Freeview Channel Disruption February 2024
| Reuben Howe
This week's update is bite-sized, but could save our avid Freeview-users a heap of stress! Get in-the-know about Freeview signal down this week so you don't endlessly retune to no avail!
Is Freeview Down?
As of February 19th 2024 Freeview has issued one of it's official statements about weather conditions affecting signal. It sounds rather like trains being cancelled for "leaves on the line" but actually, the weather plays a vital role in our radio and TV communications.
The interference is expected to last the week while we swing in and out of high-pressure weather zones. The minimum disruption should see us back to normal on Wednesday 21st, but we all know how fickle UK weather systems can be...
Why Does Weather Stop Freeview?
Freeview channels are still sent and received through terrestrial aerial and relay towers, at least until the Freely takeover, and so the signals are propagating (moving) through the air around us. Needless to say, that same air is constantly under pressure (Quite literally) from the weather. If a band of radio waves get caught up in a high-to-low pressure change they can be skewed, distorted, redirected and scrambled to cause a whole load of different effects when you do eventually receive the channel.
Sometimes the pressure will mean you get all your channels but not the information sent with them, like program names etc. Sometimes channels will drop off the EPG completely. Other times still, you'll receive a national rather than regional channel as your closest available tower changes!
Essentially, if you've had any Freeview woes this week or in the next couple of days, then don't go out buying a new Freeview box right away. Once the pressure has waned do a full re-scan and get all your channels back, then keep your eyes peeled for the next disruption so you don't panic!
Getting Channels Back After an Outage
After the air pressure has settled and you want to get your full EPG back you should be able to operate an auto-scan. Manual scans are rarely needed and require much more technical information, so always default to just running a blind scan. This will add any and all Freeview channels (that your aerial can receive) to your Set Top Box, which should recover any channels disrupted during the week.
Bear in mind that if you are using a portable aerial for day-to-day use, then we always advise switching to a powerful rooftop aerial to do a full re-scan. This ensures you get all the information logged onto your box, so when you switch to the portable aerial again your box already know what channels go where and when "No signal" really means no signal!
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