FreeView BBC Radio Mux Move

ericd121 said:

Currently on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/news/index.shtmlWhich is all well and good, except I can't receive multiplex B.

Research reveals that it's the multiplex that currently has BBC 4, BBC 7 and BBC Parliament, all of which I've never been able to view.

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Yep - though presumably this means the BBC will no longer be paying licence-fee money to the owners of Mux A for carriage of their radio services now they will be finally carried on BBC space - which given the current extreme belt-tightening going on couldn't be avoided.

(ISTR there was a limit on the number of services that the BBC coding and mux gear could carry which meant they had to be carried on a 3rd mux - effectively the BBC 1 and B muxes were "full" not in bandwith, but in number-of-services, terms)

Time to write a mod to change the analogue tuner into an FM recorder? ;-)

ericd121 said:

Which is all well and good, except I can't receive multiplex B.

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Well I can't get Mux A most of the time on my Freeview box any more (it was ok a year or so ago before something happened somewhere to make it unreliable) but Mux B comes in loud and clear. :up:

As the old saying goes "its an ill wind that blows no good" etc, etc, etc...............

Cheer up Eric. Its not long now till 2012 when Freeview ups the power everywhere. Or perhaps even earlier than that depending on where you live.

ericd121 said:

Currently on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/news/index.shtmlWhich is all well and good, except I can't receive multiplex B.

Research reveals that it's the multiplex that currently has BBC 4, BBC 7 and BBC Parliament, all of which I've never been able to view.

Click to expand...

Looking at the Milton Keynes area, there are two DTT transmitters, Oxford and Sandy Heath. Sandy Heath uses the UHF channels 40 to 46, except for Mux B which is on channel 67. 67 is in a different channel group to 40 through 46.

I would guess that your aerial is pointed at the Sandy Heath transmitter and is not able to pick up channel 67. A new, wideband aerial would solve the problem.

If you have an new aerial, or it's pointed at the Oxford transmitter. Who knows

staffie2001uk said:

A new, wideband aerial would solve the problem.

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Only a £200 aerial upgrade job then. Unless Eric fancies the same kind of Russian Roulette on the roof gamble that poor Rod Hull lost.

I know it's not best practice, but adding a cheapo aerial amplifier allowed a friend to receive the ITV mux which wouldn't even show in a scan prior to adding it.

A new aerial and associated costs was out of the question, but this £8.99 argos amp fixed it.
(didn't come with a male-male aerial lead - but I had a spare)

mikerr said:

I know its not best-practice, but adding a cheapo aerial amplifier allowed a friend to receive the ITV mux which wouldn't even show in a scan prior to adding it.

A new aerial and associated costs was out of the question, but the £8.99 amp fixed it.
£8.99 argos amp

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A booster Didn't do any good at my Mum's house.

She used to get the ITV Mux at a marginal occasionally breaking up level and then it vanished one day never to return. It seems something locally is jamming the signal and she is a long way from the transmitter. All other five Muxes are fine though.

She gets her £75 Sky PayOnceWatchForveve birthday present on October 21st. She likes news and also has lots of shares and Bloomberg tv has recently gone FTA and joined the Freesat lineup

staffie2001uk said:

I would guess that your aerial is pointed at the Sandy Heath transmitter

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Spot on.

A new, wideband aerial would solve the problem.

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I had one fitted in 2002, otherwise I wouldn't receive FreeView at all!

mikerr said:

I know it's not best practice, but adding a cheapo aerial amplifier allowed a friend to receive the ITV mux which wouldn't even show in a scan prior to adding it.

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Got one at the same time as the new aerial.

You see, not only am I in Milton Keynes, which is bad enough, but I'm in a dip.

Pete77 said:

Only a £200 aerial upgrade job then.

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You're slipping, Pete. Surely, it would be cheaper to get FreeSat?

Oh, I see you've put that in your latest post.

I'll see how things go on the 3rd, but the FreeSat option looks my best bet; I can't live without Tivo-controlled Radio.

Do people with wireless networks have Radio-controlled Tivos?

ericd121 said:

You're slipping, Pete. Surely, it would be cheaper to get FreeSat?

Oh, I see you've put that in your latest post.

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Eric,

I'm not sure the Sky Pay Once Watch Forever for £75 is available any more. It may perhaps reappear for xmas. Meanwhile you can order Sky with 2 Mixes of choice through www.quidco.co.uk and after the £110 Cashback and £5 Sky online ordering discount it comes to £107 net for the year or £112 if you didn't already belong to Quidco (£5 joining fee).

Its a bummer that Freeview reception is bad in so many places. Its bad here, its bad at my Mum's house, its bad at your house, so where is it actually any good with all Muxes coming through.

The excuse I've heard about bad freeview reception is that the current situation will improve when the analog signal is switched off. I.e. the reason the current signal is so poor is that there's too much other stuff crowded in. But I'm no expert on the matter! <shrug>

ColinYounger said:

The excuse I've heard about bad freeview reception is that the current situation will improve when the analog signal is switched off. I.e. the reason the current signal is so poor is that there's too much other stuff crowded in. But I'm no expert on the matter! <shrug>

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Yes the current Freeview signal is broadcast at a mere fraction of the power of the old analogue signal so as not to interfere with the analogue signal and stop Aunty Gladys and Aunty Vera being able to watch only Ch1 to 5 on their 15 year old Tvs.

When the analogue signal is turned off the power on the DTT/Freeview transmissions will be allowed to be much stronger but as the analogue tv signal still falls off more rapidly with distance from the transmitter than the analogue one they are still going to have to build some more local transmitters to plug the gaps. Also at present loads of the small local repeaters still only broadcast an analogue tv signal whereas these should all be converted to DTT transmission by 2012.

Pete77 said:

Eric,

...
Its a bummer that Freeview reception is bad in so many places. Its bad here, its bad at my Mum's house, its bad at your house, so where is it actually any good with all Muxes coming through.

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It good at my house. Of course I can see the Divis transmitter about 3 miles away on top of the next hill. Perhaps if I got an aerial upgrade I could actually power the TV from the signal

BrianHughes said:

It good at my house. Of course I can see the Divis transmitter about 3 miles away on top of the next hill. Perhaps if I got an aerial upgrade I could actually power the TV from the signal

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Interesting idea....

But assuming power from transmitter is 1MW (doubt it), a 3 miles radius sphere has a surface area of 4 x pi x r^2 = 36 x pi = 113sq miles = 292,668,656sq m.

Suppose aerial cross section of 0.2m x 0.2m = 0.02 sq m.

Thus power available = 1,000,000 / 292,668,656 x 0.02 = 68uW which is enough to.....well do nothing except maybe wobble the electrons in your settop box.

Pete77 said:

I'm not sure the Sky Pay Once Watch Forever for £75 is available any more. It may perhaps reappear for xmas.

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Christmas comes earlier every year.

It's on the front page of www.dixons.co.uk/ as we speak.

In terms of both radio and TV, for me there's too much choice;
if I do opt for it, I'll have to untick everything in Channels I Receive, and then only tick the half dozen radio stations, and the dozen or so TV stations that I want.

I'd have to shift round some Season Passes, as E4 and More4 are sadly absent, according to the list on Dixons' site.