[justnod]

Hi - I see there are a few posts around about poor BBC reception but most I have seen refer to Winter Hill transmitter. I am pointing at Crystal Palace but for the past couple of weeks the reception on BBC1, BBC2 etc has been very variable and mostly poor. I experience the same problem on 3 separate digital boxes. The other channels are fine and show a strong signal. Sometimes when I attempt a retune, it doesn't even detect these BBC channels.

I know that I'm on the edge of the Crystal Palace reception area (near High Wycombe) but that doesn't really explain the sudden change. I can see no evidence of engineering work at Crystal Palace either.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[Phlog]

There are so many issues that can can impact a marginal signal. First the weather, including rain. Then there are new buildings, or even trees that grow into the signal path.

Have you asked neighbours if they're suffering poorer signals, too?

Also, of course, there's the recent-retune. I assume that went OK for you?

[justnod]

Thanks for the reply. The re-tune went OK as far as I can recall. I'm pretty confident that the BBC issues have only arisen in last couple of weeks.

Until this year, we used to lose some freeview channels during the summer months (e.g. Channel 5, BBC 4 and others) for which the best theory I could come up with was leaves on trees. But we have not had that problem this year.

We are positioned near the top of a hill and our aerial is on a mast pointing at Crystal Palace. I believe those further down the hill simply can't get freeview. I know our immediate neighbours on lower side point their aerial at a different transmitter (which I believe is not a Freeview one) but I guess I could ask one or two other neighbours.

BBC1/2 etc has become just watchable again in last couple of days but who knows if that improvement will remain.

Thanks again.

[Ted]

Having the same problem here, all BBC channels in the past few weeks have been patchy at best and unwatchable at worst. Also on Crystal Palace and a lot nearer being outside Kingston in Surrey. Pretty sure it is due to atmospheric conditions, signal interference from other transmitters further away which travel further during periods of high pressure. Seems to have been happening after the retune as far as I'm concerned. The good news is this should be resolved when they turn off the analogue signal and increase the digital signal, if you can wait til 2012 that is. I can still get BBC channels perfectly whatever the weather on a less sensitive indoor aerial though.

[Phlog]

One possible factor I didn't mention: wind. We've had some very high winds, and since you're on top of a hill you probably got your fair share. So possibly the aerial's been slightly shifted - just enough to make the signal even more marginal.

[justnod]

Thanks. Yes that is another possibility. I tried nudging the aerial from below (with a rather long piece of gardening equipment!) and it seemed fairly solid. Any movement I generated with this unscientific approach didn't improve the picture but I accept that this is hardly solid proof that all is well with the aerial.

For the moment I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it ccontinues to improve without further interference from me.