Arq A/Com 5 problems

There has been some change, this morning whilst watching 4/7 Ch049 still getting the usual brief black screen but no full pause with picture instead I am having the screen go black and displaying "Pause" and showing the time but the sound from the watched program is still heard. I then have to press the remotes pause button to get the picture back.
Edit Just had full pause with Picture, I had hoped the change was a sign of something being done for the better.
 
Last edited:
Sorry to be late on the bandwagon, but bad audio would be a step up for me on ARQ A.
I have been having issues with a HDR for months with pixellation and dropouts on all channels. Spend £250 for a installer to upgrade existing 5 dipole aerial to 11 dipole one. Marginal improvement.
About 4 weeks later problems reoccur. Neighbour mentions he has similar problems, might be do with 5G masts at local exchange - worth getting in touch with an outfit called Recover that has been setup to cure these issues. Recover engineer spend a couple of hours troubleshooting changing aerial pole for cranked one and again margin signal quaity, but bearable for 3 months - but 5 weeks ago Sky Arts stopping recording.
Investigation discover all channels on ARQ A have gone awol (50% Strength, 10% Quality on Manual Search). Navigate Freeview website. No issues on Plympton . Wait a week, the same . Phone Freeview tell there are shown so why has transponder disappeared. They say there are ongoing maintenance issue with Caradon main transmitter this be cause. Wait a week, phone again, same reply - and another week same reply.
Today try manual search again - 50% strength but quality is bouncing about above 50%. Retune - 22 channels found. All on EPG. My LUCKY DAY. But short lived, all channels give errors. Manual tune shows back to 50% Strength, 10% Quality.
All other transponders are fine, ( Strength 70%, Quality 100%). But to confuse issues, after one effort to Auto tune I have pixellation on HD channels. Found it had found Caradon on channel 22 - opposite direction to where aerial is pointing and opposite polarity - go figure.
Any suggestions ?
 
Caradon Hill Horizontal PSBs 100 kW erp, COMs 50 kW erp. Line fed.
BBC A 28+ D3&4 25+ BBC B (HD) 22+ SDN 21+ Arq A 24- Arq B 27-

Plympton Vertical, all 400 Watts erp. PSBs line fed daughter and COMs off air relay (of Caradon).
BBC A40 D3&4 42 BBC B (HD) 45 SDN 41 Arq A 44 Arq B 47

So no simple frequency related issue with Arq A from Plympton . Likely no line of sight so diffracted signals and standing waves (where some frequencies get reinforced and others cancelled out) and / or reception through trees making aerial positioning critical and liable to change.

Receiving a different transmitter off the back of an aerial is not unusual. I had pretty good analogue reception of Hemel Hempstead on my 18 element contact aerial pointing to Crystal Palace back in the day.
Always manual tune receivers in such situations rather than use the auto tune feature.

I assume the predictions from https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/detailed-transmitter-information for your home are best for Plympton and poor for Caradon Hill? If Caradon is good it may be worth trying receiving from there?

BTW there's only one active dipole in an aerial... so I'm at a loss what your 5 and 11 references are about. Unless you mean something like this https://www.blake-uk.com/5-bay-xkdmx-high-gain-aerial-ftype.html and https://www.blake-uk.com/aerials-tv...in-aerial-original-std-2-group-k-ch-2148.html from another manufacturer?
 
Freeview predictions are best for Caradon. Output is 50 times greater than Plympton but twice distance, but we are half way up a hill in the lee side from Caradon. Plympton is in line of sight. Where the aerial was put up 5 years ago I requested it to be pointed to Caradon but installer said he could not see the Caradon signal from the roof so put a 5 elements aerial up. This worked fine for 4 years.
(Sorry for mixing elements and dipoles up, I have little aerial experience more IT background. Literacy is not my best point but after a recent stroke words and sentences do not flow well. Apologies for stilting style)
Further installer and Resolve engineer both had trouble getting good signal from Caradon. It seems than the Caradon signal is swamping Plympton with a bad signal. I was under the impression that a mast head filter was fitted, presumably for Caradon, but could be also be for 5G signals.
But still do understand why only this one transponder is affected, others all fine - and on 3 calls why Freeview have not been able figure it out, and say call back next Monday when we get in of reports of transmitter faults.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top