All posts by Chris.SE
Below are all of Chris.SE's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Darren Brown:
OK, it's looking as though a street light is causing some interference - not an unknown event, probably your nearest one!
What sort of lighting is it - I'd guess because it's a newish estate that it may be LED?
They can, when faulty, cause as much of an interference problem as high pressure sodium lights!
I don't suppose you'll be up and have the TV on at the moment the street lights go off in the morning?
Seeing the figures improve especially C29 at the instant they go off, and perhaps confirm that the figures degrade by watching closely tomorrow evening it happens at the instant the light(s) come would show that this was clearly the main interference problem affecting C29.
If you can check your coax plug that goes into the TV and see that it's clean with no signs of wetness or corrosion. What colour is the cable and whilst you are there look for any markings identifying the type of cable?
As we seem to be narrowing that issue down, the general across the board low figures could be due to mobile phone mast interference which can overload the receiver and cause "desensitisation" as well as varying signal strength and quality figures.
I would contact https://restoretv.uk/ - you can ring them on 0808 -1313-800 or email them via their website (see Contact Us). Tell them that you believe you are having problems with interference which started sometime since they sent postcards to your postcode, you are having varying signal strength and quality figures which can be quite low at times and you'd like a free filter sent to you.
(This you would plug into the TV and plug the aerial into it).
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Darren Brown:
No problem, but as you probably realise we need to be sure it's the street light(s) otherwise start looking for something else being turned on a dusk.
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Darren Brown:
I could have added, before you leave, whether the street lights are still on or not, check if the interference is still present, ie is C29 still 0%.
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Darren Brown:
OK, this implies it's something else that is getting switched on around dusk.
Do careful checks with all your own lighting and electrical stuff that may get turned on around those times.
If that yields nothing, see if you can spot any correlation between any near neighbour's lighting being switched on, that includes floodlighting of any description as well as maybe internal lights.
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Robert Price:
Well, I'm so glad that the problem is solved. What I've found interesting about this situation is how it affected the lower frequency channels more without appearing to have affected the others.
That was one reason why I wanted to see the figures for the other multiplexes (without a filter) as it may have shown they were affected but not to the extent that the receiver couldn't continue to decode the pictures successfully..
Seeing those figures early on may have made the cause more obvious and a solution achieved somewhat quicker.
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Fiona Beattie:
There are 8 mobile phone masts around you. Some may have been upgraded to use the 700MHz band and this may be causing you interference but especially to UHF channel C48 (the one for the NI mux).
You should have received a postcard from https://restoretv.uk/
I would contact them, ring free on 0808-1313-800 or via email on the Contact Us page and tell them you are having problems with reception sometime since they sent postcards. Can you please have a free Filter.
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Steve Donaldson:
Quote "As discussed elsewhere, a missing or out-of-place character in the stream can cause a problem for some receivers and not others"
Isn't that precisely what interference could do?
In view of the fact that https://restoretv.uk/ have sent postcards to this postcode, I wouldn't delay in requesting the Free Filter to see if this resolves the problem.
Clearly your suggestions can be tried as well.
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Fiona Beattie:
I'm not familiar with your HUmax box, but in its tuning section, does it show things like Signal Strength and Quality (or error) figures for each UHF channel for the various multiplexes?
If so, could you post each of them which would possibly help determine the extent of the problem should you have any issues getting that Free Filter.
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Carol Oliver:
You could also copy/send the email to Arqiva who do the transmitter and mast maintenance.
https://www.arqiva.com/co…act/
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Sunday 20 August 2023 8:43PM
Darren Brown:
Hmm. Well, those strength figures are generally lower than I would have expected and the fact that the Quality figures for the COM multiplexes are not a nice steady 100% explains why you are having some issues. The question is why the figures are low and I'm not going to speculate as there could be a number of reasons as we don't know anything about your installation at the moment.
Obviously you have the aerial itself - was this install by a TV Aerial installer or yourself, and is it still pointing more or less at compass bearing 344 degrees (that's roughly a tiny bit N of NNE) with its rods horizontal?
Does the aerial feed one set directly, or do you have an amp/splitter to feed more than one set/box etc.?
If you have an amp/splitter or any amplifier a make and model number would be helpful.
Also a description of how all the equipment is interconnected? (eg. the aerial may first go to a Recorder and an RF output go on to the TV).
Does the aerial downlead have any markings such as CT100 or similar?
Does it terminate in a wall plate and you have short "flyleads" interconnecting theTV/Box etc.?