Costa Blanca TV

Arraving back to Torrevieja area (San Miguel de Salinas) we experienced that there is no TV. Our administrator says something about the transmitters have changed.(sites, frequence) Does anyone have any info about this?

I believe that everything is now digital, so you'll need to purchase a digibox.  This is how we have got around the issue.

Regards

For people to assist you will need to confirm what system of TV you have:

Spanish TV (analogue) ,Spanish TDT (digital), mesh / rebroadcaster.

Many areas are having their SPansih analogue swicthed off, and so it will be digital only. By law all communities MUST allow access to TDT. TDT has been available for a few years now, but it is only now, as switch off is approaching, that people have started thinking about converting the systems. The next phased of swicth off for analogue is 31st Dec 2009. And the gvmt hope to totally close down analogue signals by end of April 2010 - although thi may not apply to local stations which may well continue on analogue - hence why some buildings have two aerials - one for analogue and one for digital.

Get you community to connect and sort of TDT reception - then all you need is a TDT set top box and you can watch around 30 digital spanish TV channels - andin most cases the langue of the programmes can be changed into their origiianl version.

If you have a mesh / rebroadcaster system then you can either read all the posts since august last year or contact the system provider.

Thanks for answers but I did not give you the whole picture:

Sinse the community network started to operate  about one year ago we had both analog and digital via box. We had a lot of channels some good reception some worse. All Spannish stations. We have no rebrodcast or sattelite.

From sometime this summer we have no reception at all, "ants war" on Analog and "NO SIGNAL" at Digital. I have been told that the same occured in a neighbour community (separate arial and cables) but it is not verified.

Our administrator says that transmitter sites and/or frequenses has been changed and have asked the builder to fix it, dont know when.

Our arials are directed to the high mast somewhere between Guadamar de Segura and Torrevieja in south Alicante province.

For most of the main transmitters across Spain the main channels are carried on frequency / channels:

58 or 62, 66, 67, 68, 69.

Other, more regional, channels may be available on other frequency / channels.

If there had been changes to the frequency / channels in your area then it would affect the whole are servced by the transmitter and no just two communities. (Unless you are not looking at the main mast but a local repester mast, which may use different frequencies)

Sounds like there is an issue at your "head end" station where all the electronics for the sytem are located.

see tdt1.com and tdt.es for the channels and frequencies available in your area and by from mast.

Thanks all for your posts.

Checked our neighbour community yesterday night and they have perfect picture both analogue and digital. Also reading the recent posts it is quit clear that this is a local problem in La Canada 2.

After some investigations it turned out to be the power supply to the distribution amplifiers. After som hassling with the administrator it come on again.

In the meantime I used a inddor antenna on the roof with amplifier and it worked for analog but only channel 62 on digital ( 9 , .2 , 24/9 ).

Now the Cable network is up and running but the reception on ch 58 (TVE1, TVE2 Clan) is very bad (pixels and sound drop out) .

Red in another forum about that the transmission some times is vertical. This person says something about "Wings" on the antenna.

So I have two questions.

- Should it be  wothwhile traying another transmitter like Murcia ? Problem is I might be forced to set up a new antenna as I get a good signal on ch 62 from Alicante.

- Is TDT on channel 58 in vertical polarization?

( I am in San Miguel de Salinas 7 km west of Torrervieja)

This message was last edited by arne56 on 28/02/2010.

Digital TDT in Spain has the antenne "wings" on the top and bottomof the aerial....

Analogue have the "wings" on the left and right sides .

If you have the analagoe configuration you will only receive a few of the stronger TDT channels

Many indoor aerial s are just not good enough for TDT - unless you have line of sight to the transmitter and are in close proximity.

There are main transmitters and local retransmitters....so aerial configuration will depend on your location re the main transmitters or local retransmitters.

Sounds like the system still is not configured correctly, or the amplifcation settings are not att heir best - amplifiying one frequency too much can cause issues...

Thanks satandpcguy, but what do you mean by "wings"? Do you mean the reflectors behind the antenna? If you look at the antenna elements, should they be horizontal or vertical for TDT.

The central antenna has three beams pointing horizontal, slightliy upwards and slightly downwards agains the transmitter. Each of them has a number of director elements like horizontal pins. Behind there is two 120 by 20 cm reflector grids, one upwards and one downwards. Are they the "wings"?

We also have an simple dipole about 60 cm with one director and one reflector pin. This one is vertical orientated.

The third antenna is a wider dipole bent to a circle. I guess it is an omniderectional FM antenna for radio.

Unfortunally I have no access to the little hut where the amplifiers are but remember from earlier that it had a number of Televes amplifiers and one was marked "Digital".

an aerial configured for TDT Digital TV should look like this...

Thanks again

Looks exactly like our communial antenna and orientated the same way so the problem must be our location. I will now ckimb to the roof and seach for e better transmitter for ch 58.

When the weather gets better I will try CARRASCOY transmitter in Murcia, but I cant find it on the map. There is a lot of places associated to the name but they are spred over such a big area. Maybe the exact position is secret but can anyone advice if it S, N, E or W of Murcia so I can get the general direction/Thanks

Now I have about 35 channels and most of them send films in original sound. I have never put up any retransmitted signal dich or satellite dish. Don’t need.

How come?

Since my last post my antenna broke down and then I went for summer holiday. During this time, the administrator suddenly understood what I had been saying for a long time and put up an antenna directed to SW. That is to Murcia. Excellent reception!