Winter Hill?
 

What's the story with the Winter Hill transmitter? I don't know a lot... as
anyone who's read my posts will know, but I've just moved into a new area,
and find myself wondering what's going on.

Firstly, I can get pretty good freeview on almost all channels, but the
terrestrial pickup is awful... I thought it was usually the other way round,
with terrestrial generally being stronger than digital?

Also, if I plug my system into the lounge wall-plate, I get worse reception
than I do on my bedroom TV, which has a little indoor set-top aerial plugged
into the dingy box. How the hell can that happen? I know the obvious
answer is that the downfeed must be rubbish from the rooftop aerial, but I'm
amazed that I can get perfect picture upstairs on a ten year old indoor
aerial plugged in to an old freeview box, but nothing as good downstairs?
Does this strike anyone as, again, the inverse of what usually happens?

I was just wondering if any of the transmitter-lovers in here would have any
ideas as to why these things happen, is it anything peculiar to Winter Hill?
Thanks.

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 15:56:41 +0000 (UTC), John Porcella wrote:

Also, if I plug my system into the lounge wall-plate, I get worse
reception
than I do on my bedroom TV, which has a little indoor set-top aerial
plugged
into the dingy box. How the hell can that happen? I know the obvious
answer is that the downfeed must be rubbish from the rooftop aerial, but
I'm
amazed that I can get perfect picture upstairs on a ten year old indoor
aerial plugged in to an old freeview box, but nothing as good downstairs?
Does this strike anyone as, again, the inverse of what usually happens?

No, you might have the wrong aerial type on the roof.

How old is the house? Chances are the downlead is VHF :-) Whip the wall
plate off and have a look at the cable.

--

Regards

Dave Saville

NB Remove no-spam- for good email address

"The Crow" wrote

What's the story with the Winter Hill transmitter?

I'm receiving from Winter Hill (about 27 miles away in Glossop).

I've got a powerful aerial (Televes DAT45) and newish cabling (CT100).
Analogue BBC is fair, Channel Four poor, Five awful. Digital perfect via
Hauppauge DEC-2000t/ Nova-t/ Nebula DigiTv.

It's true that DTT is transmitted at a lower power than analogue, but
because of the nature of digital signals they are inherently more robust, ie
will reach further than analogue, all things being equal.

It sounds as if your problem relates to your rooftop aerial. Which polarity
is it, ie are the "prongs" pointing "up and down" (vertical polarity) or
"straight across" (horizontal polarity)? If the aerial is vertically
polarised, you are almost certainly receiving your pictures from a relay
(analogue only) transmitter. AFAIK, only one relay transmitter in the Winter
Hill catchment area provides Freeview (Saddleworth, I think).

Even if you have a horizontally polarised aerial pointed at Winter Hill, you
may be suffering because:
1. The aerial is old - corroded connections?
2. The aerial is too small for your location.
3. The aerial has been blown off-beam by strong winds.
4. Trees have grown/building has occurred since the aerial was installed.
5. Old cable is being used (for DTT you *must* use properly screened
"satellite-type" cable - CT100/CT125 or similar).

This site will tell you which type of aeral you need to have:
www.wolfbane.com
Follow the link to their "UK digital TV reception predictor".

It does, in any event, sound as if your antenna installation needs to be
refreshed.

Good Luck,

Ron.