An elasticated telephone service call.

I have not had a telephone service call like this one before.
To start with, it seemed quite straight forward in needing to replace a faulty slave/extension socket in the master bedroom.
Next, the customer wanted me to take a look at their old GPO bell box. A bell box is a bit of kit that should ring loud and proud, independently from any phones that are plugged in. They think it was originally installed in 1969 and had recently stopped working.
After asking the customer for an ELASTIC BAND, it was again ringing away. Probably not the most ideal solution, and the unit will probably shut down completely at some point. But at least it gets to live another day.

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

"Can I order room service please? Hello? I don't think the phone is working..."

I was at Holiday Inn Ashford Central today after being contacted by Paul from their maintenance department.



They had been suffering with a telephone issue in one of their rooms, and it had come to a total loss of service.

I found a couple of issues with the line; the first was a damaged wire where it had originally been installed incorrectly, many years ago. This coupled with a water leak that occured a while ago, was a recipe for a telephone line disaster. Wires and water do not mix!

Once this issue was repaired, there was still an issue with the line. I then swapped the internal Telco wire pair for the room in question, and after a test call to reception, it was confirmed that the phone was back up and running again.

Great news. And in the words of the rapper called Pitbul, "Hotel Motel Holiday Inn". Well, that is what I have been singing to myself all afternoon!

Using the Dover transmitter to receive Freeview? Get ready for a retune event!

Following a decision by Ofcom, spectrum in the 700MHz UHF band currently used for
digital terrestrial television (Freeview) is being reallocated for the development of future
mobile services. Some channels will be moving to new broadcast frequencies
as a result of this change.
Engineering work for the 700MHz Clearance Programme is taking place at transmitters
across the UK between 2017 - 2020. Freeview viewers (and those with other services
that use Freeview channels, such as YouView) will need to retune their TV equipment
as and when changes take place in their area.



If you are using the Dover transmitter to receive your Freeview TV channels, the first retune event is on the 21st March 2018. If you do not retune your equipment, you will experience a loss of TV channels (10 ITV3, 20 Drama, 21 5 USA, 26 ITV Be, 27 ITV 2 +1, 30 5STAR, 34 ITV3 +1, 37 Quest, 44 Channel 5 +1, 54 My5, 58 ITV Be +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 61 True Entertainment, 63 Blaze, 66 CBS Reality, 70 Horror Channel, 80 Blaze +1, 83 Quest +1, 203 CITV, 211 Ketchup TV, 16 QVC, 85 Hochanda, 260 CCTV, 261 Racing UK - to name a few).

Not sure if your aerial is pointing to Dover? Try one of the above channels on the 21st, and if you get a no signal notification, you will need to retune your TV.
If your TV does not prompt you to perform a retune, you can perform this yourself from navigating to your tuning menu.

There are a couple of options for once you are in there. The easiest way is to perform an auto scan or auto tune. This will rescan the entire Freeview line-up that is available to you. It may take a couple of minutes to complete.

The second way (if your TV supports it) is via a manual scan. Once in the manual scan menu, you will need to change the tuning channel to ch35. Next, select scan/search - this will retune the TV channels that are moving frequency.

Either of the above methods should reinstate your Freeview channel list to it's full glory!

Rooftop Selfie February 2018

Rooftop selfie February 2018. What a great view to have whilst working.

The location of this one was whilst working on site at Withersdane Hall located in Wye, Kent.

Some sunshine was greatly appreciated, but it was still very nippy. Come on spring, we need you!