does the weather make a difference and if so why - what can I do about it?

[colleen scott]

I bet you get this all the time but here goes - when the weather is bad like this weekend 15 - 17 May 09 reception for ITV and other related channels are just rubbish. I've got a digital aerial and a set top box receiving Freeview. Before when I just had an analogue aerial I never remember having this kind of problem. Its supposed to be better but it seems worse. Even when its not raining - windy conditions upset ITV reception. BBC, channel 5 and some of the sky stuff on Freeview are always OK. I don't get why rain or wind would make a difference. Surely the signal is made of electronic thingys that can't just be blown about? And why just the ITV / Channel 4 channels?

[Rob]

How secure is the aerial fixed? Is it blowing about a bit?

[Jon T]

Any tall structures between your aerial and the transmitter could cause this, wind for obvious reasons - it blows things about, rain will also have an effect as it tends to cause things such as leaves to absorb the signal more.

[nodrogd]

Freeview signals are weaker than analogue and more likley to suffer from interference. So while you may be well within the good reception range for the analogue signal you may be on the fringe of the digital reception. Also the 'digital' aerial is a misconception. A decent quality aerial on analogue now is suitable for digital as long as it recieves the required UHF channels and has adequate forward gain.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by nodrogd

Also the 'digital' aerial is a misconception. A decent quality aerial on analogue now is suitable for digital as long as it recieves the required UHF channels and has adequate forward gain.

Yes, well the devil is in the detail isn't it. It is often the case that Freeview is transmitted on a different UHF group than the analogue channels from any given transmitter. In such cases, in order to receive both the analogue and digital signals, the viewer needs a wideband aerial installed. These have been sold as 'digital aerials' because it's easy for people to understand that they need a new aerial to receive the digital signal but not so easy to understand exactly why.

---------- Post added at 00:26 ---------- Previous post was at 00:23 ----------

Originally Posted by colleen scott

I bet you get this all the time but here goes - when the weather is bad like this weekend 15 - 17 May 09 reception for ITV and other related channels are just rubbish. I've got a digital aerial and a set top box receiving Freeview. Before when I just had an analogue aerial I never remember having this kind of problem. Its supposed to be better but it seems worse. Even when its not raining - windy conditions upset ITV reception. BBC, channel 5 and some of the sky stuff on Freeview are always OK. I don't get why rain or wind would make a difference. Surely the signal is made of electronic thingys that can't just be blown about? And why just the ITV / Channel 4 channels?

It's always worth having a visual check the next time it's windy and see if the aerial is properly secured. If it wobbles about that can affect reception. Also worth checking that the aerial is large enough for the job - if Freeview is weak in your area you need a big aerial to receive it all properly.

Put your postcode into the checker on this webpage:

http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?

Tell us what sort of aerial it recommends for you.