All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Ian Branch: Viewers in the Bourne Road area of Spalding use a mixture of reception from either Waltham or Belmont, and on checking the the TX fault reporting site neither station is seen as yet to have reported any transmission problems having occurred.
In cases like this its always the best policy to check with a neighbour to determine if others are also experiencing a similar problem, or that the problem is purely confined to the one household and caused by either an equipment, or aerial used by failure.
By the way, if a booster or aerial splitter is being used try temporarily by-passing it.
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Muz: Yes do! but as far as these other aerials referred to are concerned, they will probably just like your own pre date Rowridges April 2012 switch over when the high powered vertical element of the transmission was added on the three commercial channels, that being said, although mounting the aerial vertically should (in theory) have quite an effect as far as reception of the commercial channels are concerned, I would however appreciate if you could give an update if its discovered that this action has had any effect on the reception of the BBC / ITV PSB channels due to the fact that they already radiate on a high powered dual polarity signal, and propagation can vary with the polarity of the signal.
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steve jones: A defective tuner does not necessarily mean that nothing at all is being received, but more the case of anything that is received tending to be erratic in a fashion such as you had reported in your original posting, i.e: intermittent spells of witnessing a "no signal" warning, pixelated pictures with stuttering audio etc, and so in your particular case the problem with 861 might (although I doubt it) simply be caused by LNB1's tuner being slightly less sensitive to that used by LNB2's input, this showing up on the transponder used by 861 as they are all received at different levels, albeit a Sky box not being able to indicate this.
I will say though, that if you had only been using a single input then I would have requested that you check the "F" connectors at each end of the cable and especially the one at the dish end for any signs of corrosion, as a faulty connection can on occasions be responsible for this odd type of fault, but though by you having twin feeds and yet swapping them over did not make any difference then that eliminates the possibility of a faulty feed, but in cases such as yours and where a professional meter isn't to hand, then pinning the cause of the problem is much easier to achieve if the box in question can be tested out on someone else's dish, basically because I cannot see any further tests that you could carry out that would assist in any way as far as rectifying the problem is concerned.
That said tough, if testing the box out on another dish did magically result on 861 being received on boxes LNB1's input, then this could simply be down to the signal level received from the alternative dish being at a slightly higher level than yours thereby compensating for the deficiency in the tuner.
Just out of interest, what is the make / model number of your box ?
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steve jones: OK, but should you manage to try it on someone else's dish I would appreciate if you could give an update on your findings.
By the way, sometimes the boxes identification label is stuck on the underside of the box, although I dare say that you will have looked there anyway.
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Floyd: All said in your comprehensive reply duly noted, although everything you have said is symptomatic of the signal received being at a level that's hovering around the minimum threshold required for reception, and when you select a programme from the EPG listings and it results in a blank screen its simply because that the signal has dived under level required to resolve a picture.
But though, when making any enquiries with neighbours the key thing to have asked them was "can you receive ITV3", because the residents that replied that they did not have any problems "might" be receiving Freeview from the local Luton transmitter at just under 1 mile away, and if they were then they would not be receiving ITV3 because Luton does not transmit commercial channels such as ITV3 / Pick TV / or Yesterday, these three programmes mentioned being representative of the three mux transmitters used by any main station.
Another aspect of what you had said that could be playing a role is the fact of you being located at the other end of the building from the aerial, as long cable runs are much more vulnerable to suffering from some form of mishap along the way in its travel from the distribution amplifier, and especially so if goes through one or two junction boxes before it reaches you, because to be perfectly frank I feel that your problem is being caused by something external to your apartment thereby effectively being out with your control.
Maybe you could try a test though "if" your receiver allows manual tuning, and being to go into the tuning menu / manual tune and enter mux Ch50 (Lutons BBC) into the box but do NOT press search or scan, because if you do not then in most devices the signal strength of the channel you have entered is usually displayed on the indicator bar.
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Jack Luxon: The reason that the filter should be fitted prior to the booster is simply because that the only effect 4G has on Freeview reception is by it swamping the RF input section of the receivers tuner thereby reducing its sensitivity to picking up Freeview signals of a somewhat lower intensity, because if the filter was fitted after the booster then the booster would be amplifying the very thing that you want to restrict the effect of, and with this being applicable no matter what type of amplifier is involved.
If though the 4G signal was of an extremely high intensity then it can completely swamp the tuners automatic gain circuitry to the extent of it being liable to trigger moderate to severe instability to occur in the tuners RF section whereby nothing will be received.
As far as filters are concerned, the more expensive varieties as would be expected have a much more defined cut off point over that of the lower cost devices around, these tending to have an attenuation effect on a number of channels under the range its designed to restrict.
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Anonimouse: If your receiver only box is still located in the same position then swap the LNB port connection used by its single feed over to the LNB's spare port, if though after having done this the problem returns then remove the dish end "F" connector used by the single feed followed by unscrewing it from the coax for the purpose of checking internally for any signs of water, drying out with a tissue if necessary, then screw it back onto the coax again "after" having made sure that all strands of the braiding are pulled back over the coax's outer cover.
Needless to say, that if this action hasn't rectified the problem then this points to the box itself being faulty.
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J palliser: A post code or one from nearby is really required for queries of this nature as proper checking cannot be done without it, however no engineering works are taking place at the transmitter nor have any fault conditions been reported and so there are no obvious reasons for your problem.
It would have been of assistance to know the result of any signal test carried out whilst on the ITV channel, but though this can be checked out by going into the boxes tuning menu / manual tune and entering Ch59 (ITV) into the box but do NOT follow this by pressing search, but just make a note of the signals strength and quality.
Just out of curiosity I would like you to carry out another type of test (only applicable to Humax boxes) that detects the presence of a strong RF signal on an adjacent channel irrespective of from what source, this done as before by using the manual tuning facility but this time entering Ch60 into the box and see if the "strength" bar indicates anything, if not try Ch61 and then Ch62, giving an update on results.
By the way is your ITV3 OK?
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Paul Green: Yes, on testing I have also experienced the problem referred to, although no doubt Briantist who owns and operates the site will rectify this now that its known about. But though you should click on "Digital UK tradeview" seen on the list on right hand side of your posting as this indicates Emley Moor as providing the best signal for your location, the Bilsdale transmitter a close second.
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Saturday 8 June 2013 11:51PM
Wendy Leak: I suspected that might be the case, but though on further checking I have found out that this is a known issue associated with the version of software installed on some of these boxes whereby if you ignore the message the box will automatically carry out a retune itself around 4.00am or so in the morning, and so you should disable all automatic updates by selecting: menu - settings - installation - software update and selecting manual, then just back out of the menu should it allow you to do so.
By the way the software version associated with this problem is: 1.02.27, this being accessed for checking by pressing: Menu - settings - system - system information, but of course as you have said its one of these situations you will have to live with as the messages will vanish in time.