Problems with TV reception following installation of Wind Turbines

KatAm07

We have recently been having major problems with our Freeview TV reception following the installation of a wind farm that is in a direct line with the TV transmitter. This problem is affecting a large number of residents in our village and the wind farm people have offered to re-align our aerials to a different relay transmitter but this would mean we will only receive 14 channels (plus a handful of +1s & HD equivalents).

Many of us have rejected this to which they have now offered to pay £100 towards the £160 installation of Freesat to one TV per household. We have 3 TVs affected in our house and I suspect many households now have more than one TV - this could cost us a small fortune just to get back to where we were before the installation of the wind farm. The wind farm people keep quoting that they are going beyond their planning obligations with this offer and that they are only required to restore the quality and not the quantity of channels. They also managed to negotiate with the local council (as part of the planning agreement) a maximum £10,000 ceiling on making good any lost digital TV reception due to the wind farm.

Can anyone give me any ideas how we can move forward with this without being out of pocket?

mickaveli2001

I would hold off and get a valuation done on your property first if you have your own mortgage. Likelihood is, that if they don't invest on improving the situation, then it could alter the housing value of the entire area.

If they establish that it will have a serious effect on the price, then they could look into tech surveys similar to the links provided earlier to get verification for any legal costs or pay outs.

Same thing with 4G. A lot of people may jump at lower offers during these turbulent times, but hold off. A lot of people believe they have a lot of equity in their homes, and may find out their entire retirement is in the ****house

Colin_London

Unfortunately wind turbines are huge pieces of earthed metal which are efficient at blocking and reflecting all types of RF signal. Their effect on TV reception is well documented.

It sounds like you may be in the primary reception area of the relay transmitter. In multiple TV households maybe take their money for the Freesat reception for the main TV for the channels, and use the existing aerial system (with a reorientated aerial pointed at the relay) for the secondary TVs.

mickaveli2001

Is there a Google maps Ariel view that you can pin point the locations of house, wind turbine farm etc.? Be useful to include in the list of evidence and find out about what Colin was saying on the relay transmitter if it's a low power running relay

I would have thought the companies could have invested in relocating transmitters but I guess this will then affect other households. It shouldn't be up to the home owners to find "fixes" to receive TV channels. What a mess

I'm glad I am not affected by this, and wish you all the luck in the world to get the solutions you need

KatAm07

mickaveli2001 wrote: »

Is there a Google maps Ariel view that you can pin point the locations of house, wind turbine farm etc.? Be useful to include in the list of evidence and find out about what Colin was saying on the relay transmitter if it's a low power running relay

Thanks for all your comments/suggestions. The turbine people have confirmed that its their turbines that are causing the problem. It just seems they are not prepared to cover the total cost of restoring our picture quality and in particular the number of channels we have previously enjoyed. They put letters through our doors a couple of weeks ago asking us to get in touch if we were having viewing problems. This would be the point when residents realised what was causing the problem and they have been inundated with complaints. I've heard on the grapevine that residents who contacted them to complain before this have had freesat systems installed free of charge (but I haven't had this confirmed).

steve-L

KatAm07 wrote: »

mickaveli2001 wrote: »

Is there a Google maps Ariel view that you can pin point the locations of house, wind turbine farm etc.? Be useful to include in the list of evidence and find out about what Colin was saying on the relay transmitter if it's a low power running relay

Thanks for all your comments/suggestions. The turbine people have confirmed that its their turbines that are causing the problem. It just seems they are not prepared to cover the total cost of restoring our picture quality and in particular the number of channels we have previously enjoyed. They put letters through our doors a couple of weeks ago asking us to get in touch if we were having viewing problems. This would be the point when residents realised what was causing the problem and they have been inundated with complaints. I've heard on the grapevine that residents who contacted them to complain before this have had freesat systems installed free of charge (but I haven't had this confirmed).

I'm not really sure what the problem is?
Do you want free freesat?
Do you really want the missing channels?

I'm no fan of having a windturbine shoved up next to my house ... but for reasons other than TV reception.

So much as I support you getting something for free from big business I'm not sure what it is you want? I'd be more worried about the value of my house than ability to get 'free' shopping channels.

Is there a specific channel you lost? or are you just hoping for a freebie from the wind farm people. (perfectly valid MSE)

KatAm07

The turbines are not immediately visable we can only see the tops of them from our bedroom window so I don't think there are any issues with property values. The MSE issue is that I will have to pay for the installation of freesat to put me back to where I was (in terms of picture quality and number of channels) prior to the installation of the turbines. The free offer of re-aligning us to a different relay transmitter only gives us the 5 main channels, BBC3,CBBC, Cbeebies, BBC news & parliament channels which aren't really top of my teenage kids viewing list. I'm not asking for more than we had before - just back to where we were before the turbines.

john1

TV service is very much dependent upon your location so you need to check what is about.


A easy way for you is to checked what transmitters could / may provide a service in your area use either http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/ or http://www.ukfree.tv/transmitters.php both good sites which may give you an alternative main transmitter possibly however with a less reliable service than the local relay.



Tick the detailed view box on the postcode checker in digitaluk as this will give an indication as to signal strength and reliability from other transmitters.


The UKFree TV site provide signal area maps which may show you have theoretical coverage from a main transmitter other than the one you are using.


From a few forums it appears that digital transmitters can provide a large coverage over and above that originally specified. So my guess is you may need to be a bit experimental to discover what is possible