So you think changing your aerial is a problem... Nice photos here of an upgrade being done to our local transmitter....

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/sandyheath/dso/index.php

its worth mentioning that each picture is an album on its own so theres around 90 pictures there

Well, they did our masts with good old fashioned ropes and pulleys!

As far as I know, they fit the reserve digital transmitter lower down the mast (to be used when the main top transmitter is being serviced etc).  This transmitter can be switched on and the main one turned off without loss of service - just a 'blip' or 'chirp' from your set.

The lower reserve transmitter (digital) is used for a short time to transmit the analouge while the top main transmitter is replaced.  The current digitial signals are being transmitted by even lower transmitters on the mast while all this work is going on, these have been inplace for years and are what transmit the digital signals while the analouge is still on, they are only low powered and where only ever temporary.....for years.   (hence the digital signals being low in all areas while analouge is still around).

Once a mast switches off analouge (being transmitted through the new top main digital transmitter), this top main transmitter then transmits the digital, still at a lower power, until all other in area transmitters are switched over, when the power will then be increased to the maximum.

We're experiencing horrendous problems with (some) Freeview channels, ironically mostly with what are the "terrestrial" channels, 3, 4, and 5, which have vanished completely. We've got a 42" Samsung with all the bells and whistles and, following an earlier post when Cwatters told me that the signal from Sutton Coldfield was crap at the best of times, we've had two aerial blokes here who have, variously, replaced old cables and fitted a line-booster, both of which worked for about a day and then might just as well not have been there.

To watch 3, 4, or 5, we have to go through the recorder and watch via terrestrial and its rubbish picture quality.

I've gone through the channel search procedure many times (about once a day, in the vain hope that whoever threw the switch on the transmitter originally would realise what he'd done and put it back again) but those channels are still nowhere to be found. What can be had is so badly pixellated (with broken audio to boot) that they're unwatchable.

Yet all the BBC channels are fine. What do they know that the commercial operators don't??

With the full switch over so far away we're now seriously considering going the satellite route, which I've always resisted on principle - why pay for more channels when we only watch a fraction of what we can get now for free (OK, for the licence fee)? There's also the question of recording a different channel to the one we're watching.

Screwfix have a very good cheap dish available for FreeSat.

re recording...Humax FreeSat box - record two channels while playing back something previously recorded.

If you have a lot of hills and trees around google DIY satellite installation to check where the dish would have to go. It needs unobstructed line of site to the south east.  Sat reception is usually pretty good except sometimes in really heavy rain or snow.

When you go on the Freesat site they have the Sagem box on there for £199.99 from Argos. Go onto the Argos site and it's £249.99!

Son-in-law has Sky and the aerial chap (a mate of his) said he could run our system off their dish, but it already has FIVE wires coming out of it because their kids both have freesat. I'm going to insist he fits another dish.

What really pisses me off is that we're forking out £370 for something we shouldn't really need!

yeah if he has 5 feeds already he must have an octo LNB so 3 free 2 for your freesat then 1 left spare saves having another dish

Octo's used to be fairly rare and expensive, but are now fairly common.

They did not used to be available with a mini-dish mount, but do appear to be now.

Once you hit 8, to go above this you need to use a QUATTRO (not quad) LNB and a 'multiswitch', effectively you then have unlimited independant outputs depending on the amount of outputs on the multiswitch, although multiswitches can also be stacked.

Some lower end multiswitches can actually use a quad LNB rather than an expensive quattro, but the budget multiswitches do not have great stats.

No, QUATTRO and multiswitches are more for flats etc, and can also incorporate terrestrial on the distribution.  We have used them in several larger houses and houses with annexes/holiday flats etc.

You need to go for a larger dish (80cm) plus with multiswitch installs as a multiswitch will inherently drop some of the signal, as will the no doubt longer cable runs associated with larger installs.  You cannot boost a satellite signal, you need to start off with a nice strong signal before allowing it to 'degrade' down to a useable one.