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All posts by Jim F

Below are all of Jim F's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.

J
ITV 4
Monday 12 March 2012 12:20PM

Adrian Robson: Oops - got my directions wrong there! Kings Weston is actually West-south-west from you.

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J
All DAB transmitters
Monday 19 March 2012 1:41PM

Sarah: Assuming you've done the full scan retune, its probably the big hill (Waddles Down) between Crediton and the Exeter St. Thomas mast (where your nearest DAB signals are) that's blocking the signal.

There isn't any DAB on the mast at Crediton - no idea if there are any plans for the future.

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Steve Swift: Crystal Palace is almost 70km away, but could be where the aerial is pointing.
CP has nothing on UHF ch60 though - ITV is on ch22 before DSO.
Even if the aerial is on CP, it might still pick up the Alton relay (where ITV is on ch60).
I'm guessing you'll have tried a retune (after factory reset / default settings), which wouldn't typically give ITV from the Alton relay if a better signal is coming from CP, but perhaps the close proximity of the Alton relay (under 1km) is a factor.

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J
C36 (594.0MHz) after switchover
Monday 26 March 2012 10:56AM

Andy2801: Chs 30 & 37 are still on low power from Rowridge - they will increase on 18th April.
Chs 24 & 27 are on high power, which suggests you may have overload (either at a masthead amplifier or a distribution amplifier).
If that's the case, you'll find reception on chs 30 & 37 will become "unwatchable" after mid April.

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Tim Owen: Most likely transmitter for Weston Rhyn would be The Wrekin (definitely not Llangynog), but there are a bunch of transmitters that could give you a signal. It would help to know which way your loft aerial is pointing and whether it is V or H polarisation.
The Wrekin would be south-east (H pol), and if that's a match for your aerial, manual tuning on the correct channels might sort things out.

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J
Diagnostics - old version
Saturday 31 March 2012 7:29PM

lcresswell: Your Panasonic recorder doesn't have a DVB-T2 tuner, so isn't able to receive the HD Freeview signals.

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Nick: Plenty of digiboxes (& TVs) use the "first" signal they detect to populate the programme list, which may well be the "wrong" transmitter.
Subsequent signals may either be ignored, or end up with logical channel numbers in the 800s.
Aldeburgh is sufficiently powerful to reach your location, so is likely to be the source of the group A signals.
One method used to avoid unwanted low frequency signals is to start auto tuning with the aerial unplugged, and plug it back in after the scan is 30% complete. This isn't easy on digiboxes that scan very fast.
Another method is to use attenuators to reduce all the signals - the objective being to make the unwanted ones too low to detect, leaving just the ones you do want (and then remove the attenuator to watch). This can take a bit of trial and error to find out how much attenuation is enough (and needs a range of attenuators to hand, or a variable one).
A third option is to manually tune to just the Sudbury UHF channels (having cleared anything stored on the box by doing a "default settings" or "factory reset" or similar. That's OK if your box allows manual tuning - some don't!

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Andrew: Could be co-channel interference. Other transmitters using those channels are Rowridge, Blaen-Plwyf, and Caradon Hill. As it sounds like a "recent" problem, Rowridge would seem to be the most likely culprit, and even though the log period aerial has a good front-back ratio, it can still pick up reflected signals from buildings in front of the aerial (especially if they have big sheets of Celotex in the walls).
Typical readings on your meter would show plenty of received power (from Ridge Hill without amplifier) but low quality.
The high pressure weather may also be a factor.

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J
Diagnostics - old version
Sunday 8 April 2012 12:19PM

Paul Jones & jb38: Could this be cross-talk between the HDMI cable and the coax cable to the 2nd TV?
I've seen this where a coax cable isn't expecially well screened, and the RF signal is relatively low. The problem was resolved by using an amplifier to increase the signal on the coax, since the cables were running together in a section of trunking and couldn't easily be separated.

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J
Diagnostics - old version
Sunday 8 April 2012 3:11PM

Pandora: Your kitchen TV sounds like its not getting a good signal, possibly because it isn't connected to the aerial that's feeding the set in the living room.
You may need a splitter to feed both, or you may have a splitter where one lead has become unplugged. Can you trace the coax cables back to a common point (maybe in loft) and see what's there?

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