Thanks for the advice and help

That's what I will do (map)

I have lost all itv channels plus a lot of others on freeview tv. Can you tell what has gone wrong.

Hi,
I live in a block in North London, postcode N6 5DJ. Around the start of May the whole block gradually lost reception on Mux 1. We have a large aerial on the roof that is on a 16 ft pole, as there is a nearby ridge between us and the transmitter at Crystal Palace.

A couple of months on and we still have no reception at all on Mux 1, yet everyone can receive all the other channels/multiplexes. We had aerial engineers to look at the aerial, but they didn't seem very knowledgeable - well, they'd never heard of the word 'multiplex' anyway...

Still, it is very confusing that we should have no reception on the multiplex that is broadcast at the highest power, yet fine reception on all other channels. Any suggestions as to what might be wrong or how to move forward would be gratefully received.

Thanks.

Dan Jackson: Is there no signal at all on C25 or is there a signal but with poor quality? What is the analogue reception like on ITV1(C23) and BBC1(C26). The possible causes are a faulty distribution amplifier oscillating on the Mux1 frequency,an RF source such as a VCR or Sky box tuned to C25, or even possibly trees in leaf or a construction crane in the signal path selectively blocking the Mux1 signal.

Hi KMJ,

Firstly, thanks for your comments. The is a solid line of large trees that are growing on top of the nearby ridge and I noticed that the Mux 1 reception started dying away as the leaves came out in force. However, I don't understand how they can block some frequencies and not others.

There are 14 flats in my building, so it is also possible that faulty equipment might be to blame. However, I note that one of the notable features of the problem is that the affected mux 1 on C25 has highly variable signal strength (as shown on my Humax PVR-9200T at least), whereas all of the working mux frequencies have a steady signal strength. When the aerial 'engineers' came, they told me they'd plugged their signal meter directly into the output of the aerial and witnessed the same variable signal on C25. This leads me to believe that it is probably not faulty equipment in this instance, given that they saw the same problem when connecting directly to the aerial.

I have checked my analogue reception and I get all 5 channels, though BBC1 is noticeably lower quality than the other 4 channels.

Finally, I checked the signal strengths for a number of channels (again, only using the signal meter on my Humax box) and I see that there is a clear drop in signal for the range of frequencies that covers the channels 24-27:

C21: 15% strength; 0% quality
C22: 54% strength; 100% quality
C23: 61% strength; 0% quality
C24: 25% strength; 0% quality
C25: 29% - 56% strength (highly variable); 0% (Quality occasionally shot up to 100% on the meter but no picture is ever displayed on mux 1 channels.)
C26: 40% - 55% strength; 0% quality
C27: 20% - 23% strength; 0% quality
C28: 60% strength; 100% quality
C29: 60% strength; 100% quality
C30: 60% strength; 0% quality
C31: 60% strength; 0% quality
C32: 61% strength; 100% quality
C33: 60% strength; 0% quality
C34: 61% strength; 100% quality
C35: 25% strength; 0% quality
C36: 20% strength; 0% quality
C37: 69% strength; 0% quality
C38: 27% strength; 0% quality
C39 – C44: 15 – 18% strength; 0% quality

Any further thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Dan Jackson: It is not unusual for trees in leaf to affect one or two channels more than the rest.Did the engineer not try slight repositioning or lowering of the aerial to try for a different signal path? Trying a different aerial would also have been wise to confirm that there was no defect with the existing aerial.

KMJ: No, unfortunately they did not. As I mentioned, I found them less than impressive. If it was the leaves/trees that were causing the problem, would it just be a cause of making a small alteration to the direction or position of the aerial to regain mux 1 reception?
Thanks.

Dan Jackson: It is largely trial and error when looking for a position where possibly the signal is able to get through- sometimes it is possible to find a signal path under the main branches.It is rather disappointing that the engineers noticed the problem on the meter but did try to improve the reception.

The ITV element of The Great Missenden relay transmitter has ceased to work after a severe thunder storm. Who do I report this to?

Is anyone experiencing excessive freezing of the picture on the freeview CH 22 from Crystal Palace transmitter lately? Apparently there is work being done but this web site says digital is not affected.

3rd day without most of the Freeview channels in Pinner, What's going on?

John: Please see Freeview reception has changed? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

Gary: Please see Freeview reception has changed? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

Deborah Kerr: Please see Broadcaster complaints details | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

KMJ: Yes, it was frustrating that they didn't try to adjust the aerial at all. I think they wanted to make sure that the free-holders' association would agree to pay them before they did anything like that.
Thanks for your help.

i cant seem to down load the epg ,does the reciever need to be in stand by or left on, irecieve xtal palace ,i am in bucks and 500ft asl,and the signal strength is endstop.

john: and the device isn't listed on the InView EPG death - boxes | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice ?

I've lost three quarters of my channels from Crystal Palace transmitter over the last week. Re-tuning hasn';t helped - in fact it lost even more! The info on this site suggests that analogue may be affected, but digital is ok - can anyone explain this loss of channels? (map)

sean: Can you first check the Freeview reception has changed? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice list?

Cystal palace:

In the last two weeks signal strength for BBC 1 BBC2 etc all stations on MUX have reduced to 20%. The effect is that I can no longer receive them.

Strangely MUX2 stations remain unnafected eg ITV ITV2 C2 Virgin and I can get a near perfect signal.

BBC maintain they do not have a problem

Does anyone have a solution (map)

Hello,
We've lost our BBC digital radio signal in the Warton area of carnforth. It vanished sometime around 9 ish yesterday and hasn't returned. My neighbour is having the same issue so it isn't just my radio.
Any ideas why? The local transmitters are saying they don't have any problems
(map)

Robin: Please see Freeview reception has changed? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice for help.

Lucy: Do you mean on DAB or via Freeview?

I live on Essex Road (N1 3AR) and have had major issues with most freeview channels in the past week - particularly ITV, E4, C5 etc but channels like BBC1 are absolutely fine. I live in a rented flat and have no roof antenna so have used an digital indoor antenna that used to work fine (unless some scooter goes passed...) what could be the issue of the sudden signal loss?

Cornelia: Can you see, in the first instance, Single frequency interference | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice ?

@Briantist thanks. looks like it's a single frequency interference, Mux 1 & C working fine, the rest bad to no reception.

I have no idea whether any of my neighbours in the house next door have moved any of their digital equipment closer to the proximity of my living room (dont even know them to actually ask)...

I have noticed that there is a scaffholding up opposite (about 40m away) - could that interfere with the reception? Anything I can do to strengthen the signal at all?

Thx
Cornelia (map)

Cornelia: Yes, scaffolding will effect TV reception. Can you position the aerial up higher?

@briantist unfortunately I cannot position it any higher...i've googled some amplifier and boosters - would that help? (map)

Cornelia: Not usually - they are great for situations where you have a good signal and want to get it to several sets, but if you have a poor signal to start with, then no amount of boosting will restore it.

Often boosters just make the situation worse. - Indoor aerials | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice

Who would have guessed that actually REMOVING the signal booster would improve my Freeview reception to much! Thanks Brian - it has done the trick!

Sean: Always happy to hear that works - the cheapest upgrade.

I live in Hammersmith and have had no Freeview for 2 days!! Analogue is fine but all Freeview channels have dissapeared.....will they return?
Aaaaargh!!!

I have a high gain digital aerial but this week ITV signal poor quality on Freeview. Is this likely to be temporary please?

TJ: I would have a go at My Freeview box has no EPG, is blank on FIVE, ITV3, ITV4, ITV2+1, has no sound or the channel line up is wrong | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

Martin Bowman: There is nothing listed for the transmitter, so I would see Single frequency interference | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

19:45 10/8/10 - Islington, Central London
Everything has died - Analog, Sky and Freeview all dead!!!

WTF is going on?

CatchupTV still working but nothing else.

Oh dear, we are in trouble now.

Roger Wright: Not sure what you mean by "dead"?

Briantist: what mean by "dead"

Well, my Freeview had the small red square on all Muxs/channels, my analog service had "white noise" on 1-5 and the Sky box had the EPG, but all the Sky and BBC channels reported "no signal"

Seems like a good definition of "dead".

Perhaps a fuse blew in the Post Office Tower somewhere.

The analog service started to come back during 20:30-21:30. Freeview and Sky back by 21:00.

Cheers

Roger Wright: That's not really "dead", but "no signal". If you have a problem with both satellite and terrestrial, I would expect you have a local problem. Do you have a communal aerial system?

Briantist: No signal at all etc.

No, I have my own aerials for terrestrial and Sky with separate cable runs to different parts of my roof. That's why I was extremely surprised to lose all three at the same time.

Thinking about it, since my Sky dish and TV aerial vaguely point south (SSE and SSW) I suppose there might have been some strange weather locally blocking both together, but I've never had all three fail before and I've been using Sky and Freeview (and whatever it used to be called) since they started up.

Thanks

Roger Wright: I can't think of a weather condition that would effect both systems, as the usual ones (Inversion for Freeview, Heavy Rain for satellite) are more-or-less mutually exclusive.

They're currently replacing transmitting aerials at Crystal Palace, and numerous other sites, without really giving any information out publicly.

These photos were taken on the 8th of July:

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/crystalpalace/crystal-palace09.php

Transmissions were clearly coming from the new reserve aerial at that point as the main aerial had been removed!

I think a contributor has uploaded newer photos than that which showed the main aerial nearer to completion, but if they're hoisting equipment up and down there's a chance that whatever is going up - or down - is shadowing one or other aerial.

In addition new buildings are frequently being erected and the transmission equipment and feeder cables moved between the buildings, as the old analogue transmitters will of course soon be obsolete. As they switch between these transmitters there are brief periods when it will have to be off.

Basically everyone in the country is going to have intermittent TV reception for about another two years. The transmission company Arqiva, being a private company, have no requirement to tell the public what they're doing. To the extent they are providing information, they are doing an appalling job of making it accurate and timely. (map)

Brian, after switchover from the top of this thread I noticed on transmission frequencies there appears two new multiplexes, MuxNew7 and MuxNew8. Are these set aside for possibly new channels. Will they be DVB-T2 technology. (map)

J purkis: No, they won't be DVB-T2, they are likely to be low capacity DVB-T services, like the one used for Channel M in Manchester.

Here in sunny Hammersmith, channel 29 has been dead as a dodo since late Monday night 23/08/10. That means no Film4 or ITV4 etc. Has anyone else noticed? Is this anything to do with the mentioned Crystal Palace work above? The top of this page says "TV (digital) working normally...". Notwithstanding weather effects, everything else is OK. (map)

Richard: There is no work listed and no problems reported, please can you see Freeview reception has changed? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice and also Single frequency interference | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice ?

I'm over near Sevenoaks (TN13) and have been having really bad reception on terrestial (looks like a weak signal problem & absolutely nothing on Freeview) for at least 2 months now. Done all the usual things, checking connections etc.

We are lined up on Crystal Palace, as we cant get a signal from Bluebell hill. It is sounding like a problem at Crystal palace, is anyone else having trouble in the area, as i don't want to call out an aerial man unless it is absolutely necessary.

Anyone else been having problems around this area?

Dave.

David Heslington: The transmitter is, according to all official sources, operating normally. It is a bit hard to say what other problems might be without a full postcode. I would check the Freeview reception has changed? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice list before you call someone out.

CRYSTAL PALACE transmitter - Analogue BBC ONE Weak Signal; DSO related from 00:00 yesterday [BBC] Over the next week Crystal Palace main transmitter: TV (analogue) Possible weak signal, TV (digital) working normally, Radio (analogue) working normally, Radio (digital) working normally. [DUK]