Now I see it, now I don't :(

juustme

I have been frustrating myself a bit of late with the Freeview setup and I turn to your greater knowledge for a bit of help.

I am down in a mossy dale here in Derbyshire behind a hill that blocks a clear line of sight to Sutton Coldfield (40-50 miles away) *However* I can receive a signal from Waltham (also 40-50 miles away)

This is where the problem comes in. I can get BBC 1,2,3,4 ITV 1,2,4 etc BUT I cannot get Five, Fiver, Dave, CNN, top-ups etc

I am showing 90+% signal quality/strength & I had previously received 5 & a few other channels when I had my antenna mounted a bit lower but it was breaking up. So I put a mast head amp on it, got a 10' 3/4 steam pipe & mounted my 48 element ariel on the chimney on the top of the roof.

And now, like I said, I can receive somethings that I can also get on freesat but NOT the few channels that I wanted (Dave etc).

Suggestions/Thoughts? (I've got the ariel horizontal & I believe I have it aimed right. It is driving me nuts as I'm getting about 30 channels in rock solid, but missing the rest that I actually want. When I set up the same setup at my inlaws without the masthead amp, I can receive 124 channels all rock solid.

Does anyone have any thoughts/ideas/suggestions? I am using low loss double shielded copper cable from the mast on down, & like I said I am getting quite a few channels in quite good.

Will Waltham be putting the power up? Could I have the aim wrong? Is there I wall that I have forgotten to bang my head against?

Juustme

PS do you know if it is possible to use a sat finder to help fine tune the aim of the ariel (yes, yes I am clutching at straws here). And Yes I also have a motorized Sat dish but still cannot get Dave or TMF

2cvbloke

Last time I checked, it is completely impossible to use a satellite finder with washing powder (Ariel, ), nor is it possible to use one with an Aerial, due to the lack of power from the TV/Freeview box like with a satellite box...

There are some bits of equipment you can get to align a TV Aerial properly, but I doubt they'd be cheap...

Also, some transmitters are Vertical, so that could be one of your problems, but that's at a guess as I don't know the technical details of your two local transmitters...

Sometimes, looking at other's aerials can be very misleading, often some ladder monkies just do this rather than getting the job done properly. A tip would be to use Google Earth, look up each Transmitter, put a marker on each and on your home, take a screen shot, open it up in Paint, print it off, then using a compass measure the angle relative to your position on the image, setting your base (0 Degrees) as North, then follow those angles on the aerial, and hopefully, you'll be almost dead on...

Or you could just ignore that as I can over-complicate things a touch...

Other than all that, all I could suggest is getting a local TV aerial installer in (a proper one with measuring equipment)...

Analoguesat

Waltham - Mux A is on channel 25, Mux C is on channel 45

Apart from there may be another transmitter on those frequency blatting them, channel 26 is out of band for the preferred aerial for Waltham, and those two are transmitted at lower powers than the other four.

Transmitter powers will increase dramatically in 2011, so its a case of

1) putting a higher gain aerial up and hoping it fixes the problem
2) living with it until digital switch over and hoping the increased power solves the problem
3) paying for sky
4) doing without

Analoguesat's message to the world Analogue forever!

simonh256

Hi there. I've a broadly similar problem - I have Freeview as well as Sky+HD. The Freeview is exclusively for TV in kitchen, but my HD sets were receiving it fine as well. Just over 2 weeks ago this stopped. All I receive is a poor signal - the red dot if I'm very unlucky or a completely distorted sound and picture signal. I live in the East Greenwich area near the river, and my aerial (which I had replaced a few years ago to be able to get a signal at all) is pointed at Crystal Palace. Does anyone know if they reduced the signal further?

It looks like I need to put all the tvs on satellite now, which is annoying. Any other options? I am left without tv in my kitchen/dining room (I use it for Radio as well - which frankly is the most annoying loss digital wise). My analogue signal is much worse as well (but it never was much in the first place).

Thanks, Simon

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soOpersOniC

First of all you need to makesure that they are not working on the transmitter, then try retuning your box.

Is your local transmitter grouped or is it wideband ? If you can use a grouped aerial youll achieve more signal gain (especially if your local tranny is an A group)

If you live in a poor signal area you should find a grouped aerial much better. A masthead amp is all well and good but you need to be amping a good signal quality. Too much signal can also be a problem (in that case use an attenuator)