Bluebell Hill transmitter

[alan_m]

Has transmitter channel 45 (666MHz) gone off air from the Bluebell Hill
transmitter? I've lost all my Freeview HD channels carried on this MUX.

[Woody]

Post by alan_m
Has transmitter channel 45 (666MHz) gone off air from the Bluebell Hill
transmitter? I've lost all my Freeview HD channels carried on this MUX.

Check freeview.co.uk and you will find all sites in the UK that have
issues - of which BH is one.

[alan_m]

Post by Woody

Post by alan_m
Has transmitter channel 45 (666MHz) gone off air from the Bluebell
Hill transmitter? I've lost all my Freeview HD channels carried on
this MUX.

Check freeview.co.uk and you will find all sites in the UK that have
issues - of which BH is one.

No indication that the MUX has been removed for at least couple of days.
Some of the other MUXs disappear for minutes/hours but that may be their
description of some "pixelation or flickering".


The engineering pages seem to indicate that over 100 transmitters are
currently broken.

[Mark Carver]

Post by alan_m

Post by Woody

Post by alan_m
Has transmitter channel 45 (666MHz) gone off air from the Bluebell
Hill transmitter? I've lost all my Freeview HD channels carried on
this MUX.

Check freeview.co.uk and you will find all sites in the UK that have
issues - of which BH is one.

No indication that the MUX has been removed for at least couple of days.
Some of the other MUXs disappear for minutes/hours but that may be their
description of some "pixelation or flickering".
The engineering pages seem to indicate that over 100 transmitters are
currently broken.

It'll probably be co channel interference from distant transmitters, as
a result of the ridge of high pressure that brought this cold snap. The
'broken' transmitters are relays that have lost their rebroadcast input
feeds

<https://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/help-guides/freeview/how-clear-skies-and-fine-weather-can-affect-your-tv-reception>

[alan_m]

Post by Mark Carver

Post by alan_m

Post by Woody

Post by alan_m
Has transmitter channel 45 (666MHz) gone off air from the Bluebell
Hill transmitter? I've lost all my Freeview HD channels carried on
this MUX.

Check freeview.co.uk and you will find all sites in the UK that have
issues - of which BH is one.

No indication that the MUX has been removed for at least couple of
days. Some of the other MUXs disappear for minutes/hours but that may
be their description of some "pixelation or flickering".
The engineering pages seem to indicate that over 100 transmitters are
currently broken.

It'll probably be co channel interference from distant transmitters, as
a result of the ridge of high pressure that brought this cold snap. The
'broken' transmitters are relays that have lost their rebroadcast input
feeds
<https://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/help-guides/freeview/how-clear-skies-and-fine-weather-can-affect-your-tv-reception>

Maybe true for some but the lists say engineering work on 100
transmitters and its been like this for around 5 days. No end dates
given and no change in the information provided for a week. Engineer
works start on the 9/9/24 but how long is it going on for?

[Mark Carver]

Post by alan_m

Post by Mark Carver

Post by alan_m

Post by Woody

Post by alan_m
Has transmitter channel 45 (666MHz) gone off air from the Bluebell
Hill transmitter? I've lost all my Freeview HD channels carried on
this MUX.

Check freeview.co.uk and you will find all sites in the UK that have
issues - of which BH is one.

No indication that the MUX has been removed for at least couple of
days. Some of the other MUXs disappear for minutes/hours but that may
be their description of some "pixelation or flickering".
The engineering pages seem to indicate that over 100 transmitters are
currently broken.

It'll probably be co channel interference from distant transmitters,
as a result of the ridge of high pressure that brought this cold snap.
The 'broken' transmitters are relays that have lost their rebroadcast
input feeds
<https://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/help-guides/freeview/how-clear-skies-and-fine-weather-can-affect-your-tv-reception>

Maybe true for some but the lists say engineering work on 100
transmitters and its been like this for around 5 days. No end dates
given and no change in the information provided for a week. Engineer
works start on the 9/9/24 but how long is it going on for?

Don't assume who ever updates that site, actually bothers to update,
and/or understands what info they are given.

The BBC's Reception Issues postcode checker is probably the best thing
to use, because it's driven by Arqiva's telemetry system. Difficult to
get an overview of course, without re entering dozens of postcodes.

However the UK Free site (not normally to be recommended, because it is
woefully out of date, or just plain wrong) does operate a data scraper
on the BBC site data, and can be viewed here

https://ukfree.tv/extras/BBC_Engineeering

[JMB99]

Post by Mark Carver
The BBC's Reception Issues postcode checker is probably the best thing
to use, because it's driven by Arqiva's telemetry system. Difficult to
get an overview of course, without re entering dozens of postcodes.

Would not surprise me if they tried to limit multiple searches of
postcodes because that would be "commercially sensitive" information.

[alan_m]

https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/updates-alerts gives general info about
high pressure causing abnormal propagation, but there's not a list of
transmitters that are affected by problems.

The closest I could find is
<https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/platform-management/planned-engineering-works>
Which feels a bit inadequate ...

I haven't found any better information.

For Blubell hill the transmitter page

https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Bluebell_Hill/PGSTART850/irt832293

indicates work is being undertaken the week beginning 9/024 but no
indication to when it may be finished.

The high pressure propagation alert is from a couple of weeks ago.

[Andy Burns]

https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/updates-alerts gives general info about
high pressure causing abnormal propagation, but there's not a list of
transmitters that are affected by problems.

The closest I could find is

<https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/platform-management/planned-engineering-works>

Which feels a bit inadequate ...

[NY]

https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/updates-alerts gives general info about
high pressure causing abnormal propagation, but there's not a list of
transmitters that are affected by problems.

The closest I could find is
<https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/platform-management/planned-
engineering-works>
Which feels a bit inadequate ...

Yes, given that it doesn't go down to the level of which muxes are
affected for each of the transmitters.

I wonder if there is an internet version of the old Trade Test
Transmissions, intended for aerial installation professionals who need
something that is not dumbed-down to within an inch of its life!

[JMB99]

Post by NY
I wonder if there is an internet version of the old Trade Test
Transmissions, intended for aerial installation professionals who need
something that is not dumbed-down to within an inch of its life!

The Trade Test Transmissions were there to provide a source of colour
programmes to display on TVs in shops and as a check that receiving a
decent signal.

There are video recorders and CD players to provide colour pictures in
shops.

Are there many "aerial installation professionals" around? What special
signals do they need?

All TVs or Set Top Boxes will display signal strength and some
indication of digital 'quality'. What more is needed?

[NY]

Post by JMB99

Post by NY
I wonder if there is an internet version of the old Trade Test
Transmissions, intended for aerial installation professionals who need
something that is not dumbed-down to within an inch of its life!

The Trade Test Transmissions were there to provide a source of colour
programmes to display on TVs in shops and as a check that receiving a
decent signal.
There are video recorders and CD players to provide colour pictures in
shops.
Are there many "aerial installation professionals" around?  What special
signals do they need?
All TVs or Set Top Boxes will display signal strength and some
indication of digital 'quality'. What more is needed?

I was meaning in the sense of *providing the same information that used
to be be provided in the engineering announcements of trade test
transmissions - such as "Bluebell Hill (*) is operating on reduced
power" or "Bluebell Hill is not currently transmitting mux PSB3".

I wasn't talking about a source of signal. When I referred to "aerial
installation professionals" I was meaning the sort of person who
installs aerials and rectifies reception errors (aerial has got
misaligned or has fallen off; aerial coax has developed a fault) whom
you would call if you had a problem with your reception and who would
need to know, from Trade Test Transmission in the old days or an
internet site nowadays, if there was a problem at a transmitter, so he
could distinguish it from a fault at the punter's house.


(*) My fingers automatically typed "Blueberry Hill" and I went all Fats
Domino!

[NY]

Post by Woody

Post by alan_m
Has transmitter channel 45 (666MHz) gone off air from the Bluebell
Hill transmitter? I've lost all my Freeview HD channels carried on
this MUX.

Check freeview.co.uk and you will find all sites in the UK that have
issues - of which BH is one.

As a matter of interest, what links on the site do you have to follow to
give transmitter problems?

I've tried everything I can think - "Help" ought to have been a good
start, but it isn't.

https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/updates-alerts gives general info about
high pressure causing abnormal propagation, but there's not a list of
transmitters that are affected by problems.

Can I make a suggestion: when people post links to sites, can they give
the full URL of the page that they are referring to - or at least the
URL of the search page (transmitters info, in this case) - and not
(effectively) say "it's somewhere unspecified on this site" with no
further guidance.


Come back Trade Test Transmissions - all is forgiven. ;-)