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Mr Tang continued: "We have a Radio Monitoring Unit to investigate complaints concerning poor reception of television and sound broadcasting services.
"Every day the unit receives calls concerning interference to telecommunication network and broadcasting reception from the public. Its six mobile monitoring teams act on interference complaints including TV reception interference."
In order to cater to those television viewers who will only be at home in the evening, one of the mobile teams works from 4 pm to 11 pm Monday to Friday except public holidays.
The interference complaint hotline, telephone 2389 8131, operates round-the- clock. From 8 am to 11 pm staff of the unit will answer enquiries and handle complaints. For calls received by the recording machine after 11 pm, they will be handled the following day.
Listening to complainants' grumble is a humdrum job, it may seem. But to the unit, it needs specialised consideration as the staff have to decide what steps to be taken when receiving complaints over the phone.
They have to try to get as much information as possible from the complainants to screen out those complaints which are caused by faulty audio-visual equipment rather than radio interference.
Experience has shown that around 80 per cent of the complaints reported are caused by deficiencies and fault in the television sets or by inadequate or badly set-up acrials.
"So, when a complainant lodges a complaint over the phone, we will ask him a few simple questions, usually on the 'symptoms' the television set has. Some problems can be solved just by giving the complainant advice over the phone,
"Among the complaints we receive, the most common symptoms are multiple pictures such as 'ghosting' or grainy picture, as often referred to as 'snow'," a Controller of Telecommunications of the unit. Mr Tam Kwong-ming, said,
If
your
television set has the above symptoms, experienced Tam can give you some tips to remedy the situation.
"You may adjust the direction in which the acrial is pointing or tune the television receiver to obtain better vision. If the problem still exists, you'd better have to consult your radio dealer or aerial installer," he said.