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  • Has Belmont fallen off air?

    From NY@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 14 14:41:43 2023
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz (PSB2)
    which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR 20 dB,
    strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put those figures
    in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz with values of 21 dB
    and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an aerial specialist.

    The last time I know I made a successful recording from terrestrial was
    the evening of Sun 12 Feb.

    Both a TV and a USB-DVB tuner are affected. The above figures were all
    measured with the USB-DVB tuner.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From NY@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 14 14:47:37 2023
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz (PSB2)
    which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR 20 dB,
    strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put those figures
    in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz with values of 21 dB
    and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an aerial specialist.

    The last time I know I made a successful recording from terrestrial was
    the evening of Sun 12 Feb.

    Both a TV and a USB-DVB tuner are affected. The above figures were all measured with the USB-DVB tuner.

    I forgot to say. A visual check of the aerial from ground level looks
    OK: no obvious difference to aerial or loose wires where coax cable
    connects to aerial. If it was atmospheric lift or poor electrical
    connection, I'd expect it to affect other muxes, but 514, very close to
    506, is failing to lock or to detect any signal.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From NY@21:1/5 to Mark Carver on Tue Feb 14 14:58:09 2023
    On 14/02/2023 14:50, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz (PSB2)
    which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR 20 dB,
    strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put those
    figures in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz with values
    of 21 dB and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an aerial
    specialist.

    There's a huge lift on today, I suspect your reception is being
    corrupted by co-channel interference,

    Ah, fair enough. Not seen it anywhere this bad before. Normally I only
    lose COM4 which is the highest frequency and a low transmitter power, so
    the first to be affected if propagation is frequency-dependent.

    If there's an explanation, that's fine. My first thought was something
    that had happened to my aerial/cable.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mark Carver@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 14 15:03:42 2023
    On 14/02/2023 14:58, NY wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:50, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz
    (PSB2) which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR 20
    dB, strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put those
    figures in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz with
    values of 21 dB and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an
    aerial specialist.

    There's a huge lift on today, I suspect your reception is being
    corrupted by co-channel interference,

    Ah, fair enough. Not seen it anywhere this bad before. Normally I only
    lose COM4 which is the highest frequency and a low transmitter power,
    so the first to be affected if propagation is frequency-dependent.

    If there's an explanation, that's fine. My first thought was something
    that had happened to my aerial/cable.

    What ever you do, DON'T run any rescan !

    Which way does your aerial point ?  Crystal Palace is a prime UK
    suspect. Drag out an FM or DAB radio, and see what out of area stuff is
    flying in..

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mark Carver@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 14 14:50:31 2023
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz (PSB2)
    which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR 20 dB,
    strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put those
    figures in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz with values
    of 21 dB and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an aerial specialist.

    There's a huge lift on today, I suspect your reception is being
    corrupted by co-channel interference,

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From NY@21:1/5 to Mark Carver on Tue Feb 14 15:21:04 2023
    On 14/02/2023 15:03, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:58, NY wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:50, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz
    (PSB2) which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR 20
    dB, strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put those
    figures in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz with
    values of 21 dB and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an
    aerial specialist.

    There's a huge lift on today, I suspect your reception is being
    corrupted by co-channel interference,

    Ah, fair enough. Not seen it anywhere this bad before. Normally I only
    lose COM4 which is the highest frequency and a low transmitter power,
    so the first to be affected if propagation is frequency-dependent.

    If there's an explanation, that's fine. My first thought was something
    that had happened to my aerial/cable.

    What ever you do, DON'T run any rescan !

    Which way does your aerial point ?  Crystal Palace is a prime UK
    suspect. Drag out an FM or DAB radio, and see what out of area stuff is flying in..


    No, I'm wise to not doing a rescan!

    My aerial points almost due south. I'm near Bridlington, so Belmont is
    south of me - as is Crystal Palace :-(

    Damn: Crystal Palace doesn't use any frequencies that aren't also used
    by Belmont, so I can't check for seeing a distant CP signal. Finding an
    FM radio might be a problem: if I listen to or record from the radio, I
    tend to use Freeview ;-) I wonder if my old radio/cassette is anywhere
    to hand. The only FM radio I can find is a little clock radio with a
    short wire as an FM aerial (designed, I imagine, for a very strong
    reception area).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mark Carver@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 14 15:35:24 2023
    On 14/02/2023 15:21, NY wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 15:03, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:58, NY wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:50, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz
    (PSB2) which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR
    20 dB, strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put
    those figures in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz
    with values of 21 dB and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an
    aerial specialist.

    There's a huge lift on today, I suspect your reception is being
    corrupted by co-channel interference,

    Ah, fair enough. Not seen it anywhere this bad before. Normally I
    only lose COM4 which is the highest frequency and a low transmitter
    power, so the first to be affected if propagation is
    frequency-dependent.

    If there's an explanation, that's fine. My first thought was
    something that had happened to my aerial/cable.

    What ever you do, DON'T run any rescan !

    Which way does your aerial point ?  Crystal Palace is a prime UK
    suspect. Drag out an FM or DAB radio, and see what out of area stuff
    is flying in..


    No, I'm wise to not doing a rescan!

    My aerial points almost due south. I'm near Bridlington, so Belmont is
    south of me - as is Crystal Palace :-(

    Damn: Crystal Palace doesn't use any frequencies that aren't also used
    by Belmont, so I can't check for seeing a distant CP signal. Finding
    an FM radio might be a problem: if I listen to or record from the
    radio, I tend to use Freeview ;-) I wonder if my old radio/cassette is anywhere to hand. The only FM radio I can find is a little clock radio
    with a short wire as an FM aerial (designed, I imagine, for a very
    strong reception area).

    The BBC's DAB mux is landing in Poland this afternoon, so it's a biggie.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From SH@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 14 16:01:41 2023
    On 14/02/2023 15:21, NY wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 15:03, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:58, NY wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:50, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz
    (PSB2) which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR
    20 dB, strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put
    those figures in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz
    with values of 21 dB and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an
    aerial specialist.

    There's a huge lift on today, I suspect your reception is being
    corrupted by co-channel interference,

    Ah, fair enough. Not seen it anywhere this bad before. Normally I
    only lose COM4 which is the highest frequency and a low transmitter
    power, so the first to be affected if propagation is
    frequency-dependent.

    If there's an explanation, that's fine. My first thought was
    something that had happened to my aerial/cable.

    What ever you do, DON'T run any rescan !

    Which way does your aerial point ?  Crystal Palace is a prime UK
    suspect. Drag out an FM or DAB radio, and see what out of area stuff
    is flying in..


    No, I'm wise to not doing a rescan!

    My aerial points almost due south. I'm near Bridlington, so Belmont is
    south of me - as is Crystal Palace :-(

    Damn: Crystal Palace doesn't use any frequencies that aren't also used
    by Belmont, so I can't check for seeing a distant CP signal. Finding an
    FM radio might be a problem: if I listen to or record from the radio, I
    tend to use Freeview ;-) I wonder if my old radio/cassette is anywhere
    to hand. The only FM radio I can find is a little clock radio with a
    short wire as an FM aerial (designed, I imagine, for a very strong
    reception area).


    I have aerials pointing at Oxford, Sandy heath, Sutton Coldfield and
    Waltham.

    I was watching BBC1 at around 11.30 am today from UHF 41 from Oxford and
    that was wiped out. So I had to switch to one of the other 3 freeview Txs

    I have Freesat as a back up too.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mark Carver@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 14 16:03:37 2023
    On 14/02/2023 16:01, SH wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 15:21, NY wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 15:03, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:58, NY wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:50, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz
    (PSB2) which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR
    20 dB, strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put
    those figures in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz
    with values of 21 dB and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an
    aerial specialist.

    There's a huge lift on today, I suspect your reception is being
    corrupted by co-channel interference,

    Ah, fair enough. Not seen it anywhere this bad before. Normally I
    only lose COM4 which is the highest frequency and a low transmitter
    power, so the first to be affected if propagation is
    frequency-dependent.

    If there's an explanation, that's fine. My first thought was
    something that had happened to my aerial/cable.

    What ever you do, DON'T run any rescan !

    Which way does your aerial point ?  Crystal Palace is a prime UK
    suspect. Drag out an FM or DAB radio, and see what out of area stuff
    is flying in..


    No, I'm wise to not doing a rescan!

    My aerial points almost due south. I'm near Bridlington, so Belmont
    is south of me - as is Crystal Palace :-(

    Damn: Crystal Palace doesn't use any frequencies that aren't also
    used by Belmont, so I can't check for seeing a distant CP signal.
    Finding an FM radio might be a problem: if I listen to or record from
    the radio, I tend to use Freeview ;-) I wonder if my old
    radio/cassette is anywhere to hand. The only FM radio I can find is a
    little clock radio with a short wire as an FM aerial (designed, I
    imagine, for a very strong reception area).


    I have aerials pointing at Oxford, Sandy heath, Sutton Coldfield and
    Waltham.

    I was watching BBC1 at around 11.30 am today from UHF 41 from Oxford
    and that was wiped out. So I had to switch to one of the other 3
    freeview Txs

    I have Freesat as a back up too.

    What on earth was on BBC 1 at 11:30 that was so 'can't miss' you had to initiate another means of reception ! ?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From SH@21:1/5 to Mark Carver on Tue Feb 14 16:13:36 2023
    On 14/02/2023 16:03, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 16:01, SH wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 15:21, NY wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 15:03, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:58, NY wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:50, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz
    (PSB2) which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR >>>>>>> 20 dB, strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put >>>>>>> those figures in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz >>>>>>> with values of 21 dB and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an
    aerial specialist.

    There's a huge lift on today, I suspect your reception is being
    corrupted by co-channel interference,

    Ah, fair enough. Not seen it anywhere this bad before. Normally I
    only lose COM4 which is the highest frequency and a low transmitter
    power, so the first to be affected if propagation is
    frequency-dependent.

    If there's an explanation, that's fine. My first thought was
    something that had happened to my aerial/cable.

    What ever you do, DON'T run any rescan !

    Which way does your aerial point ?  Crystal Palace is a prime UK
    suspect. Drag out an FM or DAB radio, and see what out of area stuff
    is flying in..


    No, I'm wise to not doing a rescan!

    My aerial points almost due south. I'm near Bridlington, so Belmont
    is south of me - as is Crystal Palace :-(

    Damn: Crystal Palace doesn't use any frequencies that aren't also
    used by Belmont, so I can't check for seeing a distant CP signal.
    Finding an FM radio might be a problem: if I listen to or record from
    the radio, I tend to use Freeview ;-) I wonder if my old
    radio/cassette is anywhere to hand. The only FM radio I can find is a
    little clock radio with a short wire as an FM aerial (designed, I
    imagine, for a very strong reception area).


    I have aerials pointing at Oxford, Sandy heath, Sutton Coldfield and
    Waltham.

    I was watching BBC1 at around 11.30 am today from UHF 41 from Oxford
    and that was wiped out. So I had to switch to one of the other 3
    freeview Txs

    I have Freesat as a back up too.

    What on earth was on BBC 1 at 11:30 that was so 'can't miss' you had to initiate another means of reception ! ?


    Homes under the hammer!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mark Carver@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 14 15:46:32 2023
    On 14/02/2023 15:21, NY wrote:
    . Finding an FM radio might be a problem:
    Car radio ?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeff Layman@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 14 16:18:54 2023
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz (PSB2)
    which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR 20 dB,
    strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put those figures
    in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz with values of 21 dB
    and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an aerial specialist.

    The last time I know I made a successful recording from terrestrial was
    the evening of Sun 12 Feb.

    Both a TV and a USB-DVB tuner are affected. The above figures were all measured with the USB-DVB tuner.

    C4 went off-air air some time after 1430 today (Rowridge). No other
    channels were affected. It was off for at least 10 minutes - I gave up
    and went outside after that. There was eventually an on-screen graphic
    which I'd never seen before. It had a red C4 logo in pieces going to
    each corner in turn, on a black screen with something like "We'll be
    back shortly" in white in the centre. Anyone else see this ("Countdown"
    was showing when it went off-air)? What time did it resume?

    --

    Jeff

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mark Carver@21:1/5 to Jeff Layman on Tue Feb 14 16:30:05 2023
    On 14/02/2023 16:18, Jeff Layman wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz (PSB2)
    which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR 20 dB,
    strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put those figures
    in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz with values of 21 dB
    and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an aerial
    specialist.

    The last time I know I made a successful recording from terrestrial was
    the evening of Sun 12 Feb.

    Both a TV and a USB-DVB tuner are affected. The above figures were all
    measured with the USB-DVB tuner.

    C4 went off-air air some time after 1430 today (Rowridge). No other
    channels were affected. It was off for at least 10 minutes - I gave up
    and went outside after that. There was eventually an on-screen graphic
    which I'd never seen before. It had a red C4 logo in pieces going to
    each corner in turn, on a black screen with something like "We'll be
    back shortly" in white in the centre. Anyone else see this
    ("Countdown" was showing when it went off-air)? What time did it resume?

    That wasn't a transmitter problem, it was upstream of that and affected
    all platforms, they returned after 15 mins, and rewound the show a bit.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From John Hall@21:1/5 to Jeff@invalid.invalid on Tue Feb 14 16:38:18 2023
    In message <tsgc9e$2ghc3$1@dont-email.me>, Jeff Layman
    <Jeff@invalid.invalid> writes
    C4 went off-air air some time after 1430 today (Rowridge). No other
    channels were affected. It was off for at least 10 minutes - I gave up
    and went outside after that. There was eventually an on-screen graphic
    which I'd never seen before. It had a red C4 logo in pieces going to
    each corner in turn, on a black screen with something like "We'll be
    back shortly" in white in the centre. Anyone else see this ("Countdown"
    was showing when it went off-air)? What time did it resume?

    I was watching "Countdown" on C4+1 when it went off-air at just after
    15:30, and I saw the same on-screen graphic as you. It came back on air
    after about 15 minutes, resuming at a point about four minutes before
    the point at which it had gone off. They proceeded to make up the lost
    time by skipping the subsequent commercial breaks. This was on Sky, so
    it clearly wasn't a transmitter fault but rather in getting the feed to
    the respective transmitters.

    So if there's a problem with C4, C4+1 clearly still slavishly copies the
    C4 feed an hour later, without any attempt being made to put things
    right in the interim.
    --
    John Hall "Do you have cornflakes in America?"
    "Well, actually, they're American."
    "So what brings you to Britain then if you have cornflakes already?"
    Bill Bryson: "Notes from a Small Island"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From tony sayer@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 14 16:52:35 2023
    In article <WPCdnY_jj7wcPHb-nZ2dnZfqnPudnZ2d@brightview.co.uk>, NY <me@privacy.net> scribeth thus
    On 14/02/2023 14:50, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz (PSB2)
    which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR 20 dB,
    strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put those
    figures in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz with values
    of 21 dB and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an aerial
    specialist.

    There's a huge lift on today, I suspect your reception is being
    corrupted by co-channel interference,

    Ah, fair enough. Not seen it anywhere this bad before. Normally I only
    lose COM4 which is the highest frequency and a low transmitter power, so
    the first to be affected if propagation is frequency-dependent.

    If there's an explanation, that's fine. My first thought was something
    that had happened to my aerial/cable.


    Yes looks quite active!..

    https://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo_eur.html
    --
    Tony Sayer


    Man is least himself when he talks in his own person.

    Give him a keyboard, and he will reveal himself.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mark Carver@21:1/5 to John Hall on Tue Feb 14 16:48:19 2023
    On 14/02/2023 16:38, John Hall wrote:


    So if there's a problem with C4, C4+1 clearly still slavishly copies
    the C4 feed an hour later, without any attempt being made to put
    things right in the interim.

    It's just a server fed from the C4 feed, with a one hour delay. They are
    not actually allowed to modify the '+1' output, (it's part of Ofcom's
    licening conditions for all +1 channels)
    However, they can (and have done) blank the +1 output if someone makes
    an inflammatory etc comment. It's a reasonably common thing with Channel
    4 News

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeff Layman@21:1/5 to Mark Carver on Tue Feb 14 17:20:09 2023
    On 14/02/2023 16:30, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 16:18, Jeff Layman wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz (PSB2)
    which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR 20 dB,
    strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put those figures >>> in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz with values of 21 dB
    and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an aerial
    specialist.

    The last time I know I made a successful recording from terrestrial was
    the evening of Sun 12 Feb.

    Both a TV and a USB-DVB tuner are affected. The above figures were all
    measured with the USB-DVB tuner.

    C4 went off-air air some time after 1430 today (Rowridge). No other
    channels were affected. It was off for at least 10 minutes - I gave up
    and went outside after that. There was eventually an on-screen graphic
    which I'd never seen before. It had a red C4 logo in pieces going to
    each corner in turn, on a black screen with something like "We'll be
    back shortly" in white in the centre. Anyone else see this
    ("Countdown" was showing when it went off-air)? What time did it resume?

    That wasn't a transmitter problem, it was upstream of that and affected
    all platforms, they returned after 15 mins, and rewound the show a bit.

    I knew it wasn't the transmitter as I noted the other channels weren't affected. I did wonder how Rowridge got its feed from C4 - perhaps from
    a cable alongside an unstable railway embankment. ;-)

    --

    Jeff

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mark Carver@21:1/5 to Jeff Layman on Tue Feb 14 18:47:58 2023
    On 14/02/2023 17:20, Jeff Layman wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 16:30, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 16:18, Jeff Layman wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz (PSB2) >>>> which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR 20 dB,
    strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put those
    figures
    in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz with values of
    21 dB
    and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an aerial >>>> specialist.

    The last time I know I made a successful recording from terrestrial
    was
    the evening of Sun 12 Feb.

    Both a TV and a USB-DVB tuner are affected. The above figures were all >>>> measured with the USB-DVB tuner.

    C4 went off-air air some time after 1430 today (Rowridge). No other
    channels were affected. It was off for at least 10 minutes - I gave up
    and went outside after that. There was eventually an on-screen graphic
    which I'd never seen before. It had a red C4 logo in pieces going to
    each corner in turn, on a black screen with something like "We'll be
    back shortly" in white in the centre. Anyone else see this
    ("Countdown" was showing when it went off-air)? What time did it
    resume?

    That wasn't a transmitter problem, it was upstream of that and affected
    all platforms, they returned after 15 mins, and rewound the show a bit.

    I knew it wasn't the transmitter as I noted the other channels weren't affected. I did wonder how Rowridge got its feed from C4 - perhaps
    from a cable alongside an unstable railway embankment. ;-)

    Ha, don't get me started. It's been chaos some days on the rails round
    here. And yes, the incident did leave a lot of fibres hanging in mid air !

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  • From Brian Gaff@21:1/5 to Mark Carver on Wed Feb 15 09:08:43 2023
    Depends on how close and in which direction he needs to point. However with digital, I have found that seldom do you lose the signal altogether. The
    misty weather is classic temperature inversion conditions causing ducting.

    Brian

    --

    --:
    This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
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    Blind user, so no pictures please
    Note this Signature is meaningless.!
    "Mark Carver" <mark.carver@invalid.invalid> wrote in message news:k51ldnF3u26U1@mid.individual.net...
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz (PSB2)
    which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR 20 dB,
    strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put those figures
    in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz with values of 21 dB
    and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an aerial
    specialist.

    There's a huge lift on today, I suspect your reception is being corrupted
    by co-channel interference,

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  • From Mark Carver@21:1/5 to Brian Gaff on Wed Feb 15 09:12:54 2023
    On 15/02/2023 09:08, Brian Gaff wrote:
    Depends on how close and in which direction he needs to point. However with digital, I have found that seldom do you lose the signal altogether.
    I have, Sutton Coldfield sometimes wipes out the Hannington muxes its co-channel with for me, (And I can see Hannington from here)

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  • From NY@21:1/5 to Brian Gaff on Wed Feb 15 10:35:41 2023
    On 15/02/2023 09:08, Brian Gaff wrote:
    Depends on how close and in which direction he needs to point. However with digital, I have found that seldom do you lose the signal altogether. The misty weather is classic temperature inversion conditions causing ducting.

    Everything is working again. The period when reception was not possible correlated very well with the period when higher tropo activity was
    shown over southern England.

    I presume it is the tropo condition over the transmitter that is
    interfering with your own transmitter which governs whether you get
    interfered with (Oooo, Matronnn!). The conditions over place that is
    receiving (or over your local transmitter) are presumably much less
    important.

    I set my PVR to record preferentially from satellite, but to use
    terrestrial as a fall-back if I want to record from more than one
    satellite multiplex at the same time. Because of the way that channels
    are allocated to satellite muxes, the chances of two channels that I
    want to record from being in the same sat mux are very small, so a
    second or third recording almost always has to be from terrestrial.

    I could of course upgrade my satellite dish to more than 2 LNBs
    (currently one for the TV and one for the PVR) and buy another satellite
    tuner for my PVR system (a home-grown system using a Raspberry Pi and
    TVHeadend software). However finding another tuner that will work with
    the Pi could be a problem: I was lucky that the tuner I bought was old
    enough hardware that it was supported; the same model of tuner nowadays
    has different hardware which (AIUI) is still not supported on the Pi -
    in Raspberry PiOS, anyway: maybe other flavours of Linux do include support.

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  • From AnthonyL@21:1/5 to me@privacy.net on Wed Feb 15 12:26:26 2023
    On Tue, 14 Feb 2023 14:58:09 +0000, NY <me@privacy.net> wrote:

    On 14/02/2023 14:50, Mark Carver wrote:
    On 14/02/2023 14:41, NY wrote:
    I'm not getting any detectable signal on any mux except 506 MHz (PSB2)
    which is showing a weaker than normal signal strength (SNR 20 dB,
    strength -40 dBm, as opposed to 32 dB and -36 dBm). To put those
    figures in context, I can normally receive COM4 on 546 MHz with values
    of 21 dB and -53 dBm.

    I want to check that Belmont is working OK before I call out an aerial
    specialist.

    There's a huge lift on today, I suspect your reception is being
    corrupted by co-channel interference,

    Ah, fair enough. Not seen it anywhere this bad before. Normally I only
    lose COM4 which is the highest frequency and a low transmitter power, so
    the first to be affected if propagation is frequency-dependent.

    If there's an explanation, that's fine. My first thought was something
    that had happened to my aerial/cable.

    It killed Waltham as well. All MUXs ok today.

    At least with analogue you might just get away with a bit of extra
    "snow". Watched some BBC last night on iPlayer, but it's no good for
    channel hopping.

    --
    AnthonyL

    Why ever wait to finish a job before starting the next?

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  • From Vir Campestris@21:1/5 to Mark Carver on Wed Feb 15 17:21:07 2023
    On 14/02/2023 14:50, Mark Carver wrote:
    There's a huge lift on today, I suspect your reception is being
    corrupted by co-channel interference,

    I was out for a walk earlier and passed a parked car with a long whip
    aerial next to it. I daresay he was making use of it!

    Andy

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