CW
cwathen
Founding member
Why have you started about 4 or 5 threads which can easily be answered by reading the first 2 pages of this forum? And if I may make a suggestion, try and discover the backspace key on your keyboard to correct typos before submitting your post. And if you see any particularly big blunders afterwords, use the edit button to correct them. Try also learning about apostrophe usage.
Anyway, Birmingham (and much of the West Midlands) is covered by Sutton Coldfield. It does carry DTT but the signal can be too weak to receive in some areas without a grouped aerial or a signal booster.
Remember that the Freeview site is designed to take a 'worst case scenario' at predicting coverage, so that the predictor doesn't predict coverage where none exists, but it's by no means conclusive.
I.e. huge swathes of Plymouth are officially not covered by DTT, in fact pretty much all of Plymouth can receive it. Granted, you might need a professional installed grouped aerial mounted on a 6 foot high pole with a signal booster to get it, but the important thing is that you can get it.
Bear in mind though that many retailers will refuse to give you a refund on the box if you buy a box and the Freeview site says you can't get it.
Best bet is to borrow someone else's box to see if you can get it, or buy your box from somewhere which will not cause problems if you need to take it back (I'd recommend Index since their DTT boxes are included on their usual 16 day approval guarantee. DON'T buy it from Argos, because they exclude DTT receivers from their own 16 day grace period, and thus will only let you take it back if it's either faulty, or you can get no reception when the Freeview website says you can.
Anyway, Birmingham (and much of the West Midlands) is covered by Sutton Coldfield. It does carry DTT but the signal can be too weak to receive in some areas without a grouped aerial or a signal booster.
Remember that the Freeview site is designed to take a 'worst case scenario' at predicting coverage, so that the predictor doesn't predict coverage where none exists, but it's by no means conclusive.
I.e. huge swathes of Plymouth are officially not covered by DTT, in fact pretty much all of Plymouth can receive it. Granted, you might need a professional installed grouped aerial mounted on a 6 foot high pole with a signal booster to get it, but the important thing is that you can get it.
Bear in mind though that many retailers will refuse to give you a refund on the box if you buy a box and the Freeview site says you can't get it.
Best bet is to borrow someone else's box to see if you can get it, or buy your box from somewhere which will not cause problems if you need to take it back (I'd recommend Index since their DTT boxes are included on their usual 16 day approval guarantee. DON'T buy it from Argos, because they exclude DTT receivers from their own 16 day grace period, and thus will only let you take it back if it's either faulty, or you can get no reception when the Freeview website says you can.
:-(
A former member
cwathen posted:
Anyway, Birmingham (and much of the West Midlands) is covered by Sutton Coldfield. It does carry DTT but the signal can be too weak to receive in some areas without a grouped aerial or a signal booster.
I live in Stratford-upon-Avon (over 20 odd miles away) and use Sutton Coldfield for DTT (obv. with a booster) as I can't get a clear view of the local transmitter. Occasional break-up of picture, but I can get all channels.
:-(
its if says no it means it hard to get and unlikely to get all channels.
A former member
CC100 posted:
ive checked my postcode on the official site and it says no, but surely bvirmingham would be covered??
its if says no it means it hard to get and unlikely to get all channels.
:-(
A former member
Hi Andrew et al,
Im a couple of miles west of Stratford on Avon and directly with in line of sight of the Lark Stoke transmitter. Even with this I still don't get the full compliment of published Freeview channels and still suffer occasional breakup. Maybe this is due to our aerial being in the loft!
Have you tried pointing at Lark Stoke (Ilmington) at all? If so what were the results like for you?
James
Im a couple of miles west of Stratford on Avon and directly with in line of sight of the Lark Stoke transmitter. Even with this I still don't get the full compliment of published Freeview channels and still suffer occasional breakup. Maybe this is due to our aerial being in the loft!
Have you tried pointing at Lark Stoke (Ilmington) at all? If so what were the results like for you?
James
:-(
A former member
With the original aerial the reception was bad enough on analogue. However, even with a wideband aerial we couldn't get a decent picture from Lark Stoke, so we changed direction to Sutton Coldfield and have no real problems at all now.
So saying, my parents are in Luddington, just the other side of town, and they have old loft aerials (not wideband) and they get the four MUXes on the lower frequencies without any problem at all from Lark Stoke - ie they don't get the EMAP and Sky channels which you'd need wideband aerials to receive.
So saying, my parents are in Luddington, just the other side of town, and they have old loft aerials (not wideband) and they get the four MUXes on the lower frequencies without any problem at all from Lark Stoke - ie they don't get the EMAP and Sky channels which you'd need wideband aerials to receive.