All posts by jb38
Below are all of jb38's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
John Harrison: If the problem still occurred when the aerial was fed directly into your TV then I cant really see that much you can do as the source of the interference "might" well connected to the circuitry associated with your solar panels, and especially so "if" the inverter is also located in the loft space.
As things are, the only option I see is for you to make a couple of local enquiries for the purpose of determining whether or not the problem is confined solely to your own household, because if it is then I cant see the situation being improved any except by moving the aerial to another position.
However there is one simple little test that you could make though, that being to take a small portable radio of the type that has a LW band up into the loft and tune it to a dead spot either side of Radio 4 LW 198Khz, as you only want a background noise and not a programme, then turn the volume up slightly before the times that you know the problem occurs and monitor the output of the radio, because if the problem is connected to the solar panel installation this will likely result in you hearing a loud noise through the radio, LW being great for detecting sources of interference.
By the way a radio with MW can also be used if tuned "off" a programme, its just that LW is better for this sort of test. The other point being to position the radio near to the solar panel equipment.
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NeilF: If the problem is only affecting the kitchen TV then you should try swapping its feed from the Sky boxes RF1 over to RF2 either AFTER going into the engineering menu and switching off RF2's power supply, or to save you changing the menu settings just temporarily fit the magic eye to the kitchen TV to isolate RF2's 9 volt supply from entering the kitchen TV's aerial socket.
Another way is just to try swapping the upstairs TV's feed from the Sky boxes RF2 over to RF1 ignoring the fact that the magic eye will not work, the point about this being that its extremely uncommon for a fault to develop on RF1 but not RF2 as its usually the other way around.
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jacquie: If you are referring to moving the box within the same household then did this involve coax cable extensions?
However irrespective of whether it did or not there is obviously a defect in the coax feed that's connected into the boxes LNB1 input and so you should try swapping LNB1 & LNB2 over, if the signal returns this means that the feed that now in LNB2 is defective, and so the "F" connector should be unscrewed from the coax and checked to make sure that "all" strands of the copper braiding has been pulled back over the coax's outer cover before the plug is screwed back onto the cable again.
Further advice dependant on reply.
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Sarah Crowe: As neither of the two transmitter fault reporting websites are indicating any problems in your area, then have you as yet checked with any neighbours to determine if they also are having problems with reception?
If not, then you should check to ensure that your booster amplifier has not been switched off, and if at all possible try by-passing it just in case its developed a fault.
Further advice dependant on reply.
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Mr F: Plus to add to that already said by Dave Lindsay, that it should also be pointed out that anyone requesting advice on any issues involving reception really has to provide their location, this in the form of a post code or at least one from somewhere nearby, e.g: a shop etc, as without this info its not possible for anyone assisting to access the reception predictor which also gives details of the transmitters involved, something that's essential to know due to the large variations in reception that can be experienced across the estimated coverage area of a transmitter, with many viewers being located within a few miles of a high powered main station whereas others are receiving at a distant location that can realistically be considered as being outwith the accepted coverage area for the station, hence their reception is prone to suffering from seasonal signal level variation drop outs.
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Walter Ego: With regards to the problem you are referring to, no TX faults have been reported on the BBC's R/T investigation site nor according to DUK are there any planned engineering works taking place anywhere in the Central region, and so unless some fault has developed that has not as yet been reported (which I doubt if it has) I am inclined to feel that your problem is possibly caused by your receiver operating with a level of signal that's not really high enough above the cut off threshold for the equipment being used, the reason for no reception being that the signal (although still there) has now dipped under the level necessary to resolve a picture but though that the temporary aerial that you tested the box on is slightly better positioned than the one normally used, as the threshold levels referred to are quite tight between resolving a picture and not doing.
If your "You View" box has a manual tune facility then you should enter Bromsgrove's HD service on Ch30 but do NOT press search or scan, because most equipment will indicate the level that the signal is being received at as soon as the mux channel number has been entered, make a note of whatever it is then change the channel number to BBC Ch26 likewise noting its level, then using the same procedure again enter Ch23 (ITV) then compare its level with the other two as that will give an idea of what's causing your difficulty, because if the signals are generally all received on the low side then a booster would help the situation provided that the drop out is not being caused by the quality diving, as virtually nothing helps in that type of situation except by experimenting with alternative aerial positions starting a few feet to the left or right of its present position.
By the way I noticed that Sutton Coldfield as well as Ridge Hill are both indicating as being capable of proving a better signal than that from the Bromsgrove transmitter, have you previously tested out reception from either station? as the signal from Bromsgrove appears to suffer from a blockage in its path at about 1 mile or so from the Droitwich Post office I used as a test code by being unaware of your own.
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Walter Ego: By the way please ignore the latter paragraph in my reply as I have now obtained the correct post code, this indicating a clearer path for the signal from Bromsgrove free of the obstruction referred to, at least anyway as far as anything of a hill nature is concerned as these terrain indicators do not take account of trees nor any man made objects no matter how large they may be.
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Walter Ego: Thanks for the update / explanation regarding your aerial arrangements which by the way I found rather interesting, insomuch that I noticed the signal from Sutton.C @ 27mls / 30 degrees is nearly in the same line as Bromsgrove @ 7.5mls / 27 degrees, and although you have mentioned that the quality had increased in level and which is now resulting in satisfactory reception, however I don't really feel that the signal strength reported is really running with a sufficiently high enough level of safety margin above that of the cut off threshold previously referred to, and so this should be kept in mind should any problems arise.
That said, I do accept that this is possibly because that the "You View" box you are using is fitted with a slightly insensitive tuner, older BT vision boxes suffering from this problem.
However, should the HD signal from Bromsgrove take another dive at some point in time (as I suspect that it will) then as well as immediately carrying out a signal test on Bromsgrove's HD channel, as the signal level should still be indicated even although no picture is seen, I would also be interested to know the result if you carried out the "manual" tune test procedure that I previously described (without pressing scan) but on Suttons HD Ch40 "without changing aerials", albeit of course that the polarity of the aerial used for Bromsgrove is incorrect for Sutton.C, the latter radiating on horizontal polarity.
As far as your "You View" box is concerned, if at all possible without causing chaos to your set up I would like to know the model number of box that you are referring to, this being for purposes of checking the technical manual for same to see if any defects have been notified as yet, my curiosity being triggered by what you have mentioned about it being inclined to run on the hot side, something not particularly conducive to the life of electrolytic capacitors, the info requested being basically for my notebook and not for any other purpose.
Anyway you could maybe keep that said in mind for the future.
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Peter Thompson: The card cannot block reception as such as the box can work without the card, but as far as no signal is concerned did you run the coax back to a spare port on the dishes LNB or was the connection already there? because what you have reported suggests that there is either a fault in the coax cable being used or the "F" connectors on each end of, or possibly that the spare port on the dish is defective, or even that the box you are using is defective, and so for purposes of elimination you should test it out on the dish feed thats used by your main box.
Further advice dependant on reply.
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Monday 4 March 2013 11:25PM
Jim: Many modern TV's only have one scart socket because they are usually fitted with one or more HDMI inputs, however if your Sky box is of the standard variety and your DVD does not have an upscaling feature then neither will have HDMI sockets, albeit of course that TV will if its an HD or "HD ready" type.
That said, exactly what you will require to purchase (leads / scart selector box wise) depends on what you intend to record from onto the VHS recorder as well as the DVD, further advice dependant on answer.