A. You can do the retune at any time after the event, so when you arrive home will be fine: no need to involve neighbours!
Q. I'm going away during the Switchover and I want to leave some timer recordings for my PVR to do while I'm away. Will that work?
A. There's not a straightforward answer to this question. Therefore I've covered all possibilities below.
From 7 March:
You will not be able to record any BBC stations. The exceptions are that BBC-4, CBeebies and BBC Parliament can be recorded up to and including 20 March.
From 21 March:
You will not be able to record from ITV-1, ITV-1+1,C4, C4+1,C5, ITV-2, More4, E4; nor will you be able to record from any High Definition station starting on 21 March.
Up to 17 April:
You will be able to record from ITV-3, ITV-2+1, 5*, 5 USA, Quest, C5+1, CITV, Pick TV, Dave, Dave ja vu (if it's still transmitting), Really, E4+1, Sky News, Yesterday, Film 4, 4 Music, VIVA, ITV-4, Russia Today, Al Jazeera Eng, plus all the shopping channels (should you wish to record them!)
Q. I have a masthead amplifier (booster) fitted to my aerial. Is there a danger the new, more powerful digital transmissions after the Switchover will overload my television set?
A. In a word: Yes. If that does happen you will not get a picture or sound from any Mux which overloads your tv in that way. The trouble is, without calling in the professionals with their meters and signal generators, it is unpredictable whether you will be affected or not. You will just have to wait until 7 March and see if you are able to tune in the new, full strength BBC A Mux (containing all standard definition BBC stations).
If, after that retune, you can find only BBC-4, CBeebies and BBC Parliament, then you are in trouble. If all is well, breathe a temporary sigh of relief but, never counting chickens, keep a close watch during the next fortnight. As the weather changes you could find the BBC stations (excluding the exceptions stated above) are prone to vanish on occasions. That's a problem!
The solution to this problem is complicated. Simply, though, you'll need the masthead amplifier and its associated power supply (usually behind the tv) removed totally. That's a professional job, and I'd seriously consider having your aerial turned to a vertical polarised position at the same time. The trouble is, that's the solution on 18 April and after. Between 7 March and then you have a varying situation, where some Muxes will need the amplifier and others will not. If you can watch some programmes on your computer via the internet, that will be a stop-gap. In which case I'd consider having the change done on 21 March, as a sort of compromise time.
Basically, you would need the amplifier removed:
a) to receive BBC stations from 7 March onward (though BBC-4, CBeebies and BBC Parliament will still be receivable up to 20 March);
b) to receive ITV-1, ITV-1+1,C4, C4+1,C5, ITV-2, More4, E4 (Mux D3&4) from 21 March, plus the High-Def stations if you have an HD tuner.
You will still need the amplifier to receive ITV-3, ITV-2+1, 5*, 5 USA, Quest, C5+1, CITV, Pick TV, Dave, Dave ja vu (if it's still transmitting), Really, E4+1, Sky News, Yesterday, Film 4, 4 Music, VIVA, ITV-4, Russia Today, Al Jazeera Eng, plus all the shopping channels, up to 17 April. There might need to be some sacrifice of not watching those latter stations during the 21 March to 17 April period - maybe that's not too much of a problem!!
There is an alternative to having the amplifier removed, but it's a bit fiddly especially when it comes to retuning when doing that manually is the best way. That is to buy a "variable attenuator" - Maplin sells one at £7-99 (code number A03HT), other retail outlets may also have one.
You then plug the cable which you had to take off the aerial socket on the power supply into the output socket on the attenuator.
The sequence is thus:
Aerial - masthead amplifier power supply (aerial) - masthead amplifier power supply (tv) - attenuator in - attenuator out - first Freeview device - etc.
The place to set the variable control on the attenuator has to be found by trial and error - I suggest setting it about halfway and see if you can manually tune in channel 24 (Mux BBC A) on March 7th. If not, increase the setting until that Mux is tuned. Make a note of the position of the variable control. Now turn the control to zero and try to tune in the other channels - you'll need the two download documents from our main website to give you the channel numbers in order to tune the other five Muxes in manually.
On 21 March, set the attenuator to the position you noted for the strong transmissions and manually tune in Channel 27 (Mux D3&4) [and Channel 21 (Mux BBC B) if you can deal with the High-Def stations]. To view stations on any of these strong Muxes you'll need to set the attenuator to that same position. To view all other stations, turn the attenuator control to zero.
On 18 April, set the attenuator to that same strong transmission position and try tuning in Channel 25 (Mux SDN). If that doesn't work, decrease the attenuator control until it does work - I'd try the zero position next and raise the position gradually if that didn't work. Once you've found that second position, make a note of it and use it to tune in Channel 22 (Mux Arq A) and then Channel 28 (Mux Arq B). To view stations on those three Muxes you'll need to set the attenuator control to that second position.
You could then continue after 18 April without any aerial adjustment, but it's not elegant: there are two positions you have to use, though once all are tuned in, you may find one position which works for watching all stations. It's also a "boost the signal, then reduce it" situation, which can introduce problems.
