What affects which Muxes I can receive?

I have just bought a digital receiver. I am not near it at the moment
but it is a Ferguson with 2000 in the name.

I was suspicious of the quality of my aerial but since the shop agreed
to take the receiver back if it did not work, I tried it.

I got BBC1, 2, 3, CBBC, News 24 and BBCi in quite good quality. The
receiver would detect quite a few other channels but no others were
watchable. Of course I would have liked more but I felt that these
channels did justify the cost of the receiver.

Next I got my aerial upgraded. The channels above remained good and I
gained BBC4, CBeebies, Parliament and various radio stations but not
BBC R1,2,3,4. I also gained Sky News and a couple of other Sky
channels. I get nearly but not quite good enough reception of ftn and
TMF. This has justified the cost of the aerial upgrade.

This matches fairly well with the predictions for my post code. I am
about 25 miles due south of Sutton Coldfield. Lark Stoke is mentioned
for my post code but my aerial is aligned to Sutton.

I get no sign of ITV1, Ch4 etc. Prior to the aerial upgrade, the
receiver sometimes detected them but they were not usable. Maybe the
old aerial was less directional and picking them up from Lark Stoke.

I have done some research and found that the channels are grouped by
multiplexer (Mux) and those in the same mux typically have similar
reception. It seems that I got mux 1 well immediately, got muxes B
and C well and D partially after the aerial upgrade. I don't get
muxes 2 or A at all.

I use an old amplifier / distributor from Wicks. This improves
analogue reception particularly on Ch4 which is the poorest. Prior to
the aerial upgrade, Ch4 varied between just watchable and unwatchable.
Now it is usually watchable but still poor. This amplifier helps
digital as well, mux C degrades and mux D vanishes altogether without
it.

Now the question, what affects which muxes I can get? Most of the
obvious factors would seem likely to affect all muxes. Why can a
friend a couple of miles closer to Sutton Coldfield get all channels
well? It would not seem to be a frequency issue since the missing
muxes have frequencies between the working ones. The powers also seem
to be the same.

The aerial man suggests upgrading the amplifier. Is this likely to
help?

Will things change over time, e.g. will the transmitter be boosted to
improve reception?

Seán O'Leathlóbhair

Hi there

You're in the same area as me. Luckily for me, I can get a good signal from
the Malvern Transmitter on all MUX's. Unless you think about adding a
booster to the top of your aerial I would consider having your aerial
redirected over to Lark Stoke or Malvern, the signal is much stronger in
this area than Sutton Coldfield.

HTH.

"Sean O'Leathlobhair" wrote in message
om...
I have just bought a digital receiver. I am not near it at the moment
but it is a Ferguson with 2000 in the name.

I was suspicious of the quality of my aerial but since the shop agreed
to take the receiver back if it did not work, I tried it.

I got BBC1, 2, 3, CBBC, News 24 and BBCi in quite good quality. The
receiver would detect quite a few other channels but no others were
watchable. Of course I would have liked more but I felt that these
channels did justify the cost of the receiver.

Next I got my aerial upgraded. The channels above remained good and I
gained BBC4, CBeebies, Parliament and various radio stations but not
BBC R1,2,3,4. I also gained Sky News and a couple of other Sky
channels. I get nearly but not quite good enough reception of ftn and
TMF. This has justified the cost of the aerial upgrade.

This matches fairly well with the predictions for my post code. I am
about 25 miles due south of Sutton Coldfield. Lark Stoke is mentioned
for my post code but my aerial is aligned to Sutton.

I get no sign of ITV1, Ch4 etc. Prior to the aerial upgrade, the
receiver sometimes detected them but they were not usable. Maybe the
old aerial was less directional and picking them up from Lark Stoke.

I have done some research and found that the channels are grouped by
multiplexer (Mux) and those in the same mux typically have similar
reception. It seems that I got mux 1 well immediately, got muxes B
and C well and D partially after the aerial upgrade. I don't get
muxes 2 or A at all.

I use an old amplifier / distributor from Wicks. This improves
analogue reception particularly on Ch4 which is the poorest. Prior to
the aerial upgrade, Ch4 varied between just watchable and unwatchable.
Now it is usually watchable but still poor. This amplifier helps
digital as well, mux C degrades and mux D vanishes altogether without
it.

Now the question, what affects which muxes I can get? Most of the
obvious factors would seem likely to affect all muxes. Why can a
friend a couple of miles closer to Sutton Coldfield get all channels
well? It would not seem to be a frequency issue since the missing
muxes have frequencies between the working ones. The powers also seem
to be the same.

The aerial man suggests upgrading the amplifier. Is this likely to
help?

Will things change over time, e.g. will the transmitter be boosted to
improve reception?

Seán O'Leathlóbhair

"Sean O'Leathlobhair" wrote in message
om
I have just bought a digital receiver. I am not near it at the moment
but it is a Ferguson with 2000 in the name.

I was suspicious of the quality of my aerial but since the shop agreed
to take the receiver back if it did not work, I tried it.

I got BBC1, 2, 3, CBBC, News 24 and BBCi in quite good quality. The
receiver would detect quite a few other channels but no others were
watchable. Of course I would have liked more but I felt that these
channels did justify the cost of the receiver.

Next I got my aerial upgraded. The channels above remained good and I
gained BBC4, CBeebies, Parliament and various radio stations but not
BBC R1,2,3,4. I also gained Sky News and a couple of other Sky
channels. I get nearly but not quite good enough reception of ftn and
TMF. This has justified the cost of the aerial upgrade.

This matches fairly well with the predictions for my post code. I am
about 25 miles due south of Sutton Coldfield. Lark Stoke is mentioned
for my post code but my aerial is aligned to Sutton.

I get no sign of ITV1, Ch4 etc. Prior to the aerial upgrade, the
receiver sometimes detected them but they were not usable. Maybe the
old aerial was less directional and picking them up from Lark Stoke.

I have done some research and found that the channels are grouped by
multiplexer (Mux) and those in the same mux typically have similar
reception. It seems that I got mux 1 well immediately, got muxes B
and C well and D partially after the aerial upgrade. I don't get
muxes 2 or A at all.

I use an old amplifier / distributor from Wicks. This improves
analogue reception particularly on Ch4 which is the poorest. Prior to
the aerial upgrade, Ch4 varied between just watchable and unwatchable.
Now it is usually watchable but still poor. This amplifier helps
digital as well, mux C degrades and mux D vanishes altogether without
it.

Now the question, what affects which muxes I can get? Most of the
obvious factors would seem likely to affect all muxes. Why can a
friend a couple of miles closer to Sutton Coldfield get all channels
well? It would not seem to be a frequency issue since the missing
muxes have frequencies between the working ones. The powers also seem
to be the same.

The aerial man suggests upgrading the amplifier. Is this likely to
help?

Will things change over time, e.g. will the transmitter be boosted to
improve reception?

Muxs 2 and A use the QAM64 modulation while the others use QAM16. This
means you need a stronger signal in order to receive 2 and A but allows
them to transmit more data allowing more channels and/or higher quality.

The gain of the aerial system is likely to vary quite considerably even
over it's specified range of frequencies and the nearby terrain,
obstacles other aerials on the same chimney etc all mean the gain on
some channels can be well down on that on others.

I believe the powers will all be increased after analogue is switched
off.
A few others might be increased where major problems exist.

--

Brian Gregory (In the UK).

To email me remove the letter vee.

Brian Gregory [UK] wrote:


I believe the powers will all be increased after analogue is switched
off.
A few others might be increased where major problems exist.


I would not like to put money on that.
This would involve major re-engineering.
Powers are at maximum already on most large sites.

A

Sorry the powers are NOT at the best as all DTT transmitters were set at 10%
or under of the power for Analogue Power.In some cases the power was set
even lower, because they ( mad ones ) said it would break up analogue
channels.NOW they have change some power to put them to the 10 % mark.
But I feel that until they go and put the power up to about 50% of same
power, people are still going to have trouble
with weather ( rain on leafs of trees etc.) DTT has a much less travel area
then analogue and drop signal very quickly. ( digital cliff )


--
Best Wishes Alan Haines
----------------------------------------------------------
www.thecarnivorousplantsociety.org
www.thecps.org.uk
----------------------------------------------------------
"Andy Dee" wrote in message
...
Brian Gregory [UK] wrote:


I believe the powers will all be increased after analogue is switched
off.
A few others might be increased where major problems exist.


I would not like to put money on that.
This would involve major re-engineering.
Powers are at maximum already on most large sites.

A

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004 22:36:23 +0100, Andy Dee
wrote:

Brian Gregory [UK] wrote:


I believe the powers will all be increased after analogue is switched
off.
A few others might be increased where major problems exist.


I would not like to put money on that.
This would involve major re-engineering.
Powers are at maximum already on most large sites.

This is not what the OFCOM report
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/dso_report/ says at para 6.25.

6.25 After switchover, it will be possible to increase the power
levels and extend coverage of DTT signals without any danger of
interference with analogue TV signals. Provided more transmitters are
converted to broadcast a digital signal, it will be possible to extend
DTT coverage throughout the country and, by increasing power levels,
it will be possible to enable DTT to be received by the majority of
existing aerials and on many portable TV sets.

Scott

"Steve" wrote in message ...
Hi there

You're in the same area as me. Luckily for me, I can get a good signal from
the Malvern Transmitter on all MUX's. Unless you think about adding a
booster to the top of your aerial I would consider having your aerial
redirected over to Lark Stoke or Malvern, the signal is much stronger in
this area than Sutton Coldfield.

HTH.

snip

Thanks.

Lark Stoke was listed as a possibility on the DTG site but not
Malvern. It seems a little far away. (But I will look up the
coordinates and check with my GPS over the weekend.)

The aerial man discouraged me from trying Lark Stoke and did not even
suggest Malvern.

What might such a switch do to my analogue reception? Even if I get
all 5 stations well on digital, I still need analogue for the time
being. The upstairs TV gets a feed from the RF output of the digital
receiver downstairs so it can view digital channels but only the one
selected downstairs. Also the VCRs are old things and only have
analogue receivers. In the long term, if I replaced the TVs and the
VCRs with ones with built in digital receivers then this would work
but that is beyond my budget for the moment.

Seán O'Leathlóbhair

"Brian Gregory [UK]" wrote in message ...
"Sean O'Leathlobhair" wrote in message
om
I have just bought a digital receiver. I am not near it at the moment
but it is a Ferguson with 2000 in the name.

snip

I have done some research and found that the channels are grouped by
multiplexer (Mux) and those in the same mux typically have similar
reception. It seems that I got mux 1 well immediately, got muxes B
and C well and D partially after the aerial upgrade. I don't get
muxes 2 or A at all.

snip

Now the question, what affects which muxes I can get? Most of the
obvious factors would seem likely to affect all muxes. Why can a
friend a couple of miles closer to Sutton Coldfield get all channels
well? It would not seem to be a frequency issue since the missing
muxes have frequencies between the working ones. The powers also seem
to be the same.

The aerial man suggests upgrading the amplifier. Is this likely to
help?

Will things change over time, e.g. will the transmitter be boosted to
improve reception?

Muxs 2 and A use the QAM64 modulation while the others use QAM16. This
means you need a stronger signal in order to receive 2 and A but allows
them to transmit more data allowing more channels and/or higher quality.

Thanks, I was wondering why these muxes were worse. Is there a good
site where I can read up on this detail?

The gain of the aerial system is likely to vary quite considerably even
over it's specified range of frequencies and the nearby terrain,
obstacles other aerials on the same chimney etc all mean the gain on
some channels can be well down on that on others.

Might the problem be in my old cheap RF amplifier, is it worth trying
a new one?

Is it worth trying a better receiver? I could afford one more and
push the existing one off into the bedroom.

I believe the powers will all be increased after analogue is switched
off.
A few others might be increased where major problems exist.

Seán O'Leathlóbhair

"Sean O'Leathlobhair" wrote in message
om
"Brian Gregory [UK]" wrote in message
...
"Sean O'Leathlobhair" wrote in message
om
I have just bought a digital receiver. I am not near it at the
moment but it is a Ferguson with 2000 in the name.

snip

I have done some research and found that the channels are grouped by
multiplexer (Mux) and those in the same mux typically have similar
reception. It seems that I got mux 1 well immediately, got muxes B
and C well and D partially after the aerial upgrade. I don't get
muxes 2 or A at all.

snip

Now the question, what affects which muxes I can get? Most of the
obvious factors would seem likely to affect all muxes. Why can a
friend a couple of miles closer to Sutton Coldfield get all channels
well? It would not seem to be a frequency issue since the missing
muxes have frequencies between the working ones. The powers also
seem to be the same.

The aerial man suggests upgrading the amplifier. Is this likely to
help?

Will things change over time, e.g. will the transmitter be boosted
to improve reception?

Muxs 2 and A use the QAM64 modulation while the others use QAM16.
This means you need a stronger signal in order to receive 2 and A
but allows them to transmit more data allowing more channels and/or
higher quality.

Thanks, I was wondering why these muxes were worse. Is there a good
site where I can read up on this detail?

The gain of the aerial system is likely to vary quite considerably
even over it's specified range of frequencies and the nearby terrain,
obstacles other aerials on the same chimney etc all mean the gain on
some channels can be well down on that on others.

Might the problem be in my old cheap RF amplifier, is it worth trying
a new one?

I don't think that's likely to make a dramatic improvement but may help
a little.
Look for an amplifier with a low noise figure - 2 dB is excellent, 3.5dB
is average, 5dB is poor.


Is it worth trying a better receiver? I could afford one more and
push the existing one off into the bedroom.

Many people say SetPal based receivers are significantly better at when
the signal is weak.


I believe the powers will all be increased after analogue is switched
off.
A few others might be increased where major problems exist.

--

Brian Gregory (In the UK).

To email me remove the letter vee.