Well,

Switch everything off.. who cares??

I’ve worked in the Industry for 44+ years, and in fact worked on colour TV design for 10 years or so in the 70′s and 80′s.

This switch over from analogue to digital I fear won’t be as good as we are being led to believe.

You don’t get something for nothing.

Squeezing more into the same bandwidth using digital techniques will have some downside.

Analogue TV might be less efficient on Bandwith usage, but it’s been around for at least 70+ years -(1936-2009) and has become highly developed.

Like the 100W incandescent light bulb – which shares an equally impressive life and development, I fear we will rue the day …

And in any case, I suspect many people will just use their internet connection in future to watch TV.. so who might need a big aerial on the Wrekin anyhow??

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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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Over here in the United States we changed over to digital about 2 months ago with no interuption to service.
I can’t say I like the digital any better than the analogue it replaces. There’s a lot more messing around with the converter box and various sizes of screen etc. Also signal strength is no better than the old in spite of buying a special digital arial

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Dunner fret folks…think about it carefully, you’re not really missing that much are you now? Think of the upside, chance for a new hobby, some jogging, extra conjugal frolics even {its a game of two halves}, or just spend more time with your pub.

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Hi Paul,

As far as I understand it, the transmitted power for digital signals will increase when analogue is switched off

(again – as I understand it – digital can’t be transmitted at full power whilst analogue is still present to avoid intereference)

So – once analogue goes – the digital signal level should improve … but of course the actual signal strength you receive depends upon the path between you and the wrekin. Put a few hills in the way, and also if you happen to be down in a valley, and then ?

for the wrok being done on the Wrekin:

The information on the BBC website reads:

Engineering work at the Wrekin transmitter
Thursday 3 September 2009:
To prepare for digital switchover, the main antenna at the Wrekin transmitter, which serves north Shropshire and south Cheshire, is being replaced.
The work means shutting down the antenna for the whole of Thursday 3 September and possibly – depending on the weather – part of the following day.
During this time a temporary antenna will provide TV and radio services to the main towns, but we regret that some analogue TV viewers will lose their service until the new antenna is switched on.
While the work is being done, the effects will be:

Analogue TV – no service in Market Drayton, parts of Whitchurch and the surrounding area to the north of the transmitter, and in villages along Wenlock Edge to the south

BBC DAB digital radio – reduced power
BBC Radio Shropshire on FM – reduced power
Digital terrestrial TV (Freeview) – not affected

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Yep Marco you are correct. Should there have been a temporary mast on The Wrekin then this temporary break in transmissions would not happen.
However, as I watch the very few TV programmes that I like online via software such as the BBC iPlayer and 4OD then it won’t affect me at all.

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So Askeric, if I understand you correctly…. I recently had a digital aerial installed for the forthcoming change to digital TV and had to pay for a costly signal booster as the signal was ‘insufficient’… have I then paid for something I didn’t need as signal strengths will be improved when the switchover happens? A lot of people like me then are being mis-led then by aerial installation companies into believing we need to pay a lot more for these boosters?

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Hi idon’tbelieveit (#13)

You are partly right.

Originally, the Wrekin just transmitted analogue TV (Thats BBC1,2 ITV1,2 and Ch5 on channels that were all in the LOWER part of the UHF V band. (UHF band goes from Ch21 – 69 )

(on Wrekin, ITV = Ch23, BBC1= Ch 26, CH4 = Ch29, BBC2 Ch33)

So your aerial only had to “cover” or “recieve” signals on the lower part of the UHF TV band (called group A)

However, digital works differently. It doesnt use 1 channel per programme like Analogue does. It transmits several programs all grouped together on each channel, called a “multiplexer”

There are several multiplexers, each transmitting several programs

see: http://www.dtg.org.uk/industry/dtt_channels.html

The multiplexers, in the case of the Wrekin, are spread over a much WIDER part of the UHF band, so you need a “wide(r) bandwidth” aerial to recieve all the multiplexers.
See
http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=SJ628082
for multipxer channels,

(currently 21 – 57, and 23 – 48 after digital switch over)

HOWEVER – IF you still “had” an older group A aerial, all that might have meant is:

You dont neccessarily get ALL the multiplexers, but still get those in the lower part of the UHF band, which transmit all the popular programs like BBC1,2, ITV1,2 Ch4 etc

This means probably that the new aerial you’ve had installed is a higher gain / wide bandwidth type, that’ll get more of the multiplexers.

That is: you’ll get to see more of the less popular channells ( hoo-ray!!)

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