Digital TV in Partick, Glasgow

Hi all,
My sister has just moved into a flat in Partick for Uni, and I bought her a
Freeview box, unfortuneatley it wont work.

I went round today to try and get it going and found that it wouldnt because
she cant even get Channel 5! Annoyed at this, I went outside and looked at
the roof of her building to find that all aerials on the roofs are
vertically polarised. Am I right in thinking this means that shes getting
the TV from a relay transmitter? If so what one would cover the Partick
area of Glasgow.

There are a few other aerials on other building which are horizontal,
however they are quite big and appear to be pointing in the general
direction of the Black HIll transmitter.

Thanks for any help in advance!
Andy

"Andy" wrote in message
o.uk...
Hi all,
My sister has just moved into a flat in Partick for Uni, and I bought her
a
Freeview box, unfortuneatley it wont work.

I went round today to try and get it going and found that it wouldnt
because
she cant even get Channel 5! Annoyed at this, I went outside and looked
at
the roof of her building to find that all aerials on the roofs are
vertically polarised. Am I right in thinking this means that shes getting
the TV from a relay transmitter? If so what one would cover the Partick
area of Glasgow.

There are a few other aerials on other building which are horizontal,
however they are quite big and appear to be pointing in the general
direction of the Black HIll transmitter.

Thanks for any help in advance!
Andy


Might as well throw this in FWIW: When my sister moved in originally, she
coudlnt egt a proper picture on the TV at all and I told her to phone the
landlord and get him to fix it as the flat is supplied with an aerial
connection. Guy came out, and obviously didnt want to climb onto the roof
to fix it properly, so he fitted her with a nice Triax amplifier. All
channels are now fine apart from 5, which apparently, no-one in the block
can get, and judjing form the array of aerials on the roof, every flat has
its own seperate aerial, all vertical and all not pointing in the Black Hill
direction.

have also googled for answers on this one, been to various sites like the
transmitter gallery, BBC Reception etc, but to no avail.

Thanks,
Andy

On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 21:30:43 GMT, "Andy"
wrote:

Hi all,
My sister has just moved into a flat in Partick for Uni, and I bought her a
Freeview box, unfortuneatley it wont work.

I went round today to try and get it going and found that it wouldnt because
she cant even get Channel 5! Annoyed at this, I went outside and looked at
the roof of her building to find that all aerials on the roofs are
vertically polarised. Am I right in thinking this means that shes getting
the TV from a relay transmitter? If so what one would cover the Partick
area of Glasgow.

There are a few other aerials on other building which are horizontal,
however they are quite big and appear to be pointing in the general
direction of the Black HIll transmitter.

Thanks for any help in advance!
Andy

I suspect it is Glasgow West Central http://www.wolfbane.com/uktv.htm.
I live in Hyndland. For digital reception I needed to 40 (I think)
element Group E aerial on a long pole on the chimney, pointing at
Blackhill. I also needed new downlead. It works well most of the
time, apart from occasional bangs and sound loss, using a Philips
ONdigital box. I'm getting the new Humax next week, so I am hoping it
will work all the time!

Scott

"Andy" wrote in message
o.uk...
Hi all,
My sister has just moved into a flat in Partick for Uni, and I bought her
a
Freeview box, unfortuneatley it wont work.

I went round today to try and get it going and found that it wouldnt
because
she cant even get Channel 5! Annoyed at this, I went outside and looked
at
the roof of her building to find that all aerials on the roofs are
vertically polarised. Am I right in thinking this means that shes getting
the TV from a relay transmitter? If so what one would cover the Partick
area of Glasgow.

There are a few other aerials on other building which are horizontal,
however they are quite big and appear to be pointing in the general
direction of the Black HIll transmitter.

Thanks for any help in advance!
Andy



Lack of analogue CH5 has no relevance to digital reception as many, many
transmitters which transmit DTTV are not equipped with analogue CH5.
In this case however she is using the Glasgow West relay which does not
transmit DTTV.

A change of aerial (and probably downlead too) to receive Black Hill may be
one option, although some of Partick gets coverage from Darvel too.

You need to put in the postcode here
http://griffin.dtg.org.uk/retailer/coverage.html and see what it says. Black
Hill DTTV is pretty good in much of Partick.

"Doctor D" wrote in message
...

"Andy" wrote in message
o.uk...
Hi all,
My sister has just moved into a flat in Partick for Uni, and I bought
her
a
Freeview box, unfortuneatley it wont work.

I went round today to try and get it going and found that it wouldnt
because
she cant even get Channel 5! Annoyed at this, I went outside and looked
at
the roof of her building to find that all aerials on the roofs are
vertically polarised. Am I right in thinking this means that shes
getting
the TV from a relay transmitter? If so what one would cover the Partick
area of Glasgow.

There are a few other aerials on other building which are horizontal,
however they are quite big and appear to be pointing in the general
direction of the Black HIll transmitter.

Thanks for any help in advance!
Andy



Lack of analogue CH5 has no relevance to digital reception as many, many
transmitters which transmit DTTV are not equipped with analogue CH5.
In this case however she is using the Glasgow West relay which does not
transmit DTTV.

A change of aerial (and probably downlead too) to receive Black Hill may
be
one option, although some of Partick gets coverage from Darvel too.

You need to put in the postcode here
http://griffin.dtg.org.uk/retailer/coverage.html and see what it says.
Black
Hill DTTV is pretty good in much of Partick.


Thanks for the replys guys. I checked out the Wolfbane website, and the guy
who wrote it obviously lives in my sisters street as its reccommending an
Extra Hi Gain super amplified aerial for everything, although the Glasgow
West Central relay is only 1 mile away :-s. (Either that it was her aerial
installer that wrote it!)

Im gonna have to leave it there because it is a flat shes in and theres no
way I can change the aerial. She dosent have use of a Satellite dish either
or Id give her an old Sky Dodgybox over, and I dont even want to go down the
cable route, again due to the flat thing.

I dont have any doubt in my mind now though that if the aerial was
horizontal and turned a bit to the right she'd get Black Hill no problems
because the bit of Channel 5 she does get (Sound and a completley
unwatchable grainy picture) is obviously coming from Black Hill. Aerial is
up high enough for it as well, I think from the top of my head the roof of
the building is five floors up and the aerial is on a chimeny. Think I'll
wait till its snowing and knock it off completley with some snowballs and
get it re-aligned to Black-Hill!

Thanks again for the help,
Andy

Thanks for the replys guys. I checked out the Wolfbane website, and the
guy
who wrote it obviously lives in my sisters street as its reccommending an
Extra Hi Gain super amplified aerial for everything, although the Glasgow
West Central relay is only 1 mile away :-s. (Either that it was her
aerial
installer that wrote it!)

Im gonna have to leave it there because it is a flat shes in and theres no
way I can change the aerial. She dosent have use of a Satellite dish
either
or Id give her an old Sky Dodgybox over, and I dont even want to go down
the
cable route, again due to the flat thing.

I dont have any doubt in my mind now though that if the aerial was
horizontal and turned a bit to the right she'd get Black Hill no problems
because the bit of Channel 5 she does get (Sound and a completley
unwatchable grainy picture) is obviously coming from Black Hill. Aerial is
up high enough for it as well, I think from the top of my head the roof of
the building is five floors up and the aerial is on a chimeny. Think I'll
wait till its snowing and knock it off completley with some snowballs and
get it re-aligned to Black-Hill!

Thanks again for the help,
Andy


Wolfbane can be a bit pessimistic and recommend amplified extra high gain
where it's not necessary.

Her current vertical aerial will probably be group C/D whereas for analogue
and digital from Black Hill would require Group E. Just turning it around
and changing the pol'n would not be sufficient. A new aerial would probably
be required.

Doctor D wrote:

Her current vertical aerial will probably be group C/D whereas for
analogue and digital from Black Hill would require Group E. Just
turning it around and changing the pol'n would not be sufficient. A
new aerial would probably be required.

I'm sure a properly grouped aerial would be preferred, but it could
well be worth trying turning it through 90 degrees and pointing it
towards Black Hill - always assuming this is possible. The wrong group
aerial will still receive a signal, it just won't be as strong (and
may therefore, of course, be uncomfortably near or even below the
'digital threshold').

André Coutanche

Her current vertical aerial will probably be group C/D whereas for
analogue and digital from Black Hill would require Group E. Just
turning it around and changing the pol'n would not be sufficient. A
new aerial would probably be required.

I'm sure a properly grouped aerial would be preferred, but it could
well be worth trying turning it through 90 degrees and pointing it
towards Black Hill - always assuming this is possible. The wrong group
aerial will still receive a signal, it just won't be as strong (and
may therefore, of course, be uncomfortably near or even below the
'digital threshold').

A group C/D will have very little useful gain at the lower end of group B -
especially where reception is not primary service area.

Three Black Hill MUX'S are in group C/D but the remainder and analogue is
all group B.

If you're going to the trouble of re-positioning an aerial, you may as well
change it for the correct one.

On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 00:07:00 GMT, "Andy"
wrote:


Thanks for the replys guys. I checked out the Wolfbane website, and the guy
who wrote it obviously lives in my sisters street as its reccommending an
Extra Hi Gain super amplified aerial for everything, although the Glasgow
West Central relay is only 1 mile away :-s. (Either that it was her aerial
installer that wrote it!)

Do you mean the guy who wrote the Wolfbane website lives in your
sister's street, or the guy who wrote the post? I am the guy who
wrote the post. I do not have an aerial amplifier, made no mention of
an aerial amplifier and would not recommend an aerial amplifier for
digital tv. Proximity with Glasgow West Central is totally irrelevant
as I was describing a means of receiving Blackhill.

Im gonna have to leave it there because it is a flat shes in and theres no
way I can change the aerial. She dosent have use of a Satellite dish either
or Id give her an old Sky Dodgybox over, and I dont even want to go down the
cable route, again due to the flat thing.

I dont have any doubt in my mind now though that if the aerial was
horizontal and turned a bit to the right she'd get Black Hill no problems
because the bit of Channel 5 she does get (Sound and a completley
unwatchable grainy picture) is obviously coming from Black Hill. Aerial is
up high enough for it as well, I think from the top of my head the roof of
the building is five floors up and the aerial is on a chimeny. Think I'll
wait till its snowing and knock it off completley with some snowballs and
get it re-aligned to Black-Hill!

I wouldn't be too sure about that. Glasgow West Central is group CD
whereas Blackhill is group B. As you yourself say, GWC is closer. Why
do you think GWC was built at all if reception with 'no problems' was
available from Blackhill?

Scott

"Scott" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 00:07:00 GMT, "Andy"
wrote:


SNIP

Do you mean the guy who wrote the Wolfbane website lives in your
sister's street, or the guy who wrote the post? I am the guy who
wrote the post. I do not have an aerial amplifier, made no mention of
an aerial amplifier and would not recommend an aerial amplifier for
digital tv. Proximity with Glasgow West Central is totally irrelevant
as I was describing a means of receiving Blackhill.

Scott, was sarcasm m8!
Sorry :-s

Andy