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High pressure affecting Freeview reception
High pressure affecting Freeview reception
High pressure affecting Freeview reception
Service update: 12 October 2010
We’re aware that unusually high atmospheric pressure occurring at present is causing reception problems across parts of the UK. Once the area of high pressure has moved on, your reception should return to normal.
Under normal circumstances, the signals from a television transmitter can only be received by those homes that have a direct line-of-sight to the transmitter.The part of the signal from the transmitter that is directed upwards simply escapes into space and is lost.
However, when there is high atmospheric pressure, the sun heats up the ground and the warm air gets trapped underneath the colder air above it. This creates a layer that is, in effect, a mirror for the television signals.
This means that signals that you wouldn't normally receive can effect your television reception. This can particularly affect homes on the coast who may receive interference from continental broadcasts. Viewers could experience pixilation, garbled sound and blank screens.
This occurrence should be significantly reduced with digital switchover as the digital television signal incorporates the ability to ignore reflected digital signals.
However, for those that experience prolonged disruption, the other options available are satellite TV providers such as freesat and Freesat from Sky.