All posts by Nick
Below are all of Nick's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
This morning the Icecrypt received c60, sig qual 80%, strength 90.
By lunchtime, lost it, sig qual around 30%.
Hey ho.
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Gentlemen, thank you.
I do not actually want Dover, so I only need one aerial, on Sudbury, provided it works.
Now I will tell you something that will make you think I am barking.
Using the Icecrypt box, with two homemade aerials, this morning, each in turn on the same high pole in the garden the following happened.
Aerial 1 received all muxes pointed at Sudbury.
Aerial 2, which I consider much higher gain, received all but channel 60. I then turned it 90 degrees approx to see if I could get Tac, but left it on the Sudbury muxes, before a retune. I found that I then got ALL Sudbury muxes!
I then put aerial 1 back, pointed the same way, and got nothing, as should have been the case with aerial 2.
For your info, aerial 2 is a tribeam, with the outer two sets of directors designed for group cd and the centre set for group b. The dipole was a compromise between the two, more or less square and based on the old J beam slot aerial Thus each line of directors hits it.
Finally, are you saying that a strong signal, which should not be so coming from Dover on c59 can knock out a Sudbury signal on 60 minus with the aerial pointed at Sudbury?
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My tribeam has a balun. The design is based on my very successful Dover aerial, except that the Dover one has three identical sets of directors as all channels used are in/near group cd. The dipole on the Sudbury one is only marginally bigger, in other words, it is still skewed for the higher channels at the expense of 41 and 44.
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Before you ask me if there are any trees in the way, there are, in the neighbour's garden, directly in line with.....Dover.
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Thank you gentlemen. I finally bit the bullet, got on the roof and put up the tribeam. It got a good signal on all muxes, facing the right way, 95 sig strength and at least 80 quality, although both wavered a bit.
I have resolved to leave it as it is, despite today c60 pixellating with sig quality down as low as 30 at times, oh dear, but think this is the best I am going to get. c60 does not like me, c58 has no such reservations!
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I only have a small problem now for you kindly to resolve. It insists on picking up the ITV 1 mux a second time on c59. I guess it must be Tac. I do not want this as I might find it pixellating because on wrong xmitter, even though it has already logged the Sudbury version.
When I retune the box, I withhold the aerial till I guess I am near c41 to stop it catching the Aldeburgh xmitter. But I cannot withhold the aerial between 58 and 60!
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Thanks Dave.
I tried yesterday to put in the whole lot manually, having first deleted, but for some reason got all sorts of odd channels on 1,2, 3, and then BBC 1 etc on the wrong channels.
The shed aerial is on Dover.
I am talking about two different locations. I have been doing my tests at Holleley, which is better situated than Aldeburgh where I installed the tribeam.
Aerial one worked at Hollesley, but would have struggled at Aldeburgh. It is difficult to describe. Imagine a group c/d aerial, old fashioned 18, no balun. The dipole, folded, was doctored so that the bottom half inch widened out into group b. Then remove the two directors nearest the dipole and raise them an inch and replace. Then, an inch below the boom, put in a 7 inch director, then a six and a half, so there are two sets of directors initially, then they merge to take up the remaining 14 which are all 6 ins. Crafty eh?
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Dave or JB,
I think one of you said the projection for channel 60 for me was not good. I do not understand why one channel should have a worse projection than the others from the same transmitter.
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Friday 27 July 2012 9:06AM
Woodbridge
Thanks JB,
By chance it is the Icecrypt I usually test with.
Can you explain, please, why in the past I have managed occasionally to pick up weak stations on c63? I ask because all the boxes seem to struggle with receiving a high power mux on c60. Are you saying that some boxes, whilst receiving the majority of mux channels, cannot cope with all?