Find the TV transmitter?

[boater sam]

When we are out and about on the boat we obviously have to change the transmitter we receive from and it involves retuning the TV. 

That is not a problem providing there is a house in view with an aerial that we can get the direction from.

But in remote places it gets complicated.  Is there an app or something that can give us a compass bearing to the nearest transmitter that we can tune into?

An online map showing the dominant transmitter would do if we could get the compass bearing but the maps of transmitters is very confusing as it shows relays that only cover a very small area.

[ppppenguin]

I suppose this is the starting point: https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/what-tra...ive-signal It can use current location as well as postcode.

Or use Freesat.

[boater sam]

Further to the retuning of our TV, we noticed that the programs were all on very odd channel numbers after retuning last week in the midlands.
On our return to Cheshire, retuning again placed the programs on strange numbers, like BBC1 on 56!

The solution was to do an install rather than a retune, why I have no idea, but now the channels are back on the original pattern.

[boater sam]

I suppose this is the starting point: https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/what-tra...ive-signal It can use current location as well as postcode.

Or use Freesat.

  Unfortunately its not much help when you are miles from civilisation and you have no idea which way to point the aerial.  The canals have no post codes either!

Satellite TV is not easy on a narrow boat that rolls a bit when you move either! I've watched the performance of others trying to get their dishes on the roof in the right azimuth when the boat rocks every time they stand on the gunwale.

[ppppenguin]

I suppose this is the starting point: https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/what-tra...ive-signal It can use current location as well as postcode.

Or use Freesat.

  Unfortunately its not much help when you are miles from civilisation and you have no idea which way to point the aerial.  The canals have no post codes either!

Satellite TV is not easy on a narrow boat that rolls a bit when you move  either!  I've watched the performance of others trying to get their dishes on the roof in the right azimuth when the boat rocks every time they stand on the gunwale.

I said it could use current location. So presumably taken from the GPS on your phone if that's what you're using. Whether it works well is another matter. What you need from it is the bearing ot the TX. A cheap signal strength meter should help youto swing the aerial, even if you don't know the correct bearing.

[boater sam]

I suppose this is the starting point: https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/what-tra...ive-signal It can use current location as well as postcode.

Or use Freesat.

  Using a dish is fraught on a boat, it moves all the time.
Freeview will give me a bearing providing I know where I am, either post code, rarely available, or map reference which I have no way of establishing unless I can access OS maps. What Three Words won't do it. 
Can you get an OS map reference on the move?

[ppppenguin]

There are various tools to do conversion between W3W, grid reference etc. Here are a few that I found:

https://what3words.com/products/batch-converter/
https://gridreferencefinder.com/index.ph...E8_s_1HH|1
https://vimeo.com/352473017

[BusyBee]

Although an expensive option those sat nav devices used by trekkers etc are available with map and compass which ought to be a solution. To do it much more cheaply Arduino compass modules are available so a simple build and program . I have just had a look and see that this may be the basis of a useable system: https://www.instructables.com/Arduino-GP...on-System/.

My first thought though was to use DF with known transmitters (TV or not) to pinpoint location and orientation. A more traditional approach but obviously more of a project.

Tracy

[boater sam]

I found that I can get a map reference using online OS map and then putting that into the Freeview sight I get a compass bearing. That would seem to work.

I tried using a signal power meter some time ago but you get so many spurious signals from all directions that it is not the thing to be doing stood on the roof of a boat in the wind and rain in the gloaming.  Then when you get down a put the TV on you find its not a TV signal at all or it pixilates all the time.

[boater sam]

Another odd thing is the allocated program numbers changing to completely different ones after retuning.

Our set a Bush cheapy does an automatic digital retune. After being down in the Sutton Coalfield transmission area and retuning it allocated BBC1 to channel 56 which is crazy.

Upon getting back north to the Winter Hill transmitter and retuning it did the same thing.

I found the answer was to tell the TV to do an initial install rather than a retune and all became sensible again.