Everything went off air

I was watching analogue television earlier, and at about 9.36am the channel fell off air. I checked the others and just got static, then checked the digital Freeview channels and the box presented a message reading 'No Signal'.

A minute later, back on analogue (Five to be exact), the screen turned black and a line of text appeared in the top left hand corner saying "Application Starting ..." The text was white, in a sort a Ceefax-style font. It was on screen for about 30 seconds.

Firstly does anyone know what happened to cause everything to go off air in the first place, and secondly what produced the message? It can't have been the Freeview box because I was watching an analogue channel at the time. My first thought was the local mast could have gone down due to the bad weather, and it was the signalling software being restarted. Could that be the case?

That sounds very plausible, power cut at the local transmitter and Channel 5's kit had to reboot.

It wouldn't have been the first time their distribution receivers have rebooted whilst in circuit - http://www.meldrum.co.uk/mhp/continuity/channel5.html

Was it just 5 that fell off air or did other analogue channels die? 5's distribution is by satellite, so heavy rain could have prevented the incoming signal from being received and that prompted the receiver to restart, either automatically or perhaps via telemetry from Emley Moor or elsewhere.

Your transmitter almost certainly lost its mains electricity supply.

Furthermore Channel 5 is distributed to all the Tx sites outside of the London area by satellite. What you saw was the satellite receiver rebooting.

What transmitter do you use

All of the analogue channels went off air Steve, as did the digital signal.

I don't know where my local mast is, but I'm in south Derbyshire. The TV aerial points south east.

Probably Waltham ? (BBC/ITV East Midlands regional news ?)

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/waltham/index.php