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700 MHz clearance

I'm picking up UHF49, but no reception on UHF32 at all!

Afterthought: hmm. I wonder if that old C5 blocking filter is still in my system? In fact, I'm missing 32, 33, 35, 36.
 
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...nothing I can find (having visited the spiders). I think the answer could be that the antenna I have pointed at Mendip is no longer in the right group!
 
Black Hole said:
I think the answer could be that the antenna I have pointed at Mendip is no longer in the right group!
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This is the whole point of the parallel running period, where there is a significant group change - to give people time to sort out their aerials. Time to prise open the wallet and add moths to spiders!
 
I'm getting too old for these crawl spaces (maybe I could train a spider - or the wasps from the nest I just found)!

At least I think I have an answer: I have found an Antiference aerial A+E combiner I had forgotten all about. When I set this system up (getting on for 30 years ago), my partner-to-be wanted house-wide reception for West plus Wales (being a news junkie). The frequencies for Mendip were too close to those for Wenvoe for my liking (and both H), so I shifted the Wales aerial to Mynydd Machen (V), and used the combiner to eliminate cross-talk (or loss of power by re-radiation). (One of her other friends came around later, took a look at my mods and saw the other aerials in the area were all H, and took it upon himself to switch it back to H!)

The combiner will be adding to my pass-band woes, so I'll report back when I've got that out of the system (I could just kill Machen for the moment and see what happens). Only then will I know what the aerial pass-band is like.

One thing's for sure: I won't be able to use that old VCR to modulate the security camera onto UHF any more. Time to dig out a Maplin UHF modulator (must have one somewhere, even though I sent one to Trev). DVB modulator last resort!
 
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prpr said:
This is the whole point of the parallel running period, where there is a significant group change - to give people time to sort out their aerials.
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Yeah, but your average Emmerdale-watching dullard Joe Public are going to say "that's funny, BBC1 is now on 751!" not "OMG, I can't get BBC1 on LCN 1 any more, I must call in the aerial engineer (thank you BBC for alerting me to this and providing a period of grace)".
 
Black Hole said:
Yeah, but your average Emmerdale-watching dullard Joe Public are going to say "that's funny, BBC1 is now on 751!" not "OMG, I can't get BBC1 on LCN 1 any more, I must call in the aerial engineer (thank you BBC for alerting me to this and providing a period of grace)".
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Sadly this is all too true. Most people will do nothing until the parallel running period ends and they lose channels.
 
Black Hole said:
The combiner will be adding to my pass-band woes, so I'll report back when I've got that out of the system (I could just kill Machen for the moment and see what happens). Only then will I know what the aerial pass-band is like.
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Well, I have got UHF32 on the tuners with a short wire to the aerial! Not great, and although I can tune 32 manually on the others it still gives a "no signal" message when I actually try to watch it!. I guess I will have to replace the aerial (which is probably a Group C/D at the moment) - I don't like heights much these days. The current Group A should be fine for Machen.

I can't get a decent signal from Wenvoe either - just not pointing in the right direction I guess. C/D would be fine for that though... Maybe I could point the Group C/D at Wenvoe for most services, and fill in with Group A from Mendip!
 
Trying to sort out retune for mother-law. Seems that her home's communal aerial doesn't support the new channel 32 (and probably some less interesting multiplexes following previous retunes). I wasn't aware of the parallel 751 etc., so that gives me a quick short-term fix (her TV does not support HD).

Any idea how long it is supposed to last?

Hopefully long enough for the house committee to be persuaded that the June retune will probably take out the principal HD and key non-BBC channels... that the aerial system needs fixing (whether aerial group or band filter).
 
prpr said:
Until 5th June.
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I was about to ask that too. Where does the info about UHF49 come from? It's not listed on the coverage checker.

hairy_mutley said:
Seems that her home's communal aerial doesn't support the new channel 32
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I'm visiting my supported user today - being mainly into ITV the retune didn't bother her too much once I explained... but the above might hit her too. UPDATE: All fine, UHF32 at 83% (that's 70% more than me :()

Black Hole said:
Well, I have got UHF32 on the tuners with a short wire to the aerial!
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It's dropped out entirely this morning!
 
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Somewhere I've read mention that frequencies are heading down to UHF48 and below. Well, Wenvoe is all currently sub-48, but the next couple of retune events push muxes up to 55 and 56! "Final prediction" for Mendip also includes 55 & 56.
 
Black Hole said:
Somewhere I've read mention that frequencies are heading down to UHF48 and below. Well, Wenvoe is all currently sub-48, but the next couple of retune events push muxes up to 55 and 56! "Final prediction" for Mendip also includes 55 & 56.
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The 55 and 56s are just temporary. They will be withdrawn if Arqiva believe they are not financially viable, or if they interfere with mobile services , or when the mobile broadcasters who have the rights to the frequencies are just about ready to use the frequencies, or when the licence to use them under these conditions ends and is not renewed, ( I can't remember the exact date but its not latter than 2022 - May 2022?).
The licences for the frequencies for 48 and below, are longer and are far less mobile centric.
 
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Luke said:
The 55 and 56s are just temporary.
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Well, COM7 and COM8 are currently on 35 & 36 (Mendip), and I can't pick them up anyway (maybe because of the C/D aerial, because the coverage checker seems to think I should have good power on those), so I don't suppose I would miss them.

That's important, because I will need to decide whether to install a Group K or a Group T.

Black Hole said:
I don't like heights much these days.
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I'm even contemplating getting an aerial man in – something I don't much like doing because I prefer to know it's done right than trust some monkey to have done it right where I can't check. Some time in the past I fitted arial sockets under the eaves, so the first links from the aerials to the sockets will be easy to replace while he's up there.
 
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Black Hole said:
Correct type? Just surface-mount UHF co-ax sockets. They work.
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They work sometimes. The problem is they are unscreened, and generally a poor connector. You should use inline barrel F couplers for this sort of thing, they are fully screened and make better connection. You should also wrap the entire connection in self amalgamating tape to prevent water ingress.
 
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