Autumnal musings

Well our caravanning is well and truly over for this year. When we arrived home from France a few weeks ago, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed went through the caravan like a dose of salts and stripped it of just about everything. When challenged, she said “But it’s autumn now, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and all that, soon be winter, are you mad?.”

So I guess that’s it until next year! I can remember going up to the Lake District or the Yorkshire Dales about this time of the year and stopping into November, but you know how it is – each year brings a few more aches and pains, and a desire to just pull up the drawbridge and await the warmer weather!

Anyway, here in Granadaland we’re all eagerly(?) awaiting the digital switchover which begins on 4 November with the switch-off of BBC2 analogue. The process will be complete by 2 December when all the other analogue signals will be switched off. Meanwhile on 4 November, apart from BBC2 being switched, all the Freeview signals will have their power boosted which should mean that virtually everyone in the region should be able to receive Freeview.

And on the same subject, remember a week or two back when everyone was advised to retune their Freeview equipment? We’re in direct line of sight of the main Winter Hill transmitter and have had Freeview for a number of years. However as a result of that retune, I’ve now lost ITV3 and ITV4. The TV will still pick them up but not the Freeview recorder which is less than 2 years old and certainly wasn’t on the list of machines likely to be affected. So if there’s anything I want to watch on those 2 channels, I can do it directly off air but not to record to watch later – thank you Freeview! (OK, I lie – we still have them both on Sky+ if necessary but that’s not the point – Freeview appears to have played fast and loose with their frequencies without considering the full consequences of their actions.)

Right, that’s my latest rant over and done with. I’ll let you know in due course how the switchover has gone, but I won’t be able to tell you what Freeview HD is like. As I said in my previous post, although it launches in the Granada region simultaneously with the switchover, there still aren’t any suitable receivers on the market!

Freeview HD is coming (or not!)

Now you know that shiny new ‘HD-ready’ TV you bought recently? 42″ plasma, surround sound, takes up half the wall in your lounge? Equipped with a Freeview tuner so that you’ll be ready for High Definition when Freeview HD is launched later this year?

Oh dear!

Freeview HD is due to be launched in the Granada region and some parts of Wales in December. Initially it will carry BBC HD, ITV HD and Channel 4 HD. Five HD will come along later. Unfortunately your new TV won’t work. It’s actually a fact that no current so-called HD-ready TVs, even those on sale right now in the high street, will receive Freeview HD. The problem lies in the technology used to transmit terrestrial HD. The current Freeview service uses a transmission mode called DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcast – Terrestrial) and a compression algorithm called MPEG2.

The HD transmissions will use the more efficient MPEG4 and an updated version of DVB-T called DVB-T2. There isn’t a single TV or set-top box currently on the market that conforms to those standards. There are vague suggestions that set-top boxes will be available by November but nothing definite, and certainly there will be no TVs capable of receiving Freeview HD until some time next year.

Obviously your current Freeview equipment will continue to work (though it will need to be retuned when analogue switch-off occurs in your region) but only for standard definition. For the TV to live up to its ‘HD-ready’ claim, you need to use satellite or cable (or of course buy a separate HD set-top box next year). Either way, the TV is incapable of giving you an HD picture by itself.

Bit of a shambles really, isn’t it?

Northumberland soaking!

Just returned from a week or two in Northumberland – at the Nunnykirk Caravan Club site. It sits in a valley and has a stream running through it – very picturesque. Only problem was that last Thursday afternoon, it began raining heavily and didn’t stop till Saturday lunchtime. And boy, did it rain – a constant downpour of biblical proportions!

So we had the choice of spending the whole of Friday sitting in the caravan reading or doing a bit of indoor shopping so off to the Gateshead Metro Centre we went. Managed to spend a couple of hours there before returning to our sodden site at Nunnykirk. What we were blissfully unaware of until later was that last October the wardens had to evacuate the site as it began to flood during similar conditions! They had to go round to each caravan at 2.30 in the morning and wake everyone up. What we also didn’t know was that we came very close to the same thing happening again this time! At Rothbury a few miles to the north, the River Coquet burst its banks and flooded the main carpark and several houses that had only just been repaired after being inundated last October.

Anyway, apart from that small excitement, we had a good stay. In a few weeks time, we’re off to High Onn in Staffordshire – new to us so we’re looking forward to it.

Changing the subject back to TV, I thought it might be worthwhile as we approach the main holiday season to remind everyone that the digital switchover is already affecting a number of areas of the country. The West Country is now almost totally digital and therefore any caravanners holidaying in Devon and Cornwall this summer will need to equip themselves with suitable TV equipment.

The Borders area of north west England/south west Scotland is also now fully digital, and the Granada region will begin the process in November. Much of Wales will begin the switchover in August. Thus by the end of the year, all of North West England and a large swathe of Wales will be affected.

The digital signals in these converted areas, previously transmitting only at low power, have now been boosted and reception should be easier. Nevertheless it is still more difficult to get a digital signal than an analogue one.

With analogue signals, the aerial could be pointed roughly towards the transmitter and the picture would be watchable even if it was poor quality. Not so with digital signals – the aerial needs to be aimed precisely.

Omni-directional caravan aerials such as the basic Status are not really suited to digital reception and whilst they will cope in good areas, they won’t perform as well as with the old analogue signals. Steerable aerials like the Status 530 will cope better but it remains to be seen how successful they will be.

Camp sites in traditionally poor reception areas, especially those operated by the 2 main Clubs, are sometimes equipped with booster systems that pipe an enhanced signal to each electricity hook-up post. Where the switchover has already happened, those sites should have been adapted but it might be worth checking before relying on that.

Satellite TV of course is already in digital form and is not affected by any of these changes. So at the risk of repeating myself, your best chance of reliable TV reception is to get yourselves a dish and a satellite receiver!

Also at the risk of repeating myself, it doesn’t have to be a Sky box. There are alternatives and as long as you don’t want to watch any of Sky’s subscription channels, they might be more suitable for mobile use. Generic free-to-air receivers are less complicated to set up because the picture usually appears immediately instead of having to wait for the EPG to be populated.

We made it to France!

Saturday 30th May – overnight at Capel Farm, just above Folkestone, (memo to self – in future, use the caravan book for final approach instructions, not the satnav which takes you up a series of steep single-track lanes!) and then the tunnel the next morning. That was a bit freaky – we were aware that Eurotunnel now has automated check-in (where you simply key in your booking reference number on a touch-sensitive screen) but this time I didn’t even need to do that. As I reached out to start keying, I noticed the screen already said “Good morning Mr Sullivan”. So it had obviously clocked us using automatic number plate recognition!

Anyway, we then drove down to the municipal campsite at Troyes where we stayed for 2 nights before continuing on to where we are now, near Mâcon in Beaujolais country. This site has been under British ownership for a number of years but earlier this year we had an email from the owners to say they’d sold the business. The handover was at the end of May and the new owners are Marc and Isabelle who had previously run a large all-year-round site near the Italian border and were looking to downsize. Marc speaks a little English and Isabelle none at all, so that’s a bit of a shock to the system – we’ve had it easy for the last few years! I’m having to drag out my 50-year-old schoolboy French again!

And on the way here between the motorway and the camp site, and on the principle of once bitten twice shy, we ignored the satnav’s instruction to turn right under a 2.1m bridge! (Actually we know the way; we were just using it to check our estimated arrival time.)

Oh and the awning went up in record time, thank you for asking! After we messed up in April and had to resort to reading the instructions (oh, the shame!), we had no trouble with it this time. It took longer to drive the pegs in.

The campsite has an eclectic mix of British and Dutch clientele; French visitors are few and far between and despite the fact we’ve been here several times over the last few years, I don’t think we’ve ever seen any other nationalities at all.

The village is a pleasant little spot just 2 miles from the Saône River (and joined to it by a canal along which pleasure craft regularly travel to and from the village marina). The canal is, we’re told, the shortest canal in France. The campsite itself is off the beaten track so it’s not suited to night halts, and people tend to stay for weeks rather than the odd day. As a result there’s a tendency to develop little cliques with groups of people gathering for ’soirees’! That’s OK if you’re one of the ‘in-crowd’ but it can be a bit off-putting if you’re not. We, of course, are!

An hour or so’s drive away to the west is the small town of Cluny with its Benedictine abbey, once the largest church in the Christian world, and a little closer is the Chateau of Cormatin with its lovely formal gardens. And a hour’s drive to the south is the Parc des Oisseaux, a bird park where many species of birds are free to come and go as they please. It’s a favourite spot for pelicans and storks. Other captive species are in huge aviaries that visitors can walk around in.

New Sky HD menu system

Do you have Sky HD at home? Have you received the new menu and EPG system yet? Yes? Then have you had any failed recordings lately?

The satellite forums are awash with complaints from viewers about the new software. Many people have had failed recordings linked to a ‘No satellite signal’ message. Others have complained that the digibox is now very slow to respond, or that the picture quality has dropped alarmingly.

So if you’re having problems, you’re not alone! Meanwhile Sky is saying publicly that there isn’t a problem but I wouldn’t mind betting that the back room boys are working overtime right now. It might also explain why it’s taking so long to complete the rollout. Some of us still haven’t got the new software, for which we are truly grateful!

Just in case Sky really does believe there isn’t a problem, and their technicians aren’t working on a solution, I suggest you contact Sky as soon as possible and put them right.

Meanwhile I’ve seen the new menu system and it’s impressive, but Samsung boxes are amongst the last to receive it and I’m really hoping it doesn’t get rolled out to us until the teething problems have been corrected!

For interest, this thread on the Digitalspy forum is typical (currently 61 posts and counting) http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1032028.

Up, up and away!

Well after numerous appointments and family commitments, we finally managed to get away in the caravan for a few days. For the last few weeks we’ve enjoyed some beautiful weather here in the North West, and we chose to go away just as the weather broke! Fortunately it was changeable rather than catastrophic and we managed to get out a couple of times for walks.

In any case the main reason for the break was to achieve 2 things – (a) check that everything that should be in the caravan for the coming season was where it should be (we came home with a list of 15 items to be dealt with) and (b) check out the new awning. The old one was wrecked last year during storms in Provence so we replaced it in January and this is the first time it’s been used for real.

It’s a Bradcot with the special German-made Easy-System poles that claim you can have the awning up within 5 minutes. Well it took longer than that! It took a good 45 minutes of swearing and trapped fingers to get the thing erected, including having to take it all down again at one stage because … well OK, because I hadn’t read the instructions properly if we’re being brutally honest. Look, I’m a bloke – real men don’t need user manuals!

We were on the Caravan Club’s Grin Low site at Buxton, which has poor TV reception and even the site’s booster system gave only a mediocre picture. So out came the dish which gave its usual perfect reception – until yesterday when the signal suddenly disappeared. I rebooted the digibox which then showed a complete absence of signal strength/quality. That should have told me something; I bang on about it often enough on the website. Just goes to show no one’s perfect! Zero signal strength means the dish ain’t connected to the digibox and I should have known that.

So after faffing around with the dish for a few minutes, out came the signal meter which gets its power from the digibox and which remained totally silent; and finally the penny dropped! (Boy, I’m quick!) The cable from the dish goes to an external socket on the caravan and the cable (which has an F connector push-on adapter) had simply parted company from the socket. Once reconnected, back came the signal and we had a perfect picture once more.

Meandering thoughts

It’s Easter and we’re off in the caravan – not! Over the next 2 weeks we have dental appointments, a birthday bash, at least one grandchild-minding session, and a couple of invites. So it’s currently looking like we won’t get away until Monday 27th at the earliest. You’d think retirement would mean freedom to clear off as the mood takes you, but I have to say that’s rarely happened for us! Meanwhile the caravan remains on the drive, neglected and sulking.

But let’s look on the bright side. The credit crunch and the poor exchange rate have both combined to deter families from holidaying abroad, which in turn means that the caravan industry has never had it so good. Notwithstanding the sad demise of Fleetwood and Avondale, the industry as a whole seems fairly robust. Both Lunar and Bailey report NEC show sales considerably up on last year’s figures, and Swift and Explorer Groups are also doing well. And I remember reading recently that the Caravan Club is reporting increased advanced bookings for Club Sites – good news for the Club, not necessarily so for those of us who want to book at short notice!

With the caravanning season now well underway, there are other issues to irritate us – caravan-only bays occupied by HGVs and solo cars at motorway service areas, for example. This was one of the most common complaints logged on my companion website last year, and despite Moto assuring me that they were now adopting a zero-tolerance policy, I’m not optimistic that this year will be any different.

And on the subject of motorway service area parking, I had 2 reports last year of caravans being stolen while the owners were in the service area building. One of them had an Alko hitchlock fitted and was gone for less than 20 minutes. It’s a depressing thought that even the best anti-theft devices are only rated for 7 minutes resistance! I think the safest way to tackle the problem is to take it in turns to visit the facilities, leaving one person with the outfit at all times. I realise this isn’t practical if you want to visit one of the eateries, and you’ll have to weigh up the risks. We generally snack in the van when we’re on the road, (and use the van loo as well if the weather’s not good!).

We’ve also had the experience of being flagged down by a car warning us of “a problem at the back”. That happened a few years ago on a motorway in Spain. I ignored him and kept going, whereupon he pulled in front and tried to slow me down. Fortunately, the outside lane was clear so I just pulled out and he then realised I wasn’t going to fall for it and sped off, maybe to try it on with some other sucker.

New Sky viewing cards

In April, Sky will begin a process of replacing all existing viewing cards. Sky has a contractual obligation with its security software supplier to upgrade the software at least every 5 years in order to thwart any attempts at hacking it. The 5 year anniversary actually happened a year ago but the launch of Freesat and the consequential shuffling of satellite frequencies delayed it.

All subscription cards will be replaced free of charge, as will any Freesatfromsky cards less than 3 years old (5 years if acquired as part of a full £150 installation). Any other cards including expired subscription cards will have to be replaced at the holders’ expense. Replacement cards can be purchased from www.freesatfromsky.co.uk for £20 (currently £19.57 during the temporary VAT reduction).

Having said that, you might not want to bother. Most free channels don’t need a viewing card at all. The exceptions are BBC1/2 and ITV1 (which need a card to correctly populate slots 101, 102 and 103 with your own region/country), the Five family, Sky Three and Setanta Sports News. Without a card, BBC1 and ITV1 will default to London and West Midlands respectively and BBC2 to England. Fiver and Five USA won’t be available, nor will Setanta News or Sky Three. Five won’t be accessible through the EPG but there is a clear version (created for Freesat) that can be added to Other Channels. The only difference is it won’t carry your local adverts; all programmes are the same.

The card replacement programme will take several months and might not be completed before the autumn. Current cards will continue to work until then if they’re not replaced so you have a few months to decide whether it’s worth buying one.

There is further information about it all via the red button on Sky’s welcome screen 998.

Recording HD programmes on Freesat

Freesat markets 3 types of satellite receiver – a basic SD (standard definition) box, an HD (high definition) boa and an HD hard drive recorder or PVR. The PVR is expensive at around £300 but there are no further ongoing charges (unlike Sky which imposes a charge of £10 per month for the privilege of recording on your own box).

However if you buy an HD Freesat non-PVR box with the intention of recording on to DVD, beware! You won’t be able to record in high definition, only SD. Even with a Blu-ray recorder, it won’t work because the HD signal only goes along the HDMI cable and that signal is copy-protected.

Thus for recording purposes, it boils down to 2 choices – either buy a PVR or get an SD box, there’s no point in buying an HD non-PVR box.

Looking at the online satellite forums, it seems there’s a problem with the latest Sky EPG software (version 3.7.6). You might find that your digibox suddenly ‘loses’ Channel 4 and Five. The best solution appears to be to take the viewing card out of the machine a couple of times while the box is powered up (green light showing). This software version also seems to have plugged a loophole whereby any type of card, even an old credit card, would re-populate the EPG on a digibox where the original viewing card had been lost.

Now on a personal level, I’m still trying to find a window of opportunity to get away in the caravan for a few days, but as things stand at the moment it looks like it might be after Easter. We’re off to France in June but I’d like to get some UK breaks in before then! For one thing, we’ve bought a new awning and we’re dying to try it out!