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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.


Rod: It would be of considerable assistance in diagnosing possible reasons for your problems if you indicated your location, plus what the signal strength/quality is showing as being on the worst of the affected channels, this info obtainable from the tuning menu area's on both Humax and TV.

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Barbara Ward: You are only 3 miles away from Fenton and so could possibly be on the verges of receiving too strong a signal, especially when using a roof mounted aerial, as this can cause intermittent blocking of reception as the signal levels rise and fall slightly during a day.

To check what transmitter you are receiving from go into the tuning menu whilst on BBC1, if you see Ch34 its Fenton, whereas if its Ch41 then it's Sutton Coldfield.

Another way being, if when looking at the aerial you see the elements are mounted vertically then that's another indication that its Fenton, as Sutton Coldfield uses horizontal polarisation.

If you use any form of booster try removing it, as if an overly strong signal is the cause of the problem then that in most cases will cure it, if no booster is used trying a simple attenuator in line with the aerial socket has the same effect.

Of course this instruction is "only" applicable if it is Fenton that you are receiving from, but should signal blocking be the case then try a manual scan on Ch44 first as a test, as ITV1, Ch5 etc are on that frequency from Sutton Coldfield. (30 miles away).

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Jonathan Land: If not already done so, I would suggest that you should carry out another scan just in case any glitches occurred with the signal during the process, these not necessarily being at your end.

Also, when you re-scanned your device was it carried this out as a complete reset? as totally eradicating anything stored is essential for success with this problem.

You should unplug the aerial lead to the box and follow this by carrying out a complete scan without it being connected, obviously nothing will be received but the memory will be blanked in the process, then reconnect the aerial and finally carry out another scan.

Assuming its Sudbury you are receiving from, I will point out that Mux 2 (Ch68/56) is showing as being "very" variable up until the 20th of this month when switchover stage 2 occurs.

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jas Gracie: Indications are that Freeview reception at your particular location is limited to the Lethanhill transmitter, its channels being on Ch60-Ch57-Ch53, the latter being the HD Mux.

As you are only 4 miles away from the transmitter I would say that nothing more than a standard log periodic aerial would suffice, this being mounted vertically, as "if" you have any obstructions between yourself and the location of the transmitter larger aerials make no difference whatsoever, and in many cases make the situation worse, this just being mentioned in case you are thinking along this line, as its a common mistake made by many!

Just out of interest maybe you could come back with the signal / quality indications you are getting on the channels mentioned.


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John Bod: It isn't scrambled, if you can see BBC1 HD on your EPG (Freesat 108) but nothing appears on your TV/box when selected, then that's inclined to indicate that you either haven't carried out a factory re-tune recently, or that your equipment is not capable of responding to the BBC's recent (6th June) technical changes to their HD transmission mode, this requiring receiving equipments tuner to be DVB-S2 capable. The spec being / S/R : 23000 DVB : DVB.S2 Modulation : QPSK FEC : 8/9.

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J
Automatic postcode fixes
Friday 8 July 2011 6:11PM

Alan : Although this is really Briantists domain, just out of interest I carried out a "trade" predictor check on your (not as in example) post code, revealed that at this present time reception is shown as being only possible on three Mux's, although only the first (Mux1/ Ch31) being at a level whereby reasonable reception could be expected, the other two not!

This situation doesn't alter that much until Reigate's switchover stage 2 on the18th April 2012 when reception of all Mux's should then be possible, this also applying to Crystal Palace on the same date.

Other additions being Tunbridge Wells on 13th June 2012, and likewise Heathfield on the same date.

I have purposely not mentioned a few odd changes on dates preceding the changes mentioned, as these involve situations whereby only an odd Mux may be receivable and not a full compliment of stations.

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jade: Thanks for the update, pleased to hear you sorted the problem out OK, the main thing to remember being, that "if" any problems should occur at any time with your reception, like some channels dropping out etc, try and resist the temptation to carry out a retune, as its a mistake commonly made by most people!

The reason for "not" doing being, that all a person effectively does by carrying out a re-tune is to store the problem situation into their box, as even although channels might drop out now and again its 99% of the time nearly always due to external reasons as they are "still" stored in the box, and as such will return automatically when the reason for the drop out clears, that is if nothing is altered tuning wise.

That said excluding re-tunes after transmitter upgrading sessions, then re-tuning is necessary.

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marianne hastings: Assuming you are receiving your signal from Carradon Hill (BBC1 Ch28) your problem could be caused by engineering works at the transmitter, these having been forecast about five days ago and affecting digital TV and radio.

By the way "assuming" was mentioned as reception from two local transmitters are also show as a possibility with your post code, these being Gunnislake @ 1mile and Tavistock @ 4miles.

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andrea: If by re-tuning you have picked up the new Clacton transmitter, this being on Ch48, then you wont get the channels that you are missing until the 20th of this month when another two Mux's join in, these being on Ch52 and Ch42, the latter being the HD Mux. (further re-tune being required)

No alternative possibilities for use in the meantime can be seen, although this is using a guess post code for your location, and
possibly not very accurate as you have reported as having these channels before.

Needless to say that your post code is essential for maximum accuracy as far as this is concerned, this said as usual with some qualifications!
(Ch48 th) 

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J
Diagnostics - old version
Saturday 9 July 2011 3:24PM

anne: Its impossible to say, as you havent given any clues as to your location (post code preferable) nor any details of the aerial you referred to, like where located roof or loft? and whether or not its very old.

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