All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Bill Evans: Did of course mean to add, remembering to reset the programmes you wish to record after having carried out the retune, as this action will have deleted the list previously set up.
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Peter Snellgrove Hawkins : Re: Bearing query.
Sandy Heath is on a bearing of 247 degrees at a distance of 18.6 miles, transmissions being on horizontal polarity.
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Christine Green: Well, as far as the reliability of the signal is concerned, unfortunately only time will tell, as its "possibly" down to when the engineering work is completed at Rowridge.
However, this problem was known about by the R&TV investigation service for quite a few days now, the latest offerings can be seen by opening the undermentioned link.
Radio & Television Service
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david welsh: ITV4 was previously broadcast on the COM6 transmitter which viewers in Freeview "lite" area's were unable to receive, its is now broadcast on the same PSB2 transmitter as used by ITV / Ch4 etc, therefore if its not seen in the programme guide your retune has not been a success.
Try carrying out another retune but with the aerial connection removed, this action blanking out everything stored in the tuner, reconnecting the aerial on completion followed by carrying out a final auto-tune.
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Simon: But thats what it is, i.e: a coincidence, as Sky boxes, if of the older variety, although sometimes not so old, can suffer from problems associated with their internal power units, and its possible that the second hand box you purchased was also suffering from a similar power unit defect, this being why it was sold in the first place.
A test for boxes suspected as suffering from this problem is to disconnect them from the mains for around 15 minutes or so (more reliable if longer) to cool down, powering them up again after this period of time and allowing them to go through the usual set up procedure, if this results in all appearing to be back to normal but failing again after a few hours, then this indicates that the box has a temperature related problem, meaning that the power unit is faulty.
It should though be said, that sometimes boxes can run for a few days before failing again, as it all depends on the temperature of the environment that the box is operating in.
You should though carry out a signal strength / quality check on your box, as both should be a minimum of around 70% or so, the quality never at any time being under the strength, as this is caused by the dish being slightly out of alignment.
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Norma birch: Not sure about exactly what you are meaning, but though have you carried out a retune of your TV or PVR recorder? as this action is necessary to update the programme guide after the recent change to the Mux channel used to broadcast the programme.
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david welsh: Some brands of Freeview devices are known to require somewhat more drastic action rather than just retuning, the procedure in question being to carry out a complete reset on whatever you are using, this also known on some brands as "default setting" or "first time installation".
I could initially have advised you to carry this out, but generally don't, as it might involve you having to reset your personal preferences, but though as the procedure previously carried out has failed to resolve the problem this leaves you with no option other than reset.
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Simon: Ah! now that its known a DRX890 is involved its brings something else into the equation, that being the possibility of the hard drive having failed, initialising showing for lengthy periods of time being a well known symptom of hard drive failure on any recording device, whether it be Sky, Freesat or Freeview devices.
The problem with initialising is that this can also occur if the voltage supplied to the drive is on the low side, this being where the electrolytic caps come back into the equation, but as the capacitors are relatively low cost items I personally would replace them even although this action is not necessarily guaranteed to resolve the drive problem.
Buying second hand Sky+ type boxes is always a bit risky, but though DRX890's can be obtained from some sources for well under £20.00, and it might even be better to go down that route, or alternatively just disconnect the hard drives edge connector and use the box as a standard non recording device, one of my boxes being used in this fashion.
By the way, if you have been reading up about the problems with electroylitic caps in Sky boxes power supplies, then I wont go over old ground, but when these devices start to dry up through age coupled to heat / leakage etc, their storage properties (capacity) rapidly diminishes, recovering slightly when cold, this being the basis of the test referred to.
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Simon: Further to that said. Reading your posting over again has now given me doubts as to whether replacing the caps would make any difference to the situation, that is unless the main smoothing cap has either failed completely, or that a dry joint has suddenly shown up where it's soldered into the PCB.
My reason for saying this being, that if the caps were starting to go downhill the effects of would likely have been noticed, such as the occasional warning of "no satellite signal being received", or some other odd problems being experienced like one or two channels disappearing now and again.
If none of has ever been seen, then the caps are liable to be OK, although it wouldn't go amiss to disconnect the box from the mains followed by removing the outer casing to enable a physical check to be carried out on the electrolytic's in question, looking for signs of leakage, e.g: white deposits on the PCB around the base etc, or the top of the cap showing signs of bulging.
On the subject of Sky, although I fully appreciate your thoughts on the matter, Sky cannot really be held responsible for equipment failure, that is unless they supplied it and it's still under guarantee.
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Friday 28 August 2015 10:24PM
Christine Green: The problem experienced with reception from the Ventnor transmitter is not necessarily caused by a fault on same, but possibly as the result of the engineering work which is presently being carried out at the Rowridge transmitter, the station having had a "possible weak signal" notification in operation for the last two weeks now.
The PSB signal from the Rowridge transmitter is already restricted to the South, and if the "over air" signal received by Ventnor from Rowridge drops under a certain level the Ventnor transmitter is liable to drop out, this I suspect, as possibly being the real reason for the problem.