News

As of today (Sunday 29th December 2019) there is a strong likelihood that TV reception problems may be experienced by many who have their TV Aerial pointed towards the Ridge Hill transmitter near Ledbury.

This transmitter serves large parts of Worcestershire and is occasionally susceptible to interference from other TV transmitters when certain weather conditions prevail, causing picture breakup and in some cases, total loss of TV reception altogether.

Looking at the weather / atmospheric pressure readings today would strongly suggest that the current bout of interference being experienced by those who have their TV Aerials pointed towards the Ledbury transmitter will be caused by the High Atmospheric Pressure / anticyclone which is centred over the Western part of Central Europe.

Although the position of this anticyclone is not expected to remain stationary for too long, it is impossible to predict precisely as to how long it's impact on the Ledbury / Ridge Hill transmitter may last but I would be surprised if much more than three or four days.

In the meantime and certainly while this current spell of settled weather persists there is one very important thing to remember, not only now, but also if at at any time in the future you ever experience pixelation / breakup or a sudden loss of TV channels........... Many people, now know how to access the "Auto re-tune" in their TVs setup menu, unfortunately I'm often finding that customers, mistakenly use this new found knowledge as a "cure all" for any problems that may arise.

Re-tuning a TV during periods of poor reception or loss of picture will usually only delete the TVs memory of frequencies / channels which were originally saved from the transmitter that your TV Aerial is pointing, creating a bigger problem, often meaning that you will be without TV pictures for much, much longer than people who didn't re-tune their TV.

With the exception of an on screen message suggesting a re-tune is necessary or advice from someone like myself or TV retail shop etc, a willy-nilly re-tune of a TV in the hope that it will restore the channels should be avoided and is almost always counter productive.

The on-screen message "Weak or no signal" which sometimes appears on a TV screen while experiencing poor reception is NEVER an invitation to re-tune the TV!