All posts by Chris J
Below are all of Chris J's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
If you live in North Gloucestershire and are fed up with seeing no local news from BBC Midlands then please complain to the BBC at gloucestershire@bbc.co.uk. For several years this area has been covered by both ITV West and BBC West but only ITV West will be transmitted from Ridge Hill after DSO in April. If enough people complain perhaps the BBC will do something!
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Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) Full Freeview traWednesday 20 April 2011 12:55PM
Cheltenham
It means the channel frequency is ofset by +0.167MHz.
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Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) Full Freeview traWednesday 20 April 2011 1:30PM
Cheltenham
I notice that the second ITV D3+4 MUX on ch29 is not transmitting the entire West region MUX but just ITV West (HTV). If this is the permanent arrangement then perhaps there is a chance the BBC could come to some arrangement and transmit BBC West on the same MUX!
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Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) Full Freeview traFriday 17 June 2011 2:37PM
Cheltenham
As I said previously the BBC original response was to get Cable or Satellite TV if you want to see your local news. I got a better response from the BBC in Gloucester admitting lots of people had complained but mentioned money was the problem. I have heard nothing from the Cheltenham MP who has not replied to my emails. I have noticed a very high proportion of houses with dishes in around Cheltenham and a lot have VM cable so perhaps most of those who want to watch Points West can already so are not interested in getting it from Ridge Hill. I have given up pestering the BBC about getting BBC West from Ridge Hill and bought a dish! I expect most people in the area are unaware ITV West is available and is probably found at channel 801 on their Freeview box.
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I was interviewed in Cheltenham today by Points West but it was not used! However beforehand I complained to the interviewer that many people were annoyed about not being able to receive the programme in the area unless you had cable or satellite TV. He had noticed that most people he spoke to received Midlands Today and promised to pass on my complaint.
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If its a "AVerTV Digi Volar EX" then it is a DVB-T box so does not support HD in the UK which uses DVB-T2. The same item is sold wordwide and some countries broadcast HD using DBV-T which is why the spec includes words like HD and 1080p. I recently went to Maplins to by a DVB-T usb stick and the assistant told me that it would pick up the HD signal from Ridge Hill because it said 1080p on the box. When I said it would not pick up HD he pointed to the words on the box, got annoyed and stormed off!
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Julie Currie-Which transmitter is your aerial pointing at? The Malverns are in the way of Ridge Hill for most of the Worcester area. The Malvern transmitter seems to cover Worcester but that has DSO 7-21 Sept. Worcester is in the Sutton Coldfield main coverage area which also has DSO 7-21 Sept.The Wrekin transmitter had DOS in April and Worcester is in its secondary coverage area.
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North Gloucestershire has been part of the West region for BBC and ITV since around 2005 at which point Midlands/Central stopped covering the area. Two years ago I also had a sympathetic email from the BBC. However the reality is unless Ridge Hill went 100% West region it is not going to be a practical proposition for many people. If BBC West was added to the West mux then BBC West and ITV West Country would appear at 800 & 801 in the EPG if no other extras are found. Very few Freeview receivers can renumber channels so these channels would be accessed as -1 and -2 below BBC1 Midlands. However if like me you hate Midlands Today then its a small price to pay. However I admitted defeat earlier in the year and now have both Freeview and Freesat so can see the local news!
We are only really talking about Northern Gloucestershire as Stroud, Cirencester and the Forest have numerous Mendip relay transmitters. The Mendip secondary coverage area goes up to the West Midlands but in Cheltenham & Gloucester the problem is the Cotswold Hills. However using a well situated decent aerial Mendip is still receivable direct in Cheltenham as a friend found last week.
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Roy: One way to overcome the problem is to do a factory reset then manual tune to just the channels used by Mendip instead of full scan. That way you prevent receiving Ridge Hill channels.
It is possible to receive Mendip in Cheltenham although it is outside the service area because of the Cotswould hills. However as you move west towards Gloucester the hills cause less of a problem and some villages to the west of Gloucester are in the main sevice area.
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Thursday 13 January 2011 1:07PM
I have complained to the BBC and MP several times about not being able to receive local news since north Gloucestershire started being covered by BBC West several years ago. The initial response from the BBC was that I would need to get cable or satellite TV to receive BBC West. A later response from BBC Gloucestershire was that they have had a lot of complaints and were looking at the problem. I did consider Freesat but several channels I watch on Freeview are not available. The BBC does give very good local news coverage for north Gloucestershire so if you would like to receive it on Freeview please complain to the BBC.