All posts by Mr P.Slater
Below are all of Mr P.Slater's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.M
Patcham (Brighton and Hove, England) Freeview Light transmitterWednesday 8 February 2012 9:11AM
Brighton
Thanks for the feedback on this.
I certainly will try Whitehawk Hill after checking Patcham first. With regard to licence fee, having had the luxury of being on the Heathfield transmitter in Lewes with it's mix of PSB and commercial, good and bad, I think that you will have a job persuading licence fee payers to accept a lesser service. In Lewes, half a mile separates three or more years of full Freeview service from relay users who will have to wait until June to get a fairly thin service. However, as stated above, some Freeview is better than none, and you could say that what you have never had, you won't miss. However, this being the UK we will quietly roll over and accept gratefully what we are given. I can't see the residents of say, USA, being so obliging.
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Heathfield changeover
For what it's worth, this might help.
Elderly neighbour asked me (30/5/2012)if I could have a look at her TV as she had lost BBC1/2 on her LG TV with built in Freeview receiver. Did automatic re-tune and pulled in over 100 TV, including her missing BBC1/2. Did the same on my Philips DRT200 set-top box, but no BBC1/2, despite a channel count of over 100 TV. After several attempts, gave up and did a factory default followed by channel search - all OK with BBC1/2 back. So built-in receiver just needed retune, set-top box needed full first time installation. Watching with interest to see what happens on 13th June.
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Terry Collett (Lewes)
Your postcode comes up as Plumpton Green, which is about the same distance from Heathfield as Lewes Town. The low lying parts of Lewes cannot receive the full coverage from Heathfield, but if you have been receiving Freeview up to the changeover, apart from a full retune or factory reset of your TV or external box, you should not see any difference. I had and still have an excellent signal using a small log periodic aerial mounted under the eaves. If you still have problems after a reset, you need to check all the items up to the box.
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P
Brighton transmitters will be in BBC South East from 7th March Tuesday 24 July 2012 9:31AM
Brighton
Hello
I wonder if anyone can throw some light on the best way to go for Freeview reception in Patcham, Brighton. About a year ago putting the postcode BN1 8RA into the official Feeview site, the Patcham relay was the only transmitter shown as viable for this postcode - the main Whitehawk transmitter was no go. Now a postcode search gives both Patcham relay and Whitehawk as viable, and a quick test with a vertically polarised aerial out of the bedroom window gave reasonable results from the Whitehawk direction, certainly as good as Patcham relay, horizontally polarised. The advantage of Whitehawk is the wider range of content. I noticed that a number of new aerials are also pointing in the Whitehawk direction. Has something happened recently that makes Whitehawk a possibility?
Thanks
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Monday 6 February 2012 9:37PM
Brighton
This is a dogs dinner. With about 4 to 6 weeks to go, I still don't know which transmitter to use at BN1 8RA. This is despite much research on my part, and very little official guidance. As far as I can gather, the Patcham transmitter will provide about half the channels available on say Whitehawk Hill or Heathfield. As a user of Heathfield as well, I have had Freeview for over three years now with well over 80 channels, yet I still pay the same licence fee and get half the service at Patcham. There are aerials here pointing in all directions and a professional installer recently told me that my horizontal wideband aerial should be vertical for Patcham. Unless I am wrong, Patcham is horizontal, so if this is the professional advice, God help us. Given the low-lying situation, is there any point in trying transmitters other than Patcham? For information, the aerial is a new, 42 element digitally certified type, external, chimney mounted on a 3-m mast aimed at the Hollingbury transmitter.