TV signal.

[gavroche]

Every time we have a heatwave, I can't get a signal on many channels on tv. Tonight, no signal for ITV or BBC but the lesser channels are working. Strange as I thought digital was supposed to give better reception than analogue.

 

[MontyVeda]

If they told us that digital wasn't quite as good as analogue, they wouldn't have sold us digital quite so easily.

There's nothing on tonight anyway.

 

[fossyant]

Every time we have a heatwave, I can't get a signal on many channels on tv. Tonight, no signal for ITV or BBC but the lesser channels are working. Strange as I thought digital was supposed to give better reception than analogue.

Winter Hill is currently on fire, so that might not help. Right near the transmitter.

 

[fossyant]

 

[ColinJ]

Freeview or satellite?

 

[fossyant]

Freeview or satellite?

No Moor fires in space !

 

[gavroche]

Freeview or satellite?

Freeview off tv aerial.

 

[Crackle]

Get up on the roof and wiggle it a bit.

 

[Beebo]

If they told us that digital wasn't quite as good as analogue, they wouldn't have sold us digital quite so easily.

There's nothing on tonight anyway.

Same with DAB radio.
If the signal is weak you get nothing, where as at least with a weak analogue signal you get to hear the radio through the crackles.

 

[ColinJ]

No Moor fires in space !

I wasn't talking to you!

Wouldn't N Wales be getting its signal from Moel-Y-Parc?

I'm currently having problems with my TV reception too. I had the LNB* replaced (*Low Noise Block - the little box with the receiver on that sits on the end of the pole on the front of a satellite dish) and all was well for a week but now the problems have come back. I suspect that the connectors/cable at the dish end had got corroded. Disconnecting/reconnecting them was just enough to remake the connections for a while. I'll get Sat Dish Man back to have another go!

 

[fossyant]

Possibly,

We get our signal from Winter Hill in Prestatyn - the smart telly tells us - there is a hill in the way of the other transmitter !

 

[MontyVeda]

Winter Hill is currently on fire, so that might not help. Right near the transmitter.

 

[Drago]

There are two atmospheric phenomena that cause this - ducting, and Sporadic E. It's the frequencies in use, hi VHF/low UHF that are succeptable, and the atmosphere cares not if the carrier is digital or analogue.
As far as the physics is concerned its simp,y an electromagnetic signal.

Tinker with the digital signal enough and it drops completely, whereas analogue degrades slowly in proportion with the level of interference. Digital is only more robust up to a point...then it drops off a cliff entirely.

The interference argument is a pup, designed to sell the idea to the gullible public. The real advantage is more stations can be crammed into the same bandwidth, albeit with a significant loss in broadcast quality, which means more broadcast licences sold, more money for Ofcum (As radio hams call it).

 

[ColinJ]

The interference argument is a pup, designed to sell the idea to the gullible public. The real advantage is more stations can be crammed into the same bandwidth, albeit with a significant loss in broadcast quality, which means more broadcast licences sold, more money for Ofcum (As radio hams call it).

I never got a decent analogue signal in Hebden Bridge despite a reasonable aerial with a clear view of the local relay tower on the hillside opposite, about 1 km away. There was always lots of multipath interference ('ghosting') caused by other hills and big buildings. The digital switchover removed that problem at a stroke.

 

[Drago]

Aye, thats to do with the way digital is reprocessed by the receiver - having received and decoded signal X with time stamp Y the receiver knows not to do so again if it receives the same information a fraction of a second later, as it would be if reflected from a different transmitter. The ghost reflections and more distant weaker signals are still there, but the cunning receiver knows to ignore them.