All posts by brendan c
Below are all of brendan c's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
I have been have some problems recently on Sky News channel and another channel (the COM4 and COM5 channels basically).
Cant get either at the moment, although I had Sky News yesterday, I think weather related, there has been thunder in in the UK.
Those are the high frequency channels which 'don't travel as well as the lower frequency ones, hence I think the power could be turned up!! :O)
Re-tuning is a bad idea a you will lose the lot even when the signal improves (unless you retuned again then).
My aerial is in the loft with a booster. I always find things are worse in summer. So why not turn the power up in the summer?
I m in Lenton. Might have a fiddle around in the loft :).
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Fiddling about did show it improved a bit, got a badly blocked picture briefly.
If you are losing all channels sounds like it could be local electrical interference.
Oh just as I was typing Sky news briefly flashed on for a few seconds - gone again.
I am gonna buy a higher gain aerial and see if that helps otherwise might have to pay to have one put up outside.
You can watch a lot of channels on-line it you have the bandwidth allowance available. Im not too bad I can always watch BBC news, I get BB1 BB2 and ITV OK pretty much all the time.
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MikeP, My aerial points to the Nottingham transmitter, the aerial is in the loft so that make the signal harder to pick up, I don't think I can get all of the Waltham transmitter from the loft.
The Nottingham transmitter is strongest for me according to Wolfbane.
UK digital TV reception predictor
60 dBµV/m v 51 dBµV/m
Furthermore some of the the Waltham signals are on even higher frequencies than the Nottingham ones and the higher frequencies signals do not travel so well and so are harder to pick up.
However I have just noticed that Waltham transmits those signals at a higher power level (to compensate presumably). The Nottingham transmitter should so this too but they don't they are all transmitter at the same level which is stupid!
I did have Sky news back earlier today but it has gone again, well it back again slightly at 80 but very blocky (unwatchable), earlier it said signal strength of 0!!! (says service not available). Now it is back again, it is on the cusp, sometimes there sometimes gone.
It think there may be thunder somewhere affecting it. So it is definitely not too strong!!!
I could try pointing it at Waltham, I tried there before but I was not using a booster then (I am now).
Only other options are to put the booster close to the aerial ( it's ~2 metres of coax away).
If that does not work I think I will have to try a better aerial, it currently has cheapish aerial, not one of those high gains ones you can get now.
The signal strength is 100% on other channels, but 79-80% on sky news, needs to be 83+ really for a watch-able picture.
I suppose I should try and get a new aerial ASAP before so I can test it on the bad signal. Trouble is I don't fancy forking out the money only to find it makes no difference!
I also tried on my DVB-T USB stick and I onl;y get 3 bars for Sky, I get 4 for BBC whcih works OK.
As I said I have a booster, but not a mast head amp just a signal booster, same though in a way but it's not designed to used as a mast head amp.
I will try and get this aerial tomorrow if they have it
52 Element Digital Wide band TV Aerial
52 Element Digital Wide band TV Aerial | Maplin
It is only £22.44, a bit easier to swallow than the ones nearly £40.
There are no reviews for it unfortunately or even values for the gain, which is a bit disconcerting.
Last time I went they only had log periodic ones I think, which might work better in the loft but they are lower gain so I won't know until I try so probably safer to go for the high gain Yagi? type
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I just tried a scan on a new monitior/TV I got recently and it completely missed the SKY mux, pretty much as I expected. I can get that mux 95% of the time which is why I have never bothered sorting it out before, but I think it is time I did, especially as I can get a cheap high gain aerial now, or so it seems.
Also it is pretty difficult getting into and working in my tiny loft!!
I am not in a great location either there are three story buildings in the line of sight which does not help much, plus some more building were built behind them (Nottingham Trent Uni campus, they built a huge red metal decorative tower right in the path!! And more trees too!!).
I might have a try pointing at Waltham first before I spend money, I know on my fathers TV he was picking Waltham through the back of his aerial whilst pointing at Nottingham!! I had to tune it with it lying on the ground to get rid of that signal.
He bought a high gain aerial even though he is only about a mile from the Nottingham transmitter!!
I could take that aerial and put back on his old aerial which is more than adequate but he would not understand. He has no idea what he is doing, He often has his aerial mounted in the wrong polarity, but it does not really matter as the signal is so strong where he is he could get it with a coat hanger!!!
So having said that he never gets a problem with the signal being too strong. It is 69
dBV/m and he is 2 miles away.
Oh and by the way Sky new is back with a perfect picture at strength 83, now it has gone again lol.
Gonna have a quick fiddle with the aerial!!
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Update, just had a fiddle, I used a compass to get the bearing better.
It seems to have improved, I have sky back and a retuned on my monitor/TV pulled in all the muxes.
However that could just be a change in the weather, it is raining now, which I think helps.
This is the problem for me as soon as I decided to upgrade the aerial the picture improves so I don't bother.
Having said that a small improvement should be enough to rid me of problem for good so I shoudl change it anyway!
Currently have a signal strength of 90ish but it just dropped to 83 and then back to 90, so again a small improvement in cabling might do the trick but I think it's best to get that aerial and have done with it!! (hopefully!!). Yep I'm getting the aerial it's not good enough, to unreliable.
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Well it turns out Maplin do not stock the aerial and it is home delivery only so I left empty handed.
However I do have an identical aerial which I connected on a shorter cable and layed it on the loft insulation with interesting results.
It seems I could get better Sky but worse BBC ( which was normally perfect) I think the problem with lofts is they are prone to giving reflections which can affect some signals but not others depending on the wavelength.
So I will do some further fiddling around in the loft. I could perhaps knock a few more metre off the cable in there which might help however it means it is harder to work on the connection as it is further from the access point.
At the moment I can switch to the aerial which gets Sky better if I want to watch it, but that means a lot effort in switching channels, ie up stairs and loft ladder. I suppose I could watch in the loft perhaps if I take my monitor up there!!
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Even weirder, I can get a very watch able Sky News on my PC monitor/TV, yet when I unplug the aerial from it and plug it into my main TV I get NO SIGNAL!!!!!!!!!!!
So there may be some issue with my TV perhaps maybe it is generating internal noise. I have noticed some other difficult to receive channel have got better. I have a lot to investigate!
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Moved the TV a bit and how I have good Sky on the TV and a worse one on the monitor/TV.
So it is all very fickle, it's like trying to get a good signal on a FM radio, a bit of a black art.
But right at this very moment I have a good clear picture on every channel, probably the best it has ever been!!!
Maybe a change in the weather occurred, it was raining, perhaps all the thunder has stopped?
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lol I've been busy, was looking at a video on how to make a log periodic on youtube, interesting stuff.
Anyway I was still having problems. I believe it is due to interference from other stuff like mobile phone or police or other digital transmissions, sometime I can see a checked patten.
Anyway I connected my spare aerial and laid it on the loft insulation and pointed it in the general direction of waltham to see what the signal was like from there. It was connected up to my PC /TV monitor as I didn't want to have to retune my TV to avoid losing a signal.
Anyway when I got down stair was I was very surprised to see Sky TV displayed on my monitor!!
I was thinking how can that be? I have not retuned it yet!!
I Had a check and all the other channels were there too I was wondering if it had an inbuilt receiver.
Then I checked the signal frequencies and found they were indeed from Waltham.
So I really do not know what happened there, does it have some clever software inside to find the channels?
Did it remember an old tuning from before I bought it? It i have never tuned it to Waltham, unless somehow my initial tuning picked up waltham and magically avoided Nottingham. Rather baffling!!
It is possible it picked up the signal through the back of the aerial after it missed to nottingham Sky Tv muc totally
But my main TV is now tuned to Waltham and I have all the channels with not interference or problems.
So problem solved for me!!!
But my advice for anyone with problems from the Nottingham transmitter is to try Waltham, it worked for me even though it is supposed to be a weaker signal.
I have also discovered I can get all the channels on my DVB-T USB stick, I have never been able to do that before so I am over then money as I can easily record to my PC as opposed to my slows cumbersome PVR type thing.
So problem solved for me, indeed better than ever, from my experience I would suggest the Nottingham transmitter is best avoided. I can get Waltham in the loft on a basic aerial (albeit with a booster) so I expect most can, not tried without a booster yet.
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Tuesday 9 July 2013 5:05AM
i have has problems in the small hours of today 2am - 5am, lost everything at one point and most had problems like intermittent signals, they seem to be all back now though :)
Currently I have no com6 and I get some interference on com4.
Prior to that noticed com4 was weak I could not power to devices from it, so com4 and com6 need more power IMO. I do not see how turning them up can cause a problem when they are so weak in the first place.
Problem is worse in Summer I find so some tweaking needed there!!!