Another Freeview Query

[douglas9401]

A few weeks ago after the storms our Sky dish was blown off target. While waiting for a few days for the engineer we used the Freeview built into the TV.
We get all channels except BBC1 & 2 even after taking the retuning all the way back to the start all over again point.
I had similar problems at work with the Freeview box at work but this time the was no local ITV1 Channel 4 or 5. Both locations in the same town and served by the same transmitter.
I've had a look through previous questions and answers on Answerbank but nothing similar seems to be covered there.
Does anyone have a possible solution to the BBC problem? The other doesn't matter now as the place has closed down.
I look forward to your input.
Thanks

Dougie

[commoner]

After retuning my TV following the big digital changeover I eventually found BBC1 and 2 on channel numbers 800 and 801..I had to move them to 1 and 2 manually on my TV settings menu,

I suppose you have already gone through all the channel numbers to see what is on them?

Nothing else to suggest..sorry...

[douglas9401]

Never thought to look elsewhere on the list commoner, I'll give it a go. Thanks for taking the time to reply. :)

[Buenchico]

The box might well have been in the same town, and taking its signals from the same transmitter, but it probably wasn't using the same aerial!

Ideally the lengths of the elements of an aerial must be exactly the right length to resonate with the incoming frequency. Digital channels are bundled together into groups (called 'multiplexes') with each multiplex having its own frequency, so you theoretically need a different aerial for each multiplex (in order to have the correct element lengths to match it).

That's clearly impractical so the aerials we use only provide a 'rough match' to the range of frequencies that they're expected to receive.

Your aerial at home is a relatively poor match for the multiplex which includes BBC1 and BBC2, whereas the one at work is a poor match for the one which includes ITV1, Channel 4 or Five.

You might also experience problems, at either location, with signal break-up from other channels in the affected multiplex. The 'pre-switchover' multiplexes are shown here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...nfo/multiplexes.shtml
The 'post switchover' multiplexes are here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...multiplexes_dso.shtml

The solution is simply to increase the signal strength. Theoretically you should get a better aerial but (since you already receive most stations without problems) a simple signal booster should do the trick. Tesco and Asda sell them for under a tenner but this one, from your nearest Maplin store (or online) offers better 'gain':
http://www.maplin.co....gle&u=223504&t=module

Chris

[douglas9401]

Very full and clear answer Chris, many thanks.