Best Site for Freeview Transmitter Info.

JohnB47

Hi. We have a smart TV and receive transmissions from the Beacon Hill transmitter.

Can anyone suggest a good website for info on the best mux channels to manual tune to, from Beacon Hill transmitter? I feel that many of the sites I've found are actually out of date.

It is still the case (despite getting a new aerial and amplifier fitted years ago and getting the aerial adjusted and a new amplifier fitted about a year ago - when the amplifier let water in) that we occasionally (regularly) get poor or no reception on certain mux channels. Right now I'm getting zero 'signal quality' and 5 out of 10 for 'signal strength' on mux channel 45 (and 'no signal' message).

I've found that manual tuning works best - with autotune we get set up with signals from a transmitter about 180 degrees from beacon Hill.

This is so frustrating - is this really all we can expect from the modern digital age?

Rodders53

The freeview professional prediction tool is the only one to use --- https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/detailed-transmitter-information

Location (postcode of shop, pub, church, school etc.,.  within 100m of your home) would allow some checks of the reception signal prediction tools.  More details on the type of aerial fitted (outside on the rooftop?) and amplifier (make model gain?) would help a lot too.

Beacon Hill  BBC A: 44  D3&4: 41  BBC B: 47  SDN: 42  Arq A: 45  Arq B: 40  is a Single Frequency Network with Budleigh Salterton.
The three PSB muxes are 20kW erp and the three COMs are 10kW (-3dB).  47 is the HD multiplex.

debitcardmayhem

A lot of information here https://www.aerialsandtv.com/

JohnB47

Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

JohnB47

Just some further advice please.

Every time I do a manual tune, I've followed advice (from somewhere, probably the Hard Disk Recorder manual) to start an auto retune, then quickly stop it, then do a manual retune. The quick start/stop auto retune apparently clears the memory of all old tuning, in preparation for the fresh manual retune.

The trouble with this is that it clears my Favourites list and also clears my list of programmed recordings (not the actual recordings). It's a pain to set these all up again.

So I'm wondering - do I really need to clear the memory like this, or do I just manually retune to each channel mux and leave the Favourites and recordings program as is. Would that work?

I'm not actually sure why a retune is necessary.

PHK

This is a little complicated.

The purpose of tuning manually is to:

Put the correct regional versions of channels on 1,2,3,4 etc (or 101,102 if HD)

And/or stop the box or TV from putting a low power or quality version with break up on 1,2,3,4

And/or some recorder boxes get confused if you have more than one version of the same channel.


With older recorders there was no way to either edit the channel list to remove unwanted channels or clear everything out for a clean start. In this case you needed to do a retune with the aerial out to wipe things clean. 

Now a modern TV or box that meets the current  Freeview Play standard will allow you to delete and move channels so there's no need to manually scan. 

A make that does not meet the standard. Eg Samsung may or may not have these tools and might need to clear out channels then manually tune. 

JohnB47

Thanks for that. I'm going to try manually tuning without a 'clear out' first and see what ill effects, if any, appear.

JohnB47

Well that seemed to go OK, with most mux channels showing good quality and strength, apart from Ch45 which was poor on both. It did manage to tune to Ch45 though and the picture quality looked OK when I viewed it. Favourites and recording list is intact.

Just wondering - on a day with good weather (a bit cloudy but with some sun, no rain), why would the reception on just one mux feed be poor? It's sometimes that one channel that shows no signal, again on days when the weather is not unusually bad.  Does that suggest that there is still work to do on my aerial/amplifier?

It doesn't seem right that this should be 'normal'.

Neil_Jones

JohnB47 said:

Well that seemed to go OK, with most mux channels showing good quality and strength, apart from Ch45 which was poor on both. It did manage to tune to Ch45 though and the picture quality looked OK when I viewed it. Favourites and recording list is intact.

Just wondering - on a day with good weather (a bit cloudy but with some sun, no rain), why would the reception on just one mux feed be poor? It's sometimes that one channel that shows no signal, again on days when the weather is not unusually bad.  Does that suggest that there is still work to do on my aerial/amplifier?

It doesn't seem right that this should be 'normal'.

Channel 45 on Freeview is Gems TV.

This is on what is called COM5, or the Commercial Multiplex number 5.

In a nutshell this is how Freeview can have so many channels, even though there are only seven multiplexes.

Need to work out if the same problem occurs on all channels carried on COM5 or if its just one of them.  Other channels on COM5 on Freeview are (amongst others) Dave, Sky News, Challenge and 4Seven.  If it does that may suggest an aerial alignment issue, or there's some other obstacle in the way like a tree or something.

Note that the signal quality and strength doesn't necessarily mean anything, as different TVs measure this in different ways.  Probably better that you can see a stable picture.

badmemory

I have found that retuning on a sunny or clear sky day is a bad idea & is best when not raining but a little overcast.  I'm sure it used to be easier than this.

twopenny

Lol not necessarily. When it started we lost quality with an aerial was the other side of a tidal channel when the tide was half in half out due to a bulge. 
Still occasionally get a bit of break up with certain weather but it's rare.

Tuning to the best transmitter for you should give you the most stable picture providing there is no other item interfering.