. What should I do next?"

Assuming your device(s) are behaving in the same way mine did this morning (I live in Braintree and get my signal direct from Sudbury which is practically next door) you may well find you've ended up with a whole lot of duplicate channels up in the 800 - 900 range, in which case I've found two useful courses of action.

1: Look for a "factory reset" or "restore default settings" option. Use that and then go through your equipments normal install procedure.

2: Unplug the aerial lead, perform a scan (which will of course find nothing), save the result (if offered the option), power cycle the box (or TV), plug the aerial back in, and repeat the channel scan.

After using option 1 on the Humax STB which feeds my TiVo, option 2 on the TV, and a straightforward scan for new channels on the BT Vision box I now have a full set of channels with Film4 and ITV4 present and correct on all three devices (they went missing when the multiplex which carries them went to low power following the last retune) and am a happy Bunny!

Good luck!

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Jonathon Green's 12 posts GB flag
Jonathon's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
H
H. Brown
3:56 PM
Ipswich

Hello Jonathon,
Many thanks for your help but I have tried
both options and the "automatic search" and
still cannot access BBC 1 etc. East Anglia,
only BBC 1 etc. London.
We have line of sight to the Sudbury transmitter --- is the fault with us or them?
Regards, Hugh.

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H. Brown's 2 posts GB flag
H.'s: mapH's Freeview map terrainH's terrain plot wavesH's frequency data H's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:44 PM

H. Brown: The fact that you are receiving London programming is crucial and shows that your receiver is tuned to another transmitter - Crystal Palace. This explains why you may have poor reception; because the signals being received are from a different direction to which your aerial faces.

When the receiver performs the automatic tuning scan, it looks through UHF channel numbers (equivalent to frequencies) from 21 to 69. All of Crystal Palace's are in the 20s and 30, with Sudbury's lowest being 41 up to 60. Tacolneston's are interleaved with Sudbury's.

So to avoid Crystal Palace, have the aerial unplugged for the first 30% of the scan (or until it gets up to UHF channel 35 if it gives these during scanning).

There is, of course, always the possibility that, having dealt with Crystal Palace, there is another transmitter that is favoured over Sudbury. You will have to deal with that should you find it. It is a good idea to confirm that all is tuned correctly to the desired transmitter, so as not to find out when you want to watch something that reception is poor because it is incorrectly tuned.

See here for a list of multiplexes (three PSBs and three COMs) which are groups of services (those with a bullet in the "E"/England column apply):

DMOL Post-DSO Multiplex Channel Allocations

From Sudbury there are six multiplexes, each taking up one UHF channel. Each former analogue service used one UHF channel.

For one service from each multiplex, check that it is tuned to Sudbury by looking on the signal strength screen:

PSB1 | BBC One | C44
PSB2 | ITV1 | C41
PSB3 | BBC One HD | C47
COM4 | ITV3 | C58
COM5 | Pick TV | C60
COM6 | Yesterday | C56

Here I have given the first service within each multiplex (see the link for the full list).

For example, bring up Pick TV (number 11), and then bring up the signal strength screen. It should say that it is tuned to C60 for Sudbury. If it is C45, for example, then it is tuned to Tacolneston instead.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Thursday, 28 June 2012
M
Mike Gordon
8:02 AM

Last evening we lost Sky News completely. This was about 11.30 pm. Tried retuning, no luck, then checked other sets, they down, too. We get Crystal Palace signal here in UB9, but, lo, this morning, it was back fully at 80%. I assume this was part of the retune but can't find any report of our transmitters being involved.

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Mike Gordon's 8 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:48 PM

Mike Gordon: I think that this might be the inversion effect which is caused by the weather causing signals from another transmitter to reach your location.

There was definately no retune for Crystal Palace and there is not one sceduled this year or next, so under such circumstances it is NOT advised to carry out a retune as all this can do is cause the services to be lost from the receiver's memory.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
C
Corin
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

10:40 PM

"it is NOT advised to carry out a retune"

That is totally contrary to the official advice of Freeview (DTV Services Limited) who state quite categorically that regular re-tuning is not just advisable but absolutely necessary.

From Freeview
/ Home
/ Help
/ Retuning Your Equipment
/ How to retune your equipment


QUOTE

New channels are launched on Freeview from time to time along with other updates to the service. So it pays to retune your digital box every couple of months to make sure you are up to date.

UNQUOTE

If you do not retune soon, you may miss out on the most exciting of Freeview's latest TV stations -- Channel 47

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Corin's 91 posts LU flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:48 PM

Corin: Please do not take my quote out of context!

I advised that the best thing NOT to do when there are lift conditions is retune. You may end up either loosing services or getting ones tuned in from the distant transmitter whose signal is interfering from the one you want. This could even be a foreign one.

Please explain how this is beneficial...

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Friday, 29 June 2012
M
Mark Fletcher
sentiment_satisfiedGold

12:04 AM
Lytham St. Annes

I always retune at least once a week minimum,sometimes i have to perform wee tests where i have no option but to delete my current set up to assist others on this forum,for example retuning temporarily to another nearby transmitter and checking if that particular mast is functioning as it should be.I always take my set-top box,set-top aerial and amplifier with me everywhere i stay for a week or more.Last week i stayed in Barnsley,S71 5BT location (my brother's rented abode),conducted tests and only Emley Moor broadcasts were available albeit indoor set-top aerial reception (with/without booster) there was mostly unsatisfactory with occasional pixellations on all mux's.No Belmont,Winter Hill or even Bilsdale there.Now on my hols (between 23-30 June 2012) in St Annes on Sea,FY8 1HW location,had to retune due to different regional programming,the establishment im staying at is served with a communal aerial aimed at Winter Hill,perfect reception there,yet BBCA (BBC1 Wales) from Moel-Y-Parc on frequency 45 (in the 800's) largely badly pixellated yet no signal with amplification.
Yet with my set-top aerial in without signal booster first,nothing from Moel-Y-Parc whatsoever but once the amplifier was powered on my set-top aerial once i found that sweet spot picked up both the BBCA on fr 45 and D3+4 (ITV1 Wales/S4C) on fr 49 multiplexes from Moel-Y-Parc mast perfectly 100% quality,69% strength both,even BBCB (HD) mux on fr 42 0% quality,69% strength despite my set-top box being non-HD can be attainable in my current temporary location.But the commercial multiplexes from Moel-Y-Parc however was less satisfactory SDN on fr 51,ArqA on fr 52 and ArqB on fr 48 all were badly pixellated,this was with my set-top aerial/amplifier on.
So yes it does pay to retune ones set-top box every week minimum,and obviously i have to retune yet again upon my arrival back in Halifax soon as Winter Hill transmissions there are rather unsatisfactory and no way will Moel-Y-Parc be available there.

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Mark Fletcher's 673 posts GB flag
Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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