All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Terry Crow: Engineering work is taking place today and tomorrow and so shut downs can be expected at any time, you will have to carry out a re-tune at random times hoping to time it when all transmitters are on air, or alternatively just hold off for a couple of days until the situation is more stabilised.
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maureen williams: Now you have found a combination of Sky box and TV that works perfectly OK when connected to one of the input leads from a dish, irrespective of quad or single, then use this TV / Sky box combination to test all of the input leads used in both positions, marking each lead as being OK or not as appropriate.
Of course the only problem when using the same combination of equipment in both places is by having de-power the Sky box when you move its position, this whereby you have to let it go through the usual "searching for listings" procedure before being able to carry on with testing the other sets of leads from the dishes, but when a person has combinations of equipment such as you have, then a methodical approach is essential when carrying out tests of this nature to avoid getting "crossed wires" so to say, that meaning to use exactly the same combination of equipment for each test.
By the way and just for information purposes, there are no technical differences whatsoever between any of the output ports from the blocks whether they be from the quad or the single, as all output ports are identical and likewise can be used for SD or HD, as dishes / LNB's can be used with any satellite receiving equipment.
The whole point of this test being, that should a reception problem crop up when everything is connected back up again, then the LNB's or cables from can be completely excluded from any doubts that may exist as to whether or not they are the cause of the problem.
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Robert: May I thank you for alerting me to another piece of total tripe regarding the advertising of aerials, I thought it was bad enough when I started to see aerials being advertised as "digital" when in reality no such thing exists, but now this has been taken a stage further by the manufacturers of such devices further misleading the general public by inferring that an aerial can magically differentiate between different modes of transmissions being picked up, then I feel that its a step too far and requiring it to be brought to the attention of the so called "trading standards" as such that operates in the UK.
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maureen williams: Ah! in that case you have finally found the faulty port, or maybe the lead / "F" connector to it, so what to do now is leave the Sky box / TV combo in that position and investigate the aforementioned lead / "F" connector by unscrewing it to see if its either saturated with water or that a strand of wire from the braiding is shorting onto the middle connector.
If though it doesn't appear as if there is, then as a temporary measure swap that LNB connection over with the one next to it, as if its the port at fault then your signal should return, if it doesn't then you could re-try the LNB reset procedure as I believe that you have previously done.
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phil selvidge: Well, the Leicester relay is not indicated as being receivable at your location and not even with the status of poor, but what your installer should possibly have checked was for reception from the high powered Sutton Coldfield transmitter @ 27miles / 266 degrees (all muxes 200Kw) as it is shown as being possible.
By the way, PSB transmitters at Waltham are only on 50Kw and with the three commercials on 25Kw.
You wont really be able to check things properly until engineering work levels off at Waltham as I had a report from a neighbour of mine that their reception from Waltham had been erratic at times today, although it appeared to have settled down when I checked it about an hour ago.
If though once engineering work has ceased and you find that the overall level of signal is a little low then you can add a variable gain booster in line with the aerial lead, as very little (if anything!) will beat a log used in conjunction with a booster in an area known to suffer from difficult reception.
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Mazbar: There is a factor concerning Roberts location which I feel that you might not be aware of, that of him residing in an apartment block that appears to situated at only just over a hundred yards or so from the mast, the type of area where high levels of RF mush can generally be found that can cause problems in some receivers.
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Robert: You may have already mentioned this within the depth of your postings, but what kind of reception do you get when using nothing more than a piece of wire of about 12" or so in the aerial socket?
Another interesting test would by to know what kind of reception you would get if using one of these older fashioned loop aerials that were always supplied with small analogue TV's, the loop on these aerials usually terminated straight into a coax plug.
Finally, does the room where your TV is located face directly towards the mast?
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Mazbar: Yes, as anyone situated too close to a transmitter mast can suffer from what's generally known as the "umbrella" effect, this demonstrated perfectly by the fact that if in a mobile situation (with passenger to monitor the meter) and using a mast of a reasonable height (main station mast) as the target, that if a test signal strength reading is taken from roughly five miles or so away from the mast and you then start driving towards it taking readings along the way, it will be found that although the signal level "might" (depending on starting distance) initially be observed to increase, that at certain point along the route towards the mast the situation will reverse whereby the signal will stabilise then slowly start to decrease the closer you get to the target, and of course caused by what you have mentioned.
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Lisa: You certainly don't appear to be very lucky where technology is involved! however with regards to your findings using Pick TV for a test with the booster connected in line, should you have resided in an area known to have high signal strength then this type of thing happening could be attributed to the great possibility that the booster was taking the signal over the top (excessively high) and causing the tuner to cut out, but though as I hardly think that this type of situation is applicable in your case it must then be assumed that the booster is defective, provided that is you had it plugged it into a socket that's actually powered, but as mentioned in my previous reply, e-bay sources as far as this well known brand is concerned being sold as such a discounted price has to be treated with suspicion, and indeed I noticed one seller actually mentioning that his SLX1P's were shop returns.
As far as your aerial is concerned, its always possible that there might be a slightly iffy connection where the coax joins into it, the way to have a rough idea if this might apply or not being to constantly monitor the signal strength of BBC over a few minutes during a period that you know its slightly windy outside, as if the signal strength is seen to jump up and down in an erratic fashion then this could be because of a bad connection, however this could also be caused by the signal received having to travel over tree lined area's, so the test isn't foolproof.
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Wednesday 30 May 2012 9:34PM
Lisa: When you had mentioned the source of your purchase in the interests of "not" wishing to put a downer on it I refrained from commenting about a possible pitfall when dealing with these sources, being that many of these devices sold at that price are shop returns, and with this being the only reason that they can sell them at the price they do.
Although I am not saying that yours doesn't work, but you should test it by selecting Pick TV and checking on the signal level whilst you adjust the gain control up and down to make sure that it does have an effect, although if it does then I am beginning to suspect that there may be a problem with your sets tuner as its inconceivable for these two channels not to be there.
Purely for a test, cant you borrow a Freeview box from someone for an hour or so? as you could connect that into your TV using a scart lead.