Ping Bill (TV aerial issue)

However some psu faults will show 10-12VDC when there's no load, collapsing to 2 or 3VDC when there is a load. Better to interrupt the lead from PSU to amp and check the voltage there.

Bill

Tim, I was out of action last night due to really bad hayfever. It's very unlikely you will have an amp between the 425 and the aerial unless the aerial cable is extremely long. I suggest you replace the 425 and its PSU. No point in just replacing one.

Bill

Dusty Chooks? Don't remind Tim you are exploiting livestock:-)

My thinking. Reluctant as I am to deprive your colleagues of a fee:-)

Down the pole, down the internal wall, across the attic....prolly

Amazon ?16.90!

Nope, that looks like a picture of one (when I say I don't think I've ever seen one I was talking about 'in the flesh'. I saw mention of them in other parts of this thread). ;-)

That's clever.

Q though, do 'digital signals' (like Freeview') actually suffer with multipath (what that antenna is supposed to be good at resisting), or if it does, I'm guessing the issue wouldn't appear on the TV as it would pre digital?

eg. Wouldn't the decoder (rather than tuner) ensure the best quality signal was extracted from the datastream, the weaker / multipath ones ignored?

Cheers, T i m

Gdgd. At least we are on the same page kitwise. ;-)

Hehe.

Yeah?

There has to be some form of distribution / splitter Tim, if you have feeds from the aerial going to several points?

If you are taking about the pair of things in the link, then yes, they should be sufficient for a 4 outlet system.

This is what worries me about using 'professionals'. ;-(

If it was only done 6 months ago, shouldn't it be under warranty?

The jobs you did around the place all make perfect sense and you applied logic and forethought to every aspect. So, whilst it might have been tricky to get my 6'2" frame into your 'comms cupboard' , I could ... and once everything was working, you shouldn't need to go in there again. However, if you did, you could, and everything would be obvious, neat, accessible and flexible. Just how it should be. ;-)

And you have never purported to be 'a professional' is those fields ...

So, are you able to get to the end of the cable *from* the aerial and the ends of the cables to the TC outlets (I don't think you can from what you have said so far)?

If not, could you get to near the ends such that you could bring them all together in the loft, even if that means extending a couple?

Cheers, T i m

I don't think one of those amplified aerials would explain why there appears to be no sign of a splitter Tim?

Cheers, T i m

Avian flu.

What, Bill has a battery farm? ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Yes. I usually plant button cells and harvest PP3s.

Bill

No. I was working at my daughter's at Clarborough all day. No hens around. I got worse and worse. It was raining which always seems to stir the pollen up. I became quite ill. I drove home but thinking about it now I shouldn't have. At home I started shivering uncontrollably and I felt really ill. I must have fallen asleep on the chair because that's where I woke up, 14 hours later. I've felt OK today, but I haven't left the house. That's the second serious attack I've had in my life, both of them this year.

Bollocks to that!

I hope it works, or my name will be mud. We didn't do the obvious: connecting the aerial cable direct to one of the four downleads and checking the result...

Bill

In message , T i m writes

Most *masthead* amplifiers are fitted at the aerial, in my limited experience. I assumed the Wolsey was simply used as a splitter.

I have no way of measuring the amplification set on the existing so an exact replacement simplest. There is a gain control which I hope to match the setting.

Good plan. Lots of running up and down stairs! If the replacement works, I'll leave well alone.

er.. looking across our pony field there is a big patch of grass which I believe has recently flowered (one of the Fescues?)

The thing is, outside of having better management of the system for flexibility and faultfinding, it wouldn't normally matter what wall outlet was connected to what output port on the distribution amp.

And if you have 4 outlets and one feed from the aerial, I think the aerial feed would check out as a short circuit (and that's the only one you need to separate etc).

I got called to the BILs' with a similar fault scenario to Tim's. I ran though some tests with him over the phone and without being there, we concluded 1) The distribution amp had failed because 2) there may not be enough signal without it and so he bought a replacement. That didn't work either so I was called in.

Applying logical steps, it turned out the aerial feed went first to the Sky box downstairs then back up to the distribution amp, someone had disturbed the Sky box and the aerial return had fallen out. ;-(

'Oh, that's what happened before' they said ... ;-(

Cheers, T i m

The Meridian weather lady gave out the pollen report and said it would be high over the weekend, but also said the pollen season was waning. I'm sure I heard her say that the pollen season was over a couple of weeks ago.

All the grasses in my garden look like they are shedding seeds not pollen, having not been cut for quite some time.

I just go round and pull the 'rye grass' long stuff out of the lawn.

Quite.

Yeah, I think it all got lost in translation (from 'Tech' to 'Farmer'). ;-)

Possibly yes, depending if you have to spend £16 every 6 months or not. ;-(

I belive most straight indoor distribution amps aren't adjustable, the amplification is mostly there to offset the losses incurred by the splitter function, sometimes plus a bit.

Booster distribution amplifiers are available (often with adjustable boost) but would work best in a loft, as near to the aerial as possible. The problem is, with a long feeder between aerial and booster, you are going to boost the noise, along with the signal.

If it turns out the aerial is underspecced for the job, a solution would be to either, fit a better aerial and just use a straight distribution unit in your cupboard, or add a booster in the loft as near as you could to the aerial (or up on the aerial, if a masthead type) and a straight distribution unit in your cupboard. These often provide the phantom power to power the amp (loft or masthead), so you don't need a separate PSU.

If you wanted to go as near to like for like (brand, ports, adjustable etc) but using the right thing for that job, it might have been this:

(Other brands are available cheaper, like)

Just for the future ... ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Find the lowest setting that works. Find the highest setting that works (too much signal is as bad as not enough). Either could be beyond the end stop. Set the gain half way between them.

Bill

I've made a mint out of they...

Bill

That is useful.

Not entirely surprised to find differences between Panasonic and Samsung on a weak signal.

The older Panasonic refused to even try! Best operation has been to use the Humax recorder to feed the TV.

Topfield 5810 won't touch any of it.

I bet.

The problem is, most people don't understand the 'bigger picture' so can't hope to work out the details. Plus they may not have the gear or want to do the aerial stuff (especially on top of a pitched roof stack on a three story house)!

So, if you have a mast head amp you can't just pull the downlead out of say a faulty distribution amp and put it straight in a TV (that doesn't have powering etc) as you will have lost your phantom power ... and I'm guessing would get nothing (nothing at all though the amp if un powered)?

So, you could come to a false conclusion that the aerial / downlead was faulty (because you probably wouldn't know a masthead amp existed).

With your portable test LCD TV with it's 12V output supply *you* can quickly proved that all that is ok and so it's likely to be the distribution amp as it's affecting all sets.

You probably have a spare one (or 10) and substitute theirs to prove everything is now ok. You get / fit them a new one and away you go.

Some elderly family friends *paid* to have their new Freeview TV installed because they assumed it would be like the their old one and need 'tuning in'. Whilst they do, most new sets go though some very simple factory settings (Country, Zone, postcode even) and then auto-tune and bingo. ;-)

Another mate rang because he couldn't set up his kids new console and VR headset thing.

He said the instructions said to 'unplug the HDMI lead that goes from the console, from the back of the TV and plug it into the 'In' on this new adaptor, then take the HDMI lead supplied with the new box and plug that into the 'Out' on the new box and into the HDMI on the TV'.

He said that that would be a pain to do every time they were playing a non VR game, plus it wasn't working anyway ...

I tried to explain that he probably didn't need to do it that way (with having to get the TV off the wall) because if the leads weren't fixed into the new box, they were probably just std leads, so as long as they were wired correctly Console > new box In, New box out > TV, it probably wouldn't care. And if it had to be removed to play a non VR game, that was highly unlikely, you could do it at the box, not the TV ... ?

He couldn't wait for me to get round so said 'I've got someone else in to do it', (saved me a drive / job). ;-)

A couple of days later I asked how it was all going and he said it was ok, but wouldn't tell me what it was ... so chances were it was something else like you have to power up the VR headset / box to get it to work. ;-)

All the Googling I did on it at the time and the suppliers own support videos supported all my best guesses.

As we were a fairly young couple amongst many older people, rarely a day went by when I didn't get a knock on the door from one of them asking if I could come and look at their VHS / DVD / TV / hearing aid and I don't think I ever let them down. ;-)

I didn't make a mint of course, just plenty of tea and cake, all done to be a good friend / neighbour. ;-)

Cheers, T i m