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All posts by jb38

Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.


Keith Burrell / et al : The tropospheric ducting forecast maps (Ak William Hepburn) indicates that parts of the UK is presently being affected by high pressure, a condition which allows the reception of transmissions from distant stations, which if on the same frequency as that used by a local station will result in either same being wiped out, or alternatively causing erratic reception due to the alien signal corrupting the quality of the signal from the local station.

Unfortunately nothing can be done to alleviate this type of problem, and I may say, is one which I am sure is going to be a cause of complaint for many over this coming week, as the pressure zones are forecast to affect most areas in the UK at some point in time.


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S. Harrison : I would have thought that your independent aerial specialist would have been aware that the reason for numerous complaints over the last few days from both Waltham and stations covering other areas is not connected with transmission problems, but a series of high pressure zones sweeping around many parts of the country, high pressure being a condition which allows the reception of transmissions from distant stations of not only within the UK, but also outside of such as Europe.

The problem being, if one of the said transmissions happens to be on the same frequency as one of the multiplexes on the station normally used for reception, this will either result in same being wiped out, or alternatively erratic reception due to the alien signal corrupting the quality of the signal from the local station, evidenced (in some cases) by witnessing pulsed variations in signal quality accompanied by a reasonably high signal level.

Unfortunately nothing can be done to alleviate this type of problem, and which I may say, is one I am sure is going to result in numerous complaints about bad reception over this coming week, as the pressure zones are
forecast to affect most areas in the UK at some point in time, and at times, on more than one occasion.

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alexei romanov: Although numerous viewers are experiencing problems with reception caused by the current spell of high pressure allowing transmissions from distant stations to interfere with signals from local stations, your on going problem with the reception of BBC HD channels is in my opinion, not necessarily associated with same.

Remote fault finding is totally dependant on feedback from the viewer with the problem, such as the result of any tests that may have been suggested, which in your particular case this is something which has not really been forthcoming, likewise unable to make a technical assessment of your installation.

By the way, I am particularly referring to the questions asked in my reply on Mon 30th May @ 5:05PM.



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Diana Brown: On having checked your location relative to that of the Wells transmitter I cant see any problem with what you have suggested, as it would indeed enable you to view programmes covering the Anglia East micro region.

On the subject of aerial directions, Belmont is located @ 50 miles / 300 degrees from your area, transmission being on horizontal polarity (elements flat), whereas Wells is at 4 miles / 99 degrees with transmission being on vertical polarity (elements facing up / down), although if you have a look at rooftops in your area you will no doubt see a number of aerials already facing towards Wells, some households having two aerials, the purpose of the second one being to achieve the very thing that you are not bothered about, i.e: extra channels.

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Richard Cooper: I am afraid I beg to differ, as you are adding unnecessary complication / expense to a relatively simply job. My reason for saying this being, that the difference in the signal level received from Wells via the wideband aerial presently used for Belmont against what would be obtained using a dedicated group type is likely only to be of a fractional nature when dealing with high end channels in the 51-60 range, especially when receiving a signal from a 1Kw transmitter located at only 4 miles away.

That said, the situation would of course be totally different if we were referring to channels in a much lower group, such as those say in the 21-35 range, as although most wideband aerials are reasonably efficient at the top end of the range, they are not where lower frequencies are concerned, this being where a dedicated group aerial really does score over that of a wideband type.

Another point that has to be remembered, is that the aerial presently used already receives Belmonts C53 and C60, and although the possibility does exist that Belmont's lower end channels "might" be picked up during a retune, the problem is easily rectified by carry out a manual tune on the three multiplexes used by Wells, being 57 / 51 / 56.

As far as the issue of aerial polarity is concerned, I think that I have already explained that.





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mollie Miller: Most likely yes!, as many areas in the UK are presently experiencing reception problems related to high atmospheric pressure zones sweeping across the UK, channels either being completely wiped out or alternatively suffering from severe levels of glitching, tropospheric chart indications inclined to suggest that the situation is destined to last until at least next Sunday, various areas being affected at random.

The main thing to remember being *not* to be tempted into carrying out a retune, as all this will achieve is to delete the channels already stored in the tuner, numerous retunes then being required in order to recover same.

By the way, Knockmore (@ 43 miles) is indicated as being the station that provides the best signal in your area, although Rosemarkie is also a possible, albeit it that reception from the COM transmitters from the latter are predicted as being poor.


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Richard Cooper : No problem Richard, all is forgiven!!

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alexei romanov: Thanks for the update, the content of having shed new light as to the possibility of other factors being involved which were hitherto unknown.

However, on the subject of 4g, were you contacted by a company called AT800? and if you were did they send you a 4g filter free of charge to fit in-line with your aerial?, as they always do with any household deemed as being liable to be affected by a newly installed 4g transmitter located nearby, as although your booster might well be one of the types containing an integral 4g filter, they are not nearly as effective as a proper stand alone device such as supplied by AT800.

On the subject of your TV's model number, although not being able to access same due to it being wall mounted is fully understandable, its still unfortunate that you cant, because some Samsung TV's in the age group mentioned were known to suffer from various problems including one connected with intermittent loss of audio on HD channels, you having mentioned this problem in one of your postings.

To be perfectly honest about it, I feel that the only way you are going to pinpoint the cause of your problem is by testing your aerial system using another Freeview device capable of HD reception, or alternatively your aerial system tested by an engineer equipped with a professional signal level meter.

By the way, undermentioned is a link to the company that supplies the 4g filters, if you haven't already been supplied with same? it would be prudent to give them a ring on their 0808 freephone number and ask if you are liable to be affected, (your post code will be requested) this company having up to date information on the exact location of new 4g transmitters.

Contact us | Advice or general enquiries | at800





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Jackie: Yes!, as in most cases the problem is not caused by anything connected with the transmitter, but due to a wave of high pressure which is circling around the UK resulting in distant stations being received, the problem being, that "if" any of the channels used by the distant station coincide with that used by the station normally used for reception, this will either wipe out reception completely, or alternatively result in high levels of glitching due to the data carried on the local signal being corrupted by signals from the distant transmitter.

Needless to say, nothing can really be done to help alleviate the problem except to wait until the situation improves, which judging by that seen wont really be until around late next Monday.

By the way, the reason I said "in most cases", is simply because transmitter maintenance is being carried out on some stations, yours not being.



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alexei romanov: In addition to that said in my previous reply, I also meant to say that my reason for requesting a reception test with the booster out of the equation was purely to see if this restored reception of BBC HD channels "irrespective of any others having possibly gone downhill", as indeed previously requested by MikeP on May 24th @ 4.53PM.

Another point to could maybe clarify on concerns you having mentioned that you don't have enough signal without the booster, I take it that you are aware that this means by-passing the booster by removing the aerial connector from it and coupling same directly into the feed going to the TV? achieved by using either a standard coax female back to back coupler, or an "F" version of same if your booster uses screwed connectors.

The only reason bringing this up, being that some people are under the impression that switching off the power supply to the booster is all that's required, which of course it isn't!, as an unpowered booster acts like a high value attenuator.


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