All posts by Paul Dursley
Below are all of Paul Dursley's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Chris.SE:
Evening.
I have been following the discourse on aerial types, splitters, diplexers and insertion losses etc and I like to think I have genuinely been educated within this subject area so thank you for that.
Where my TV reception is at currently (excellent on Backwell transmitter and good to very good on Wenvoe) I am really happy with it. So I'm getting my West of England content in preference to Wales content and also getting the selection COMs channels from Wenvoe which give me access to some nationality 'flavourless' commercial channels which aren't available from the Backwell transmitter.
In short this is where I want to be.
With reference to potential water ingress with the original aerial fitment there is some decent rain due here tomorrow so there will be an opportunity to see if we suffer any signal degradation through the afternoon/evening. It has been dry for the last few days so we should get a positive indication one way or the other.
My eBay splitter should be turning up by midweek so I can also do a test for insertion loss vs signal strength/quality later in the week.
Assuming no signal degradation due to water ingress I would suggest given that the relative lack of sophistication of my aerial installation seems to support my viewing tastes with the availability of transmitted channels from Backwell and Wenvoe I would argue that less, if not more, is at least enough in this case.
Worst case scenario would be re installation of current aerial or new low tech Yagi type installation.
I'll copy this to Steve D.
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Steve Donaldson:
Evening.
I have been following the discourse on aerial types, splitters, diplexers and insertion losses etc and I like to think I have genuinely been educated within this subject area so thank you for that.
Where my TV reception is at currently (excellent on Backwell transmitter and good to very good on Wenvoe) I am really happy with it. So I'm getting my West of England content in preference to Wales content and also getting the selection COMs channels from Wenvoe which give me access to some nationality 'flavourless' commercial channels which aren't available from the Backwell transmitter.
In short this is where I want to be.
With reference to potential water ingress with the original aerial fitment there is some decent rain due here tomorrow so there will be an opportunity to see if we suffer any signal degradation through the afternoon/evening. It has been dry for the last few days so we should get a positive indication one way or the other.
My eBay splitter should be turning up by midweek so I can also do a test for insertion loss vs signal strength/quality later in the week.
Assuming no signal degradation due to water ingress I would suggest given that the relative lack of sophistication of my aerial installation seems to support my viewing tastes with the availability of transmitted channels from Backwell and Wenvoe I would argue that less, if not more, is at least enough in this case.
Worst case scenario would be re installation of current aerial or new low tech Yagi type installation.
I've copied this to Chris
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Chris.SE:
Morning all.
So some rain yesterday, not copious amounts but enough over a number of hours to possibly initiate some water ingress if there is a serious barrier problem with the cable at the aerial.
Channel reception figures today (all out of 10) below for your information:-
Backwell -
CH22 - quality 9; strength 10
CH25 - quality 10; strength 10
CH28 - quality 10; strength 10
Wenvoe -
CH39 - quality 8.5; strength 6
CH41 - quality 10; strength 7
CH42 - quality 10; strength 5
CH44 - quality 10; strength 5
CH45 - quality 10; strength 5
CH47 - quality 10; strength 6
Reception has been consistently at these levels for a few days now. Not too shabby.
The splitter should be turning up soon so I can pop that inline and see if it makes any obvious difference. Watch this space.
Thanks
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Chris.SE:
Morning - splitter has turned up just in time for the Wenvoe signal to be dropping off dramatically and the Backwell signal relayed from Mendip to be dipping somewhat.
The Wenvoe signal has dropped dramatically to the point of being almost unwatchable on some of the multiplexes (C39, C42 and C44).
The Backwell signal has dropped anything from 10 to 20 per cent in strength and quality but is still providing decent enough reception.
I haven't played with the splitter yet - think I'll wait until Wenvoe and Mendip have finished whatever it is they are doing and signals have stabilised.
Weather wise some rain earlier in the week as previously reported otherwise dry, bright and sunny at times especially yesterday when the signals started dropping off.
Stay tuned for updates.
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Chris.SE:
Morning - yes plenty of rain recently enough to fill a 400 litre water butt overnight.
Backwell reception is steady and decent quality though not as good as the best reported reception recently.
Wenvoe reception is still well down on the best reported numbers; C42 is currently unusable.
My wall plate installation isn't the best so I have an Antiference item on order which I'll fit when I receive it. I'll let you know if that has any beneficial effect.
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Chris.SE:
Bit of a let down with Antiference wall plate - fitted it to find out no signal at the TV.
After some head scratching and continuity testing I find that the wall plate is open circuit between the coaxial wire binding post and the IEC connector output pin!
Refitted the old unit and TV now receiving signal.
Reception is definitely weather affected at the moment so not much point experimenting right now. Let's see how it improves (if it approves) over the next few days....
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Chris.SE:
Afternoon - so we've had 48 hours of dry (mostly) weather with light winds to boot.
I have located and fitted a screened wall plate and can report as follows.
Backwell signals all have improved reception strength and quality - C22 had dropped off significantly to 5 out of 10 for both strength and quality; now showing solid 6-7 for both parameters.
Wenvoe signal reception is better but still confusing - still much lower strength and quality on certain channels but good to very good on others (considering its side lobe reception only) - results below (quality / strength all out of 10)
C39 - 3 and 4.5
C41 - 1.5 and 5
C42 - 0 and 1
C44 - 4 and 3
C45 - 10 and 4.5
C47 - 6 and 5
All the Wenvoe channels except C45 had been stronger a couple of weeks ago. Really don't know what's happened to C42 (which carries some of my favourite commercial channels) which seems to have just about disappeared completely. Even the Backwell channels had been better.
The only significant change I have made is the fitting of a screened wall plate.
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Chris.SE:
Hi Chris, thanks for your response.
I understand the issues of water ingress - I am a retired Subsea Oil & Gas Engineer for control systems so I've seen the results of water ingress on both power and communications cables. Generally fatal to the channel suffering the ingress! Interesting to note the affect on signal propagation of water ingress into the coaxial cable though.
I suspect you may be right about water ingress somewhere along the coaxial path however I don't see me getting up on the roof to inspect the installation - too high up and I do like being in one piece!
So right now I am getting the channels I originally had issues with so that in theory answers my original enquiry. That I have lost access to some commercial channels from Wenvoe sounds like it would have happened anyway assuming some water ingress. I think I can stream the programmes that I'm missing on the commercial channels so not the end of the world....
I think I will leave well alone for a while now and see if anything develops further. If I really want access to the full Freeview offering it may well take a new aerial installation to achieve it (that or a Freesat installation).
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Friday 19 April 2024 11:20PM
Chris.SE:
A signal reception update.
As of about 16:30'ish this afternoon all Backwell multiplexes are now showing excellent signal strength and quality beyond anything reported over the last couple of weeks - NO changes at my end.....
The signals from Wenvoe had been playing up this week as well (I know there was some work going on there) but they are now back to very good strength and quality even though my aerial isn't pointing in that direction and is wrongly polarised.
I can't help but think that something has been going on with the Mendip/Backwell transmission that isn't/hasn't been made public. At least Wenvoe was declaring some signal issues which have now cleared after a weeks worth of works.
Confused but happy Luddite......
Transmitter differentiation and channel selection (West of England) as good as its ever been