Television signal

[shaneystar2]

We live on the east coast in Norfolk .Our TV signal comes from Tacleston .
Our television reception is hit and miss at the best of times We cannot get channel five at all and four is dodgy most of the time .The other channels veer from excellent to awful at times .I suppose it depends which way the wind is blowing !
We don't want Sky or cable as we don't watch that much television but would like to be able to view what we do like without snow .We have a perfectly good television set ..a Sony .
In desperation we bought a digi box thingy and even that is hit and miss .We get a lot of "no signal " .Or it breaks up half way through something interesting .
We have had our aerial checked and that is OK .
In view of the huge licence fee we are a bit cheesed off.
What will happen when they switch over to digital ?
What can we do to get good reception other than going down the Sky or cable route which we don't want to do .

[Cetti]

Hi shaney! Husband sat on shoulder dictating......

It sounds exactly like the same problems that we had. We solved it by fitting an aerial booster (which costs about �15) between the aerial and the tv set.

[lankeela]

Dew yew get yerself a proper map shaney, the transmitter is at Tacolneston! I know this cos I once had a TV engineer fit a set and he went up into my loft, asked me which way Tacolneston was, and I looked up on the map and called up and told him it was the other side of Wymondham and which road it was on. He replied that he didn't want to know where it was, he wanted to know which direction so he could set the ariel up facing the right way!!

[vehelpfulguy]

You can get Sky without having to pay them any money each month.

To compete with Freeview then Sky have brought out FreeSat.

There is a one off charge to fit a dish and box (about �150 I think) but once you pay that there is nothing more to pay Sky.

You should get a good picture anywhere in the UK, and FreeSat offers far more channels than FreeView, about 200 I think.

More here:

http://www.freesatfromsky.com/

[Panic Button]

I recommend what veryhelpful says.

The picture is always perfect, and you get a decent number of channels on Freesat.

Don't bother paying for other channels on Sky, as it is expensive for what you get.

Alternatively subscribe to Sky for the minimum, I think one year, to get free equipment and installation, then cancel and go to Freesat.

[shaneystar2]

Thank you folks for your answers .
I think we may try the booster option Cetti ..sounds good to me....for the moment ..read on .!!..

Lankeela ....Dew yew know thet Oi even looked that thar spellin' up on Google and Oi still spelt that thar ward wrong !!

VHG ..thank you for your answer ..but I really don't want to shell out all that money for the little TV that we do watch and don't see why I should .I don't want 200 channels ..I just want to be able to watch what I choose to watch on 1 to 5 with a good reception .
I pay a licence fee and it is up to them to provide me with a reasonable service . If you ask them why reception is poor in our area you just get waffle and ...buy Freeview or this Sky thing you mentioned or cable .
They want to switch us over digital in the near future ..it's all a money making scheme at the expense of the consumer .
What happens to those who cannot afford to upgrade or shell out mega money every month to the cable or Sky companies.
http://www.digitaltelevision.gov.uk
They say ........Some, but not all, DTT channels are available at this post code
and the existing aerial may need to be repositioned or renewed.....grrrrrrrrr!

[Whickerman]

well, sorry to say you're right, you need to upgrade to digital at some stage soon as your analogue system will simply no longer exist.

[Panic Button]

So your analogue signal is hit and miss at the best of times eh?

The government is taking steps to upgrade to a new system with modern technology to replace this system that fails you. Why do you crticise them?

[shaneystar2]

Because according to the information on the digital site we are still not going to be able to get some channels even when they do change over to digital.
I am quite entitled to criticise a company I pay a licence fee to in the hope that I am going to at least be able to watch my TV with decent reception..But this doesn't seem to be the case at the moment and won't be for some time to come . So in the meantime we cross our fingers and hope the wind is in the right direction when we watch the few programmes that interest us .
And as stated we don't want Sky or cable .
And it will be a few years yet until the switchover so although the government are taking steps ,in the meantime we still can't get a decent reception .
Cettis suggestion of a booster is our best bet . Which may hopefully work and is adequate for our needs of five channels .I don't sit in front of the television 24/7 so don't need all this fancy gubbins .
Thank you all for your answers

[Panic Button]

Well if one day soon you are going to have to pay to upgrade your aerial, or fit boosters then save your money on that, swallow your pride and put the money towards satellite equipment on Freesat. Sounds like your area will always have poor terrestrial signals.

[podger123]

we live on the South Coast and when Channel 5 (now called Five) came out we were told we would only be able to receive it through our vcr. We must call out an engineer to fiddle with it. We didn't bother as we had Sky already. Perfect pictures always especially the football. Perhaps your tv repair shop could help. (our Five reception through Freeview box is VERY hit and miss) although most channels are ok.
I hope this helps.
Podge