Freeview on the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter

Adrian Bird
Wednesday 16 January 2013 7:37PM

BSB 3 and COM 5 keep going off is this due to the Weather?

Transmitter engineering
Wednesday 23 January 2013 12:14PM

WALTHAM transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Wrong Region from 10:14 today to 10:55 today. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering
Thursday 24 January 2013 4:31AM

WALTHAM transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Wrong Region from 10:14 yesterday to 10:55 yesterday. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering
Friday 25 January 2013 4:31AM

WALTHAM transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Wrong Region from 10:14 on 23 Jan to 10:55 on 23 Jan. [BBC]

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Marie Martin
Thursday 31 January 2013 8:18PM Leicester

Hi guys I have lost Film 4 on channel 57 , am on waltham transmitter. Anyone had the same problem?

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KMJ,Derby
Thursday 31 January 2013 8:40PM

Marie Martin: Film4 is loud and clear in Derby. It might be worth checking that you still are tuned to C57 rather than a possible C39 from Sutton Coldfield if your receiver has been re-tuned recently. Otherwise check for single frequency interference from the RF modulator of a Sky box or VCR. Also try repositioning aerial and HDMI leads relative to the receiver in case there is any interaction with the tuner.

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Ian
Friday 1 February 2013 11:59PM Hinckley

Something is defiantly going on at Waltham, over the past week or so a client of mine has had problems with some channels constantly breaking up while I have not not noticed anything, then yesterday they were all working perfectly for him, there have been lots of reports lately describing the same thing. What's going on???

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Nigel Cory
Saturday 2 February 2013 6:14PM

Ian. You have probably answered your own question. If 'your client' has had reception problems but you haven't, it seems quite likely that there is a problem either with his equipment or local interference.

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jb38
Saturday 2 February 2013 9:32PM

Ian: Another point being, that if your client happens to reside anywhere in the LE10 area then reception from Waltham is only predicted as being poor anyway due to en-route signal path obstructions, and although many people contrary to the predictors indications might well manage to achieve reasonable reception but what they do manage to receive is not by any means guaranteed as lasting, as in many cases the level that the signals are being received at is not at what could be considered as being a robust level by being not that terribly much above the reception cut off level of their equipment, this meaning that any relatively "minor" variations in transmitter output that would not even be noticed by most would however have more serious consequences to equipment whose reception was near to the aforementioned level.

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Ian
Saturday 2 February 2013 10:06PM Hinckley

I live in the LE10 area and my reception is strong. Always has been. He lives in the LE9 area his reception was fine before and after switch over then suddenly for about 10 days reception on some stations was bad, then without doing anything its fine again. Lot's of people have reported the same thing from Walthem. Digital just isn't as reliable as the old analogue was, you only have to read this forum to see that.

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jb38
Saturday 2 February 2013 11:58PM

Ian: Of course it isn't! as analogue reception can work right down to near zero signal level when the picture can barely be picked out from the background speckles, whereas with digital reception a picture can "only" resolved from between two set levels, namely the lower and upper thresholds, the problem being that under the lower as well as over the upper results in exactly the same symptoms and why set procedures have to be used to determine which applies.

The DUK's reception predictor in common with anything associated with RF signal prediction is never guaranteed to be 100% accurate as RF signals in the frequencies used by Freeview etc cannot ever be accurately predicted, but when transmitter coverage maps do not indicate that the signal being radiated from a certain transmitter covers an area then any reports of bad reception from the said area has to be associated with the fact of it not officially being covered, and as such anything that might be received could be classed as being purely through good fortune.

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Ian
Sunday 3 February 2013 1:43PM Hinckley

Another reason satellite is far better

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Keith Tyler
Sunday 3 February 2013 5:07PM Leicester

Aerial is positioned on chimney of bungalow. We experience severe signal disruption most days. When retuning topbox signal strength never exceeds 90%. Can you please advise?
POST CODE LE9 2DJ

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Dave Lindsay
Sunday 3 February 2013 6:00PM

Keith Tyler: The signal strength is perfectly healthy.

If this is a variable signal quality issue, then I would suggest that the most likely cause is traffic on the motorway which is crossing the signal path. Multiple lanes means more traffic at any given time which might increase the potential over a single carriageway.

Might traffic tie in with when you experience poor reception? How was it on Christmas Day when, presumably, there wouldn't have been many large vehicles (typically HGVs) about?

Clearly in situations where you have objects crossing the signal path then getting the aerial higher might stand you in better stead to see over them, or at least mitigate the degree to which they may degrade the signal. A bungalow is therefore not as best placed as a house in this respect.

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Dave Lindsay
Sunday 3 February 2013 6:16PM

Keith Tyler: If you haven't already done so,c check that your receiver is tuned to Waltham for all channels and not Sutton Coldfield or Belmont, although if it were so for BBC One or ITV then you know about it because you would get West Midlands or Yorkshire/Lincs programming instead of East Midlands.

Bring up the signal strength screen on each of the following and see whether it is tuned to the UHF/RF channel of Waltham:

BBC One = C61 (Sutton Coldfield=C43, Belmont=C22)
ITV = C54 (Sutton Coldfield=C46, Belmont=C25)
BBC One HD = C58 (Sutton Coldfield=C40, Belmont=C28)
ITV3 = C29 (Sutton Coldfield=C42, Belmont=C30)
Pick TV=C56 (Sutton Coldfield=C45, Belmont=C53)
Film4 = C57 (Sutton Coldfield=C39, Belmont=C60)

For example, BBC One it should be tuned to C61 and not 43 or 22.

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jb38
Sunday 3 February 2013 7:47PM

Ian: Exactly!! as although it cannot be denied that lots of people find Freeview to be perfectly OK for their requirements and especially those who have TV's or boxes fitted in a number of rooms, as it simply involves using an aerial splitter or distribution amp and running a single coax to each of the remote locations, whereas with Freesat or Sky each location requires its own individual feed from the dish, or x 2 to each location if a PVR is involved.

But though convenient as Freeview might be it still it doesn't take away from the fact that reception via terrestrial digital is by its very nature not near so robust as when received via a satellite system where the signal arrives from above, and as such is for 99% of the time impervious to being interfered with, this unlike in the case of Freeview reception where the signal from the mast frequently experiences obstructions of various sorts along the way then when it arrives at the receiver it (the receiver) has to battle with such things as atmospheric induced (or otherwise) co-channel interference etc as well as a whole host or other types of problems that are too numerous to mention, many of them not being of a rectifiable nature.

The problem with the aforementioned being that the situation will never improve, and indeed could get worse for some as channels are squeezed into a smaller area for the purpose of allowing the bands that they were operating in to be sold off for mobile phone use, something I intensely disagree with.

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Ian
Sunday 3 February 2013 9:46PM Hinckley

It's all been a total cop out in my opinion.

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Paul
Wednesday 20 February 2013 1:47PM

I'm struggling to get ITV3 and 5* and 5USA from Waltham, so I presume I have a problem with Channel 29. I receive all of the other channels ok. I have tried a signal booster to no avail. Any other suggestions?

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Dave Lindsay
Wednesday 20 February 2013 1:53PM

Paul: Without a clue as to where you are, we are guessing. So I'll offer a guess: If you live in the Sutton-in-Ashfield/Clay Cross area you may find that Chesterfield transmitter is an issue as it is co-channel for on C29, but not co-channel on others.

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Paul
Wednesday 20 February 2013 5:34PM

Apologies. I'm in Braunstone, Leicester, pointing to the Waltham transmitter

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Dave Lindsay
Wednesday 20 February 2013 5:46PM

Paul: For Waltham you might need to have your former Group C/D aerial replaced. This would have been installed in the days of four-channel analogue.

Channel 29 is out of group whereas all the others are in-group.

There appear to be no C29 transmitters that might cause you difficulty.

What sort of strength and quality do you get on C29?

If you have manual tuning, go to it and select C29. Don't press the button to select/scan the channel; instead see if it gives an indication of strength and quality (give it several seconds to stabilise).

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Transmitter engineering
Wednesday 27 February 2013 4:31AM

WALTHAM transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Off Air from 01:51 today to 02:35 today. [BBC]

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Adrian Bird
Thursday 28 February 2013 12:04AM

PSB 3 and COM 5 no signal,then broken picture,then no signal?

Transmitter engineering
Thursday 28 February 2013 4:31AM

WALTHAM transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Off Air from 01:51 yesterday to 02:35 yesterday. [BBC]

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Adrian Bird
Thursday 28 February 2013 6:58PM

PSB 3 and COM 5 Continued problems.

jb38
Thursday 28 February 2013 8:54PM

Adrian Bird: Waltham is listed in the engineering notices as being liable to suffer from interruptions to its service at any time during this week, and indeed as you may have seen on the posting above your own was off the air for 43 minutes yesterday.

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Adrian Bird
Thursday 28 February 2013 10:16PM

jb 38; the same problem occured on 16th Feb,
was any work taking place on that date.

Transmitter engineering
Friday 1 March 2013 4:31AM

WALTHAM transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Off Air from 01:51 on 27 Feb to 02:35 on 27 Feb. [BBC]

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jb38
Friday 1 March 2013 3:36PM

Adrian Bird: Unfortunately I am unable to make any retrospective checks as far as engineering information is concerned as its updated on a weekly basis, however as a person who also uses the Waltham transmitter (located West side of Stamford) I can say that reception from there has been problematic at times since about mid January, the channel that has recently been causing most problems being mux Ch56, however on checking about 10 minutes ago I see that its Ch57's turn today as far as it indicating erratic quality, mux Ch56 indicating stable.

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Mr P Watmough
Sunday 10 March 2013 1:25PM

I have discovered that Waltham (better known as the "heap" of the week, even the mast fell down some years ago). It is regularly on low power but it is never reported WHY ?
It would help everbody if they made it public
that Waltham again had problems. I dred 4G coming. Freeview has no chance of providing a stable service.The picture quality is very poor, often on reduced bandwidth Yes I do know when it is on low power I have very high spec, spectrum analyzers fully calibrated and up to date.

Ian
Sunday 10 March 2013 10:34PM Hinckley

When 4G goes live in the 800 band I have decided that if there are any problems my aerial is coming down. I will rely totally on Sky and Freesat from Sky. Terrestrial TV has been penny pinched and squeezed to death in my opinion. Murdock and Branson must be laughing all the way to the bank.

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jb38
Sunday 10 March 2013 11:48PM

Ian: Well although I cant disagree with anyone using Freesat (not necessarily Sky's version) for purposes of obtaining reliable reception for 99.9% of the time, you have to also appreciate that you are only predicted to have a variable to poor level of reception from the Waltham transmitter because of your location, Sutton Coldfield giving a 100% rating for PSB channels and not far off 100% for the commercial multiplexes.

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Ian
Monday 11 March 2013 5:55PM Hinckley

At the moment My signal is 100% on all channels and has been for years. There isn't much point in tuning in to Sutton coalfield as that has coverage for the west Midlands and I live in the east Midlands.

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jb38
Monday 11 March 2013 9:09PM

Ian: Well, there are always pockets of good reception within any area that's generally considered as bad, albeit with yourself being fortunate enough to be in one of choice areas contrary to what's indicated, as the terrain indicator shows a couple of natural obstructions to the signal path from the Waltham transmitter starting from roughly just under four miles away from your location, this being the most likely reason why a number of different tests codes made around the Hinckley area when fed into DUK's predictor indicates reception from Waltham as being from variable to poor, and in one case no reception of the commercial muxes being possible.

This being the case, although I do appreciate that you prefer to view the East Midlands news services rather than the West the fact remains that "transmission wise" you are in Sutton Coldfield's coverage area, Sutton Coldfield being @ 18.6 miles whereas Waltham is 31 miles.

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Ian
Tuesday 12 March 2013 7:18PM Hinckley

The majority of aerials in East Hinckley point to Waltham, in West Hinckley its about 50/50. The predictor on this site shows Hinckley as strong reception from Waltham. I have had many an argument with the so called professionals trying to tell me that I cant get Waltham, 1 even told me I wasn't receiving Waltham even though I was. As I said there is no point in anyone watching TV from the wrong transmitter even if it is the nearest if they want a news program that covers there area. Another reason satellite is a better option, you can choose any region you want.

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jb38
Tuesday 12 March 2013 11:47PM

Ian: Sorry, but I beg to differ regarding good reception being indicated as that's not what I see on the map which I assume that you are referring to, because if the post code you have entered is actually where you are located (Langdale Road ?) and not one from somewhere nearby, then even when using the map on this site you are sitting right on the doorstep of a dead spot (to the East) for reception as far as Waltham is concerned, albeit though not where Sutton Coldfield is involved as you have to remember that the map opens showing the coverage of the latter mentioned station likewise all of the aerials seen in your road are facing in the direction of SC, you having to click on Walthams icon to view its predicted coverage area.

I do appreciate that the images used to view the aforementioned aerials are not bang up to date, and with the possibility existing that some of the aerials seen might well have been swung around to Waltham since they had first appeared, but as far as anyone in the past having maybe tried to maintain that you weren't receiving from Waltham I am most certainly not doing, because judging by what you have said you obviously are, but in my opinion only because that you are lucky enough to be in a relatively good spot for reception from that station.

You should have a check using DUK's predictor on the right hand side of your posting, as although any predictions that are given can only be that (predictions) and as such errors will always exist, but even when allowing for these possible errors the predictions made on DUKs site cannot be totally disregarded by them being so universally negative as far as reception from Waltham is concerned.

Of course you do not really have to use the post code map, because if you blow up the picture at the top of this page you can see the dead spot that I am referring to albeit without your exact location being indicated.

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Ian
Wednesday 13 March 2013 6:05PM Hinckley

Never blown the map up before, very interesting because some of the streets in the dead spot have aerials pointing at Waltham.

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jb38
Thursday 14 March 2013 6:36PM

Ian: Re; the direction that the aerials are seen to be facing, I dare say that they could well be facing Waltham as it has to be appreciate that its well nigh impossible for anyone to plot out an exact map of where an RF signal can be received and where not, that is unless an engineer travels around a particular area with a field strength meter, something that in the official sense is not really done nowadays hence these maps cannot really be used in the same way as would be a street map.

Another point being, that reception within these type of areas can be of the nature whereby a person can be receiving a good signal on one side of the street whereas another situated directly across the road from them struggles, and why even moving an aerial a few feet to the left or right of its present mounting position can in many (but not all) cases result in success, however occasionally this success is short lived due to the seasonal changes affecting the reflective properties of the terrain, something which always comes into the equation with reception in this type of situation albeit this in many cases being relatively unnoticed with DTT whereas with analogue a viewer might notice the picture having become slightly more grainy.

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Ian
Thursday 14 March 2013 10:10PM Hinckley

This is very true, I remember my mother telling me once that they had to have an outside aerial whilst the neighbour only needed an indoor.

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