UK Freeview suddenly appeared on my Sony TV

christo82 · 01-09-2010 10:52AM #1

Hi, this morning I've noticed my sony TV is picking up UK Freeview for the first time from the north I presume. I had been getting the Saorview channels, but now they've disappeared and only the UK remain. Some channels I'm getting are the basic BBC/ITV/Channel4/FIVE channels, with BBC3/4, ITV2/3/4, Sky3, Dave/+1 and some others. Not receiving fiver/Five US. It could be just the way the weather is and probably won't last. Should I rescan to see if I can get the Irish channels back?

thanks

watty · 01-09-2010 11:16AM

Weather

christo82 · 01-09-2010 01:40PM

Yeah, I thought so. It's breaking up a good bit now. Would you think it's possible to get Freeview from my location on a permanent basis with a better aerial? At the moment I just have one of the most basic small rooftop aerials. And another question, my TV tuned in ESPN. Is this the same ESPN that shows some EPL matches or is this just a basic free version?*

*nevermind about ESPN. I did some research and found it's only with subscription

01-09-2010 03:04PM

If it's ITV 1 you are getting instead of UTV,it's not from the North.

Any idea which region? look in the tvguide and see what regional news is on.

If it's from Wales it's easy to know as it will say itv 1 wales as the station name.
If it's an English region,it just says itv1 so you will know by checking what regional news is on in the early evening schedule or after the bbc one ten news or the itv news

If you are receiving the channels,then you'll still receive them after a rescan.

I'm receiving a large amount of UK dtt today and yesterday from faraway transmitters apart from the normal one I get.
They will go when the high pressure leaves.
I'd say its nice to have them all the same.

christo82 · 02-09-2010 07:44AM

Sorry, the channels are gone now, but I will have a look if they come back. I'm surprised it's neither NI or Wales. I thought they'd be the only two that I could possibly ever receive.

02-09-2010 09:17AM

As the high pressure is still around,they may come back.

No you could easily have channels from the isle of man or cumbria visiting you there over an uninterupted seapath or manchester/liverpool.

On the sony if you go to the channel that they were on which says no signal now,and you press home and go to manual digital tuning it will show the uhf channel that your UK freeview came in on.
That will be a large clue to which transmitter.

Last night I was getting Redruth from cornwall in perfectly which is a lot further away from me in wicklow than the IOM or cumbria is to you..

jabarrett35 · 02-09-2010 09:27AM

Tropospheric ducting is high over these islands up until the weekend. I'm getting Redruth loud and clear and various other South west English transmitters.

christo82 · 02-09-2010 12:01PM

It says ITV1 on 59, BBC 1 on 62. I've tried searching the net to see if I could find which transmitter it is, but without success.

Richie Blackmor · 02-09-2010 12:33PM

Was foolin' around with my Hauppauge WinTV USB stick on my laptop near Dublin Airport this morning:

642MHz

S4/C2 SSID 12417
E4 SSID 12464
Fiver SSID 12928
Five USA SSID 12992
QVC SSID 13120
Bid TV SSID 14272
Virgin 1 SSID 14304
Adult Party SSID 14368
Quest SSID 14498
Home SSID 14976
Television X SSID 15232
Gems TV SSID 15328
Gold SSID 15552
CNN SSID 15648
Teachers TV SSID 15808
ITV3 SSID 16048
ESPN SSID 16096
Topup Anytime1 SSID 16224
Topup Anytime2 SSID 16256
Topup Anytime3 SSID 16288

I was able to view quite a lot of them (ITV3, Virgin 1, Fiver, E4 and others). Its just a bit of high pressure fun but demonstrates a surprising signal strength as I was just using those little antennae that come with the stick - two bits of metal about 14cm long(its a diversity receiver).

P.S. If anyone is interested I used TSReader to look at this frequency and took a screenshot:

02-09-2010 01:21PM

christo82 wrote: »

It says ITV1 on 59, BBC 1 on 62. I've tried searching the net to see if I could find which transmitter it is, but without success.

Thats the winter hill transmitter .
It covers the liverpool and manchester areas and parts of Northeast wales normally.
It's very powerfull at 100kw erp

To give you an example,I get full reception here from presely dtt in sw wales and thats only 20kw by comparison.
I'd imagine a good wideband on a rooftop at skerries would see that a lot with a masthead amp pointed East even in normal conditions if the tx power is not shielded to the west.

@ Richie Blackmor

Thats preseli believe it or not! It's the only one that would have s4c2 and those channels on ch42-it's coming all the way to you from pembrokeshire and is a tx that provides reliable service in south east Ireland.
Pretty impressive for a dongle aerial at the airport...
(And RTE think it doesn't cause problems in wexford sharing a frequency with mt leinster... :rolleyes:)

Moel y parc is also on ch42 but not yet and it's the hd services that will be on it from there.

jabarrett35 · 02-09-2010 01:36PM

Hi does anyone know which Irish DTT transmits on Ch39 because I've been receiving it this am. I first thought RTENL had saw sense and moved from Ch45!

Digifriendly · 02-09-2010 02:01PM

BBC channels from Caldbeck have appeared on my Sony iDTV as placeholders but no signal. I live inland about 18 miles SW of Belfast. Must be the weather.

Gerry Wicklow · 02-09-2010 03:14PM

Redruth booming in and yet Preseli breaking up, esp ch42. The wonders of weather:-)
Preseli 89 miles
Redruth 182 miles
Caradon Hill 176 miles (intermittent)

02-09-2010 03:19PM

Digifriendly wrote: »

BBC channels from Caldbeck have appeared on my Sony iDTV as placeholders but no signal. I live inland about 18 miles SW of Belfast. Must be the weather.

When that happens on the sony,it means they were watchable quality for a while,it's just you weren't watching them when they were strong enough to view.
It could have happened anytime.
You must have your sony set to auto update channels.

When it's set to that,the channel;ls will remain in the guide untill their place is over ridden by either a new manual or auto tune.

I had to switch off that auto feature as what it was doing in conditions like this was replacing my preseli channels with the visiting transmitter in the guide-eg if a 2nd BBC 1 came a visiting from some other tx,then it took over the number 1 position even if it was only receivable for a few minutes.
Meaning I'd have BBC one on for example and no signal and wondering what the fcuk...
The telly you see remains tuned to the new temporary strong channel even when it is gone and your original normal bbc one [and itv etc] remains untuned...necessitating a retune to get it back.
That situation mus be confusing a lot of people.

Peddyr · 02-09-2010 08:22PM

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd imagine a good wideband on a rooftop at skerries would see that a lot with a masthead amp pointed East even in normal conditions if the tx power is not shielded to the west.

Not nulled to west as WH feeds IOM relays.

Digifriendly · 03-09-2010 08:51AM

Deleted User wrote: »

When that happens on the sony,it means they were watchable quality for a while,it's just you weren't watching them when they were strong enough to view.
It could have happened anytime.
You must have your sony set to auto update channels.

When it's set to that,the channel;ls will remain in the guide untill their place is over ridden by either a new manual or auto tune.

I had to switch off that auto feature as what it was doing in conditions like this was replacing my preseli channels with the visiting transmitter in the guide-eg if a 2nd BBC 1 came a visiting from some other tx,then it took over the number 1 position even if it was only receivable for a few minutes.
Meaning I'd have BBC one on for example and no signal and wondering what the fcuk...
The telly you see remains tuned to the new temporary strong channel even when it is gone and your original normal bbc one [and itv etc] remains untuned...necessitating a retune to get it back.
That situation mus be confusing a lot of people.

Very many thanks for very useful information I was unaware of. Will bear this in mind in future. BTW the Sony idTV digital tuner seems to be slightly more sensitive than Sony analogue/digital PVR connected to same TV.

Richie Blackmor · 03-09-2010 10:39AM

I hope this is not off topic but it may be of interest to the OP as Skerries is not far removed from Dublin Airport..... so .... messin' about once again with laptop and usb dongle, the 642MHz signal is still there like yesterday (see previous post) but today I received another at 522MHz:

BBC ONE Wales SID 4222
BBC TWO Wales SID 4286
BBC THREE SID 4288
BBC NEWS SID 4352
BBC Red Button SID 4416
BBC FOUR SID 4544
CBBC Channel SID 4608
CBeebies SID 4672
BBC Parliament SID 4736
BBC R5L SID 5632
BBC R5SX SID 5696
BBC 6 Music SID 5760
BBC Radio 7 SID 5824
BBC R1X SID 5888
BBC Asian Net. SID 5952
BBC World Sv. SID 6016
BBC Radio Wales SID 6462
BBC Radio Cymru SID 6526
BBC Radio 1 SID 6720
BBC Radio 2 SID 6784
BBC Radio 3 SID 6848
BBC Radio 4 SID 6912
301 SID 7168

Its not as strong as 642MHz but some channels are viewable albeit with some pixelation. Another potential interference source?
I'll try these again next week when the weather changes to less settled conditions.

03-09-2010 11:28AM

That looks like Blaenplwyf overlooking cardigan Bay.
That should be a more frequent visitor as it is firing unshielded towards Dublin in order to cover just south of Holy head.

Digifriendly · 03-09-2010 01:58PM

Richie Blackmor wrote: »

I hope this is not off topic but it may be of interest to the OP as Skerries is not far removed from Dublin Airport..... so .... messin' about once again with laptop and usb dongle, the 642MHz signal is still there like yesterday (see previous post) but today I received another at 522MHz:

BBC ONE Wales SID 4222
BBC TWO Wales SID 4286
BBC THREE SID 4288
BBC NEWS SID 4352
BBC Red Button SID 4416
BBC FOUR SID 4544
CBBC Channel SID 4608
CBeebies SID 4672
BBC Parliament SID 4736
BBC R5L SID 5632
BBC R5SX SID 5696
BBC 6 Music SID 5760
BBC Radio 7 SID 5824
BBC R1X SID 5888
BBC Asian Net. SID 5952
BBC World Sv. SID 6016
BBC Radio Wales SID 6462
BBC Radio Cymru SID 6526
BBC Radio 1 SID 6720
BBC Radio 2 SID 6784
BBC Radio 3 SID 6848
BBC Radio 4 SID 6912
301 SID 7168

Its not as strong as 642MHz but some channels are viewable albeit with some pixelation. Another potential interference source?
I'll try these again next week when the weather changes to less settled conditions.

Interesting that it's the BBC's that are coming through - same with Caldbeck for me. They must be on higher power than other muxes.

jabarrett35 · 03-09-2010 02:42PM

I always get a better signal on the BBC mux from Presley and the ITV one is nearly always the worst which is odd because the are at the same power. I wonder is due to placement on the transmitter. Even with lift CH 46 is never great than lower powered muxes ch 42 & 49 are always have a good signal strength. Of course I can't get CH 45 because of MT Leinster (well I can't get Mt Leinster a lot of the time because of Presley)

Greenman · 05-09-2010 12:10PM

Richie Blackmor wrote: »

Was foolin' around with my Hauppauge WinTV USB stick on my laptop near Dublin Airport this morning

Richie which model do you have?

Richie Blackmor · 05-09-2010 12:59PM

@ Greenman

Its a Hauppauge WinTv Nova-TD Stick with Diversity (Dual Tuners). I'm not sure of the precise model (their website specifies models 1174 & 286). Its not written on the back of my stick but these numbers are:
52009 LF Rev C2F4 4108
Also, I had to purchase a special edition of their WinTV7 software with MPEG4 capability. Hope this helps.

UK Freeview suddenly appeared on my Sony TV

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