With the 700Mhz to 800Mhz TV band clearance starting in March this year and completion in 2 years time we will see the end of C/D TV aerials.
Unfortunatly I live in The Winter Hill transmitter area all the TV channels are moving from group C/D to A. COM7 and 8 will be temporary nationally on ch55,56 for another two years after 2020.
I have had two CD aerials on my roof for quite a few years, neither of them would pick up Com7 on channel 31, indeed if you look at frequency response graphs for CD aerials they have no gain or negative gain below CH31.
Yesterday I decided to replace both aerials. The main one was replaced with a 36 element log periodic aerial (Ch21-60). The other was an amplified outdoor aerial that had been bought from B and M bargains with power supply and 8 mtrs of cable, it had been a Christmas gift! This was fitted about one foot below the log periodic aerial.
Both aerial are working fine, the amplified one seems to give better results and gives all the Welsh channels from Moel-y-Parc and two (Ch57,60) from Landonna.
Today whilst out and about I was looking at TV aerials and going by the conclusion C/D aerials always had a flat plate reflector at least 60% of local homes still have that type!
So coverting the aerials myself cost around £30. I wonder how much it will cost all the other households who have to get an aerial installer? I wonder how much the transmitter adjustments are costing? How much is the government going to get when they sell the bandwidth?
There are probably a lot of wide band yagis and LP, which are also WB have been fitted over the last 10 years or so but yes there will still be CD aerials out there. A couple of years ago I changed my CD to a Wideband yagi, it’s loft mounted and was fitted in 1970 so perhaps I have had my money out of it, still the same coax though.
I bought the WB before knowing about the 700-800Mhz clearout so I may have problems with signals in that part of the band, cross that bridge if it causes problems.
What area do you live in, just generally, not specific? I live in the Wigan post code area.
Frank
So coverting the aerials myself cost around £30. I wonder how much it will cost all the other households who have to get an aerial installer? I wonder how much the transmitter adjustments are costing? How much is the government going to get when they sell the bandwidth?
You should have waited, Digital UK is replacing them free-of-charge where reception is unacceptable after 700MHz clearance!
Wigan (WN1) around 7 miles from Winter Hill. I know next door but one paid £90 to have an 18 element aerial fitted 3 years ago. He can not get satisfactory reception of Ch31, to me it looks like a CD aerial. I changed the coax on mine which made it a lot more time consuming.
Well thats news to me. Would they replace 2 or just 1? Where have you got that info from it could do with being better publicised. Will they replace all the TV aerials in London that are Group A to enable them to pick up Ch55,56? This is going to cost Billions!
Did they change aerials for some with the digital change over in 2012? I am sure my brother had one fitted for him.
So you are in WN1 the posh side of Wigan, mine is WN2 the less posh side.
Frank
I think that was the set top boxes when transmission changed from 2k to 8k mode or if you only had analogue tv and only if you where on benefit.
Well thats news to me. Would they replace 2 or just 1?
Main viewing aerial only.
Where have you got that info from it could do with being better publicised.
https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/comment/88214825#Comment_88214825
"The official line is, in areas where a change of aerial is required, to get a wideband model installed - and this is being done free-of-charge to all affected viewers by DMSL. If a viewer requires a new aerial to receive the new frequencies upon clearance, they do not have to consider aerial types because provisions are in place to cover the cost. Whilst the point regarding diplexers may apply to a small few, the vast majority of people will not have that concern. As soon as the postcards begin to drop in the first part of 2018, people will be able to call the Freeview Advice Line to go through a retune and if that doesn't help, they will be referred to the Aerial Support Team; this is made out to be the same set-up but is in fact being routed to a different call centre in a different part of the UK where DMSL will take over from DUK. "
Will they replace all the TV aerials in London that are Group A to enable them to pick up Ch55,56?
No, nor anywhere else where the signal from the interim muxes is unacceptable.
It will be interesting to see what happens in March this year when Com7,8 move to Ch55,56 at Crystal Palace!
Before the digital switch over when the signals were on reduced power we had an interesting problem. In my immediate area the ITV mux, whichever that one was could only reliably received by the aerial being vertically polarised. The other muxes were ok with either polarity. When switch over occurred the problem was cured but there are still aerials in this location vertical. See what occurs in March.
Frank
It will be interesting to see what happens in March this year when Com7,8 move to Ch55,56 at Crystal Palace!
Very little I expect as according to Ofcom the combined viewership for both muxes is less than 0.5%.
It will be interesting to see what happens in March this year when Com7,8 move to Ch55,56 at Crystal Palace!
Very little I expect as according to Ofcom the combined viewership for both muxes is less than 0.5%.
I think they will have problems, we can only wait and see.
We've never been able to watch COMs 7 & 8 here. The attitude of the housing association is "Why should we spend money on something that is only temporary and that very few of our tenants watch anyway?" I suspect Digital UK is of the same mindset. You are right about the shocking lack of public information on the matter though and that is nothing unusual for Digital UK I'm told.
I pass a house here which used to have a nicely installed vertically mounted shrouded log periodic aerial on the chimmney. The trouble is, we are Group B horizontally polarised here from Sutton Coldfield. If I remember correctly from my theory days, the difference between horizontal and vertical polarity is 30dB. I see it has been removed now after nearly two years and a normal ten element yagi has been horizontally installed in its place. We used to get quite a lot of grief in the rental trade after some 'aerial experts' had been at work. You had the job of convincing the customer that the aerial installation had been carried out incorrectly and that usually involved demonstating poor reception on another TV, so that they could see that it was not the TV which was at fault.
We were a small shop so I very often took service calls first thing in the morning. Quite common to have a report of snowy picture with ghosts, diplomatically ask the customer to go outside and have a look at the aerial on the roof. Of course the report “ its fallen down”, one less call to drive out to, tell the customer I would contact the aerial rigger and get it sorted out.
Frank
So coverting the aerials myself cost around £30. I wonder how much it will cost all the other households who have to get an aerial installer? I wonder how much the transmitter adjustments are costing? How much is the government going to get when they sell the bandwidth?
You should have waited, Digital UK is replacing them free-of-charge where reception is unacceptable after 700MHz clearance!
I have discovered today, in most cases you will have to sort yourself out and pay for a new TV aerial. The policy on free new TV aerials has been withdrawn and will only apply in extreme cases. I wonder if the tests done at Winter Hill showed the aerials were no good in the group A aerial frequencies and the cost would be too much!
“Extreme cases”
To my my mind that would be open to interpretation, poor or no reception on the one or more main muxes could be classed as extreme.
Did the information you found define extreme? I presume it’s tied up with lots of legal phrases that it would be near impossible to get one free.
If the wideband aerials* I have, don’t work I will sort it myself but I do feel for those without the skills, health or money to be able to sort it out.
*I put two in the loft to feed the two televisions, couldn’t be bothered splitting it and a distribution amplifier is probably not required.
I must take the old CD aerial out of there one day.
Frank
I was just pointing out that the previous poster had suggested I should have waited to get a free new aerial. DigiUK have changed the rules for those that will qualify. For starters if you have satellite or cable TV and also use terrestrial TV via a aerial you will not qualify. Check with Digital Uk.
I was just pointing out that the previous poster had suggested I should have waited to get a free new aerial. DigiUK have changed the rules for those that will qualify. For starters if you have satellite or cable TV and also use terrestrial TV via a aerial you will not qualify. Check with Digital Uk.
Fair enough abc.
I have satellite so wouldn’t qualify, I am perhaps getting soft in my old age but I just feel for those in the community who will be struggling with all this change. Hopefully they have family or friends who can help.
I struggle sometimes to see the point of all the channels, there is only so much TV you can watch, well there is for me. With the 4 or perhaps 5 channels we had I could always find something to watch on those channels with whatever time I could put aside for TV, I find little or nothing on them these days. The rest of the channels seem to be repeats or reality TV or perhaps repeats of reality TV. I can understand the HD with all the very large screens but that’s about it.
I am obviously in one of my grumpy moods today
Frank
Posted by: Nuvistor
I struggle sometimes to see the point of all the channels, there is only so much TV you can watch, well there is for me. With the 4 or perhaps 5 channels we had I could always find something to watch on those channels with whatever time I could put aside for TV, I find little or nothing on them these days. The rest of the channels seem to be repeats or reality TV or perhaps repeats of reality TV. I can understand the HD with all the very large screens but that’s about it.
I am obviously in one of my grumpy moods today
I've never seen the point of so many channels, and even more so, can't see why people find it necessary to record up to five more programmes whilst watching one! I think this what they call "Catch Up TV" but what's the point of trying to catch up with stuff you've struggled to see in the first place? Surely, you're going to end up recording more still because you've been "catching up" when you should have been watching 'up-to-date'.. In essence, you never really can catch up unless you only watch one or two series and can dedicate all those hours to sitting in front of the telly instead of doing something useful instead.
It's a bit like having a credit card and only paying off the minimum each month! ?
