All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
William : That's an interesting test that you have carried out as in theory it should not work, the reason being that when the Sky link to the bedroom instantly fails when you touch the outer of the main aerials coax connector onto the sides of the "F" connectors whereby electrically bonding them together, this in effect is exactly the same as what you are doing in your test, as the outer of the Sky boxes RF2 socket is at the same potential as the outer on the Sky boxes aerial input socket, which of course is the same as the outers of the "F" connectors because the chassis electrically bonds them together, the only difference with what you are doing is that you are linking them through a splitter which will possibly electrically isolate the inners from each other.
Now that you have discovered this, I would like you to revert to your normal connections "but" though feed the normal aerial into the Sky box via the splitter and not directly into it, giving an update on results.
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William : Well I am certainly inclined to agree with your statement of weird, as there is obviously something a bit oddball about the communal facilities you are using, and I am still a bit suspicious about the standard aerial facility you are provided with insomuch that there might be a defect in the system that is allowing voltage to come down the line, as this is something that can happen if someone else on the communal system is using a device that's defective in the electrical sense, as it passes along the cabling.
The problem you have is that the Sky box in effect links the coax braiding of the satellite feeds to that of the normal aerial and it appears that this is killing the Sky signal, which of course it shouldn't do!
Regarding the Freeview picture still being seen without the connection being made, this is something usually experienced in high signal areas, but your G51 area does not really come into this category as two of the more local relays (Glasgow West Central / Cathcart) are only low powered transmitters.
But though I have another test that I would like you to try, that is using a short piece of thin insulated wire bared at one end and pushed into the Sky boxes normal aerial socket, but with the other end of the wire (not bared) and carefully pushed into the end of the coax plug that would normally be inserted into the Sky boxes normal aerial socket, try to loop it around the centre pin inside the coax plug.
The idea being to try and pick up enough Freeview signal to allow the 2nd TV to show a Freeview picture but done without an electrical link existing between the communal aerial system and the Sky box, i.e: completely electrically isolated.
I would normally have requested you try and borrow a set top aerial as that would do exactly the same thing, but I doubt that a set top aerial would work in your locality.
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JJB: Its to my belief that you can still get the standard BBC / ITV / Ch4 HD channels but not anything concerning Sky channels that are dedicated to a package, but you should try a test by simply removing the card and running through all the channels to see whats missing as Sky boxes do not require a card to receive the range of "free to view" channels and only the odd exception exists, such as Sony TV on 157.
Even although I might have said remove the card for a test, you will however still require it to be installed as dependant on where you reside the card will still be required for purposes of retaining the correct area local news services.
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Alan McGregor: Boosters do not have any particular mode of operation and simply amplify an RF signal no matter what it might be, however you have to beware in case the signal you receive is slightly over the top strength wise, as an excessively high level of signal will cause blocking in a tuner, and the one that is working is maybe only doing so because the edge is being taken off the signal by it passing though the recorder.
If you can access the booster you should try by passing it by connecting the input from the aerial directly onto the feed for one of the TV's that isn't working, then carry out a rescan on the TV.
Of course if you can borrow a set top aerial you could connect that up and give the TV an auto-tune and see if anything comes up, as it doesn't really matter what like the picture might be as you are only really interested if anything shows at all.
By the way you are located at just under 12 miles away from Blackhill.
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Bernadette: Its should be by default 0000, if that doesn't work then someone much have entered their own personal pin number.
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justin ball: The variable gain adjustment is made on the power unit which is usually sited behind the TV, this meaning that you do not require to enter the loft or wherever the booster / splitter is located.
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Stuart Trayner: Well you are not indicated on the trade reception predictor to be able to receive anything other than you are presently able to do, although as you are also predicted to be able to receive signals from Blackhills PSB muxes then "if" you can access your aerial then it wouldn't do any harm to swing it around to 219 degrees and change its polarity to horizontal, then go into your TV or boxes "manual" tune menu and scan mux channels 41 - 44 - 47 one at a time to see if anything is indicated, these being the commercials from Blackhill.
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Jim : No! as its the opposite, although if this was fitted at the time of the switchover then its obviously been accepted by whoever that your signal is on the strong side, and sometimes this can be just as bad as it being on the weak side.
Can you access the menu system? and have you tried a test using a short piece of wire instead of the normal aerial? rescanning after having connected same or nothing will be received.
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William : I had also meant to say that with regards to your magic eye I presume that you have switched the power on for the RF2 out via the installers menu?
If you have then connect the magic eye directly into he Sky boxes RF2 to make sure that it is working OK, if it is but not in the bedroom then that indicates that you have either a short circuit on the link cable between the two positions or that you have a Non-DC pass splitter installed on the coax, and this would require changing to an alternative type that does have DC by-pass.
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Thursday 13 September 2012 7:03AM
Kirstie: The only two ways you can achieve this is by purchasing a stand alone RF modulator that connects into one of the Humax boxes scart sockets, then you would require a standard coax cable to be run from the modulator to your upstairs TV which would be set on analogue (if not an older analogue TV) and then tuned to the modulators output.
The only other way of doing things is to purchase a video sender such as advertised by Argos and such likes, the transmitter unit of the kit being connected into the Humax (just like the modulator) and the receiver unit into the upstairs TV's scart socket, no wires between both being necessary.
By the way the modulator referred to is sold by Maplin stores, link for below.
Programmable Universal Modulator : Video Switches : Maplin Electronics