I'll be moving to Sydenham in the next few weeks, down along Newlands Park, and was wondering what the reception is like for television (analogue or digital). I've previously lived in Greenwich and had pretty good reception, while a friend lived within view of the broadcast tower in Honor Oak Park and could barely get anything. It's odd - you would think that London should be the shining example of such seemingly basic facilities, but it appears to be more of a toss up as to whether or not you'll have to constantly adjust your aerial to be able to get in anything at all.
Looking forward to moving in, and I'm sure I'll have more questions as the day approaches.
It swings in roundabouts. Upper Sydenham and Forest hill are closer to the Crystal palace arial but my mates reception in Milverton house in lower Sydenham is terrible. Get sky!
Cheers, good to know. I've been considering getting Sky for about 4 years now without ever actually getting up the motivation, but this may be enough to finally convince me.
Not really; I'd be going for a TV/Internet package, and my previous experience has been that while cable Internet speeds are great in sparsely populated areas, when there's a lot of people in the vicinity running on the same node things can slow down a lot at peak times (like evenings). Given that this is London I would think that it could be a problem, especially since I need reliable bandwidth in the evenings for work purposes.
That said, I'll still be examining all of my options when I get to Sydenham, so we'll see what ends up being the best option.
This all seems very strange with the UK's biggest transmitter overlooking you. I am pretty near in Upper Syd but my daughter is in Downham and we both get all 90+ freeview channels on el cheapo STBs and set top aerials from the pound shop.
You really need to get rather a lot of concrete or Faraday cages between you and the CP transmitter to make reception impossible.
There can be other reasons why some people may have problems other than location. Perhaps people who do could give their postcode and type of aerial - and when it was installed/last serviced.
sophie wrote:Even with my freeview box I still only get BBC2 OR Channel 5!
I would strongly recommend you check your aerial cabling (and aerial).
In theory, if you can pick up BBC2 you should be able to also get all the other channels on that mux, which is known as Mux1
BBC ONE 1
BBC TWO 2
BBC THREE
CBBC 70
BBC News 24 80
BBCi
Channel 5 is on Mux A so you should also be able to pick up
QVC 16
bid tv 23
price-drop.tv 24
UKTV Style 26
Eurosport 33
five US 35
five Life 36
Nuts TV 42
Jewellery Channel 44
CITV 75
Plus others.
Whereabouts in Sydenham are you and what sort of aerial are you using?
I live near St Bartholomews Church, Cobbs Corner (upper Sydenham I guess) and I can pick up ALL TV and Radio stations (with no break ups) just using a coat hanger. Unless you have a big obstacle in your line of sight to the transmitters at C Palace I will be very very surprised if you cannot get ALL channels.
There was a problem on the old analogue system tha the local signal was too STRONG for some TV tuners. You actually got better reception with Eagle's coathanger than with an external array (which is more profitable to an aerial fitter). Few people in Sydenham should need an external aerial for analogue unless they are getting bad reflections.
With freeview most tuners will have an option to display signal strength. Check that.
The 90+ freeview channels are arranged into 6 multiplexes. Eagle showed what was on two of them. Hence if you have a problem you shoud lose ALL the channels on the multiplex. Conversely if you can receive one you should get all on that multiplex.
The broadcasters occasionally rejuggle the transmissions. Its generally a good idea to retune every 6 months or so to sort this out and get all the new channels.
I should add that an external aerial over 20 years old may have water ingress in the cable connector. This can kill reception. I f you need a proper aerial, unless the signal is very weak (unlikely in Sydenham) it is best to have it in the attic if possible for protection. Also communal systems in flats may need to be upgraded.
Upgrading from Analogue to Digital was a nighmare for us, until I realised the signal was too strong. I now know that digital really does not handle overly strong tv signals well.
We live around Somerfields on the high st, the arial we have is in our roof space, and I had to put an attenuator in when rewiring the feeds with a distribution amp (feeding multiple tellies from one arial).
We live in the Thorpes area, and have found with all our TV's (analogue and digital) that you don't need any type of aerial to get perfect reception. Try just unplugging and you 'll notice the picture is perfect
Hi,
Sorry to go over this again, but I'm abit of a dimwit when it comes to anything like this and need clarification. I'm thinking of getting a freeview box for our small portable tv in the bedroom which is not connected to an external aerial / cable / sky etc. Will it work with the portable aerial?
Thanks,
Liz
If you get good reception on analogue then the answer is probably yes. You don't even have to take a risk. You can easily borrow a freeview box and try it. I've got one if you can't find anyone closer.
My mum (in Wales) gets perfectly fine reception from a much smaller transmitter 25 miles away on a portable aerial. Mind you there are only sheep & a few dolphins in between.
I live in Penge and we also only need an aerial in the kitchen, and then only a coathanger type aerial. In the rest of the house you don't need an aerial at all. And all the TVs have Freeview.
As others already mentioned, the problem with the Crystal Palace Transmitter and the Penge/Sydenham areas is the signal is usually too strong. The very strong signal needed for the rest of London goes over the top of anyone very close. Apparently, they allow a small amount to leak downwards just for their benefit. In some places the strong signal causes multipul signal reflections, and something occurs that is actually called the 'Penge Effect' to do with signals interfering with each other. I've not experienced any of that though.
When I had Cable that did go off frequently though. There was always a problem when there was a thunderstorm over Croydon.
