BBC2 TV has gone.

Fri 29 Apr 2011, 18:38

Well, today ITV was back, after quite a few weeks, and with perfect reception. But just for the Wedding!

After the wedding was over ITV just disappeared, with all the associated channels on 68. I think they might simply be switching the transmissions off while they work on the hand-over! Or may be I'm just caught in some kind of cross-over effect.

Fri 29 Apr 2011, 16:47

Ah, vertical aerial to receive Freeview from Walcot, and horizontal for Beckley. Ho ho. Any expert comments on that? More glad than ever I'm on Freesat. I can see some nasty accidents as Charlbury takes to its rooftops in September...

Fri 29 Apr 2011, 16:37

www.ukfree.tv/shutdowndetail.php?tx=SP344197

Digital power from Beckley will be increased when it drops the analogue signal, so Freeview reception in Charlbury should improve and it will be available from both Walcot and Beckley. I haven't checked to see if the polarities are the same, but you certainly need to point the aerial in opposite directions according to which you choose. A field day for aerial installers. Freesat works a treat (but has fewer channels than Freeview -- or less rubbish, depending on your point of view: see the Radio Times if you want to know what I mean).

Thu 28 Apr 2011, 23:31

Is the Walcot transmitter going to be retained and converted to digital? I hadn't realised the switchover was as soon as this September. If so then, as I was also thinking of using the dish left by the previous owners, of going over to freesat. Doesn't seem to be worth the effort if we will have a transmitter less than one klick away or so in a few months! I hardly watch TV anyway so its not much of a problem for me. More annoying is the mushiness of the FM broadcast I've noticed over the last couple of weeks and am also suspicious of trees growing higher as the years pass by...

Thu 28 Apr 2011, 23:27

I think it is the leaves on the trees. One of our two freeview boxes evidently has a much inferior receiver sensitivity as it is now totally glitched out of usefulness. The Topfield PVR - a quality piece of kit in its day 3 or 4 years back - is still receiving though with drop outs. The failed freeview box was the cheapest I could find for the living room at the time so the kids could have the PVR. I noticed the same effect last year though not so marked. Have they reduced power at Forest Hill - our digital signal is coming all the way from the other side of Oxford and we live just over the brow of the hills in The Green at the bottom end of the slope.

Thu 28 Apr 2011, 11:33

I've now also lost BBC2 on Freeview. Also, ITV1 & ITV2 & all the other channels on Freeview Channel 68 have only been there on odd days in the last few months. None of my autotune or 'add extra channels' options help at all. And the various digital TV helpsites also don't help explain how to put things right.

I live at the top of town, & did once get very good signals of all the freeview channels. Does anyone know quite why this is happening?

Does it make sense to change to Freesat at this stage? Or should I just wait till after the switchover in September to see if this eventually sorts itself out? I really don't want to invest in Freesat & then discover that in September that will also need some kind of radical re-tune.

Mon 4 Apr 2011, 08:46

A quick follow-up to my earlier comment in this thread. IN fairness to the BBC a human did contact me after all, to say: "This was due to a transmitter fault at the Charlbury relay which was attended by an engineer on the 22/03 restoring BBC 2 at 18:30 hrs."

Wed 30 Mar 2011, 01:05

We have virtually given up on freeview (regular pixelation and loss of signal) and moved to freesat. decoders are not that expensive and picture quality is far superior - we've cancelled Sky and used the dish.

Wed 23 Mar 2011, 21:10

Yes BBC2 is back and strangely seems to have a stronger signal than it did before the loss.

Incidentally Malcolm, the date for switchover is Sept 14 as far as I can make out, that date coming from flashed-up indications on the BBC at some point recently. Whether the switch on that date will include the Walcott is perhaps less certain. Anybody know more?

PS: I also tried that link from Chris (http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/), but it was a total waste of time. It assumes everybody is an idiot, ie, "Have you plugged in the aerial?" type questions, no help when you have three of the four channels working OK and just one more totally dead.

Tue 22 Mar 2011, 21:47

Steve, you are down in the valley bottom so interference might be a problem with signals propagating down the slope. We are up on the ridge just by Hundley Way so should be line of sight to Walcot so unless those trees are BIG... but for Forest Hill we are just over the brow of the ridge so our digital reception is marginal. I'm surprised that people lower down the valley are getting any digital from Forest Hill at all. I'm resigned to an aerial reorientation and since losing the sight in one eye in my youth (the travails and dangers of a working class upbringing and magnitude orders of difference in risks between middle class and working class kids in work etc) so don't "do" roof ladders. I fall off and have fractured vertebrae and ribs to prove the point! But I would be surprised if tree cover messed up the Walcot transmission up the valley. If there IS a problem can one find some powers to clear vegetation from the transmitter esp. if compensatory planting is put in place? It is going to be a profitable time for aerial installers. I probably better book up my slot now. What date is the switchover happening here and where does one look it up?

Tue 22 Mar 2011, 21:46

BBC2 is back tonight!

Tue 22 Mar 2011, 17:05

If you go to https://faq.external.bbc.co.uk/templates/bbcfaqs/emailstatic/interferencePage, enter your postcode and follow the prompts with 'lost BBC channels' / 'Television' / 'Analogue' you will find it reports that "Charlbury BBC2 is off air from 14:00 today".

Tue 22 Mar 2011, 13:20

To answer Malcolm's query, the Walcot transmitter is to be digitised but relocated some 35m away, but at the same existing height. This was the subject of a planning application by Arqiva, and I took the opportunity to query both the deteriorating poor terrestrial reception and how that might fair once the switch over occurs. I remain concerned that this may mean re-orientation of existing house aerials and that the digital signal maybe affected by tree interference. The Town Council has raised these concerns, but I suspect we shall just have to find out in August.

Tue 22 Mar 2011, 10:54

I've filled in the long, and mostly irrelevant, form Chris has linked to (not a dig at Chris, please note, but at the BBC!). There's no 'official' problem with the transmitter. But we can't get BBC2 either. I've pointed the Beeb at this thread, although the impression given is that the chances of a human reading the info are small...

Tue 22 Mar 2011, 09:05

You could start of here
www.bbc.co.uk/reception/

and fill in your postcode on the right hand side of the page. It then takes you through various diagnostics to see if it can pinpoint any known problem. There are also phone numbers to call at the end if no joy.

Tue 22 Mar 2011, 06:51

we lost our bbc 2 channel. I tried to reoport it, but not sure how.

Tue 22 Mar 2011, 00:51

We've not been able to get any ITV on one digital receiver although it is coming up OK on another receiver so it looks like the signal is so marginal that the gain on one receiver is being superior to another makes the difference. The trouble with digital is that the information received is either OK or nothing intelligible - there is no degraded snowy image. The only light at the end of the tunnel is if (a) the digitise the Walcot transmitter and don't dismantle it, so we should get an excellent service or (b) they upgrade the transmit power on Forest Hill due to not having to worry about bandwidth spillover too much and for us at the top of the valley this is enough to get all DAB transceivers up to specified gain. Anyone know what the plans are for Walcot repeater upon digitisation?

Mon 21 Mar 2011, 22:45

Whereas I've lost the ITV & associated signals on DAB (especially on Saturdays!) This has been going on for some weeks now, but then the signals are sometimes back as strong as ever. Also, I can sometimes get ITV etc. on my DVD recorder altho' not on my main receiver. There have been days when I can get nothing but BBC, Sky 3 & Al Jazeera! Weird.

Mon 21 Mar 2011, 21:50

We have also lost BBC2 - no University Challenge tonight! Please help.

Mon 21 Mar 2011, 20:31

Andrew---how strange---I was just about to open a thread to say I'd lost BBC2 since yesterday. Quite nice to know I'm not the only one but what a nuisance---I haven't done anything yet---what might be appropriate do you think ?

Mon 21 Mar 2011, 20:03

Since yesterday at some point, but I don't know when exactly, we have totally lost our analogue signal for BBC2 TV. BBC1, ITV and Ch4 are all OK, exactly as they were before, so it is not likely to be anything wrong with our TV sets or aerial, as all TV sets are showing the same problem.

We are one of the households in Charlbury that still depend on the relayed signal from the mast at Walcott Farm, rather than a digital service and I will be very upset if this is an example of the service that we will get as the changeover happens. There are still 6 months to go before the analogue signal is switched off (in theory, at least) and I would be interested to know if anyone else has seen this same problem, and if so what they are doing about it.