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Sudbury Arqiva multiplex B changes 16 November - retune required

Viewers in Suffolk and Essex that use the Sudbury transmitter will need to retune their Freeview boxes on 16 November 2011.

Viewers in Suffolk and Essex that use the Sudbury transmitter w
published on UK Free TV

After 6am 16th November 2011, viewers in Suffolk and Essex who receive the full Freeview service from the Sudbury transmitter will need to do a full retune of their Freeview boxes - you must perform a "first time installation" retune (sometimes "Factory Reset" or "Shipping Condition") to ensure you can watch the all the available Freeview channels on the correct channel numbers.

The ArqB multiplex is moving from C50 to C63 for seven months. There will be no changes to the power level or transmission mode parameters of the service. C50 is required for the ArqB at the Tacolneston transmitter digital switchover next wednesday.

Sudbury not see the commercial multiplexes operating at their final power levels until 27th June 2012. On this date SDN will move to C58, ArqA to C60 and ArqB to C56. Until this time some viewers on the edges of the service area for the transmitter will be unable to receive the commercial services.



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Comments
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:54 PM

Tim CO14: Definately don't use your booster!

I think that you need an attenuator. It's sounds like your receivers could be being blinded by the strong signal. Amplifying makes that worse.

Is the signal strength lower from the loft aerial? If so, then try connecting the other TV(s) to (that were served by the chimney aerial).

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Tim CO14
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

8:16 PM
Walton On The Naze

Dave Lindsay: The signal strength is certainly lower on the loft aerial, but it only serves the bedroom TV, via a short coax. Connecting the main aerial cable to it is not really feasible. However, I will try an attenuator, for the price of around £4, it's worth a shot!
But I still don't understand why my Goodmans GDB9 digibox suddenly won't find ANY channels since November 16th. It worked perfectly before, even after DSO2.

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Tim CO14's 34 posts GB flag
Tim's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
R
roger
9:00 PM

since retuning on november 16 we have lost film 4 and yesterday.retuned again on nov 23 but still no luck.our transmission comes from sudbury.

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roger's 1 post GB flag
Thursday, 24 November 2011
P
Phil
8:12 AM

I got ArqB back yesterday morning at about 50% quality which is pretty good.

It seemed to get worse from 8am to 9am dropping to about 10-20% quality which caused blocking or the channels to cut out.

Later in the day I checked again and they were gone completely and not even showing 10% quality anymore and still like that this morning.

Checked with some other people who had the same experience with it coming back yesterday morning only to go again later in the day.

Seems like what ever they did yesterday morning sorted out ArqB only for them to change it back again!

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Phil's 1 post GB flag
T
Trevor Wright
9:12 AM

Phil: Yesterday Talcolneston went fully over to digital and you may have been picking up ArqB from there?

Also - can someone confirm to me that Sudbury has formally changed from a Group B to a Group E (semi-wideband) transmitter/s and hence the correct aerial now is a Group E. If so, will it stay E?

Yesterday I retuned a neighbours two sets and another elderly persons set in our village and had a lot of problems in picking up not only Sudbury but the newly-DSO'd Talconeston - they both had newish wideband (i.e. 21-68, all groups) aerials.

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Trevor Wright's 1 post GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:45 AM

Tim CO14: Yes, try an attentuator.

I was suggesting trying the other TVs/boxes on the loft aerial as a test to see if it works, not as a perminant solution.

Try the Goodmans box on the loft aerial and see if it works. If manual tuning is an option, try it.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
D
drgeoff
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

10:23 AM

The coming and going of Sudbury Ch63 is not anything Arqiva is doing. It is just down to propagation changing due to atmospheric conditions - time of day and weather.

A poster on Digitalspy has been in correspondence with DigitalUK and it looks like the situation will not improve until next June. See post #1911 at Digital Switchover & Retunes: Anglia - Technical - Digital Spy Forums

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drgeoff's 22 posts GB flag
Tim CO14
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:58 PM
Walton On The Naze

Dave Lindsay: Thanks Dave, an attenuator is on order! The loft aerial is connected to a Toshiba DVD recorder, which is similar (in regards to reception capabilities) to the Samsung. So I wouldn't expect any real difference. As for the Goodmans, I've tried it on the loft aerial, and again, no channels at all (I think it must of just 'died' like the previous one!).
However, I did find something interesting last night when doing a re-scan via the DVB stick on the PC (connected to the main aerial, but that doesn't get ArqB either): it found 5 extra muxes - Ch42, 50, 55, 59, and 60. All showed 100% strength, but no channels found. I believe 4 of the 5 are being used by Tacolneston, so maybe I'm picking up those? And would they have an affect on the weak Sudbury muxes?

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Tim CO14's 34 posts GB flag
Tim's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dale
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:45 PM
Ipswich

Trevor : Sudbury is now officially a Group-E transmitter, yes.
When the COM MUXes go to full power in June 2012 they will be on Channels 56, 58 and 60 respectively, all of which are out of range for a Group-B aerial (though the first 2, at least, may be receivable if you're close enough to get a strong signal, I guess).
This, in fact, was one of the issues I tried to raise in the local press back in June, when Digital UK had a press statement published that, once again, said that most customers would NOT need new aerials, and that if you could get analogue OK, you would get Freeview OK! [Frequent visitors to this site will be aware that said local press (Ipswich Evening Star) refused to publish my letter because it contradicted the official mis-information]

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Dale's 78 posts GB flag
Dale's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
D
drgeoff
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

5:42 PM

It is a myth that a group aerial will not receive signals outside its group. It isn't feasible to make an aerial that will be reasonably flat across a range of channels but have no response outside it. Sure it will have less gain outside its designated group.

Until June I was using a 1977 Group B aerial to receive all 6 muxes from Sudbury, including the "weak" one on Ch 54 or 56 (I can't remember). I'm really pi**ed that now with a larger wideband aerial on a 2 foot longer pole, I cannot reliably get ArqB on Ch 63.

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drgeoff's 22 posts GB flag
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