Hi Everyone with Freeview problems, especially Prime etc.

Mine was OK as described two days ago, but same problem back again. Either Prime related stations want to force us into subscribing to Sky, or they are trying to save money on transmission power. So I just give up on Prime etc., or watch them via the DishTV recorder. Not that I am happy about it.

No, I have not checked signal strength, but since I am watching TV less and less I am only annoyed. But we have a good library here in Masterton, and a stack of CDs in the cupboard. Nice and peaceful.
 
John Richardson said:

My Sony TV has worked fine on terrestial tv digital transmissions for years but during the past two weeks I have had problems with reception of the following channels; Maori, Prime, Trackside, Choice, Sommet Sports, TVSN Shopping, Yes shop, First Light and a Chinese channel. All others are normal including the new Al Jazeera channel. When checking the signal level for Prime using the System Information facility in Technical Set-up menu of the TV, it fluctuates wildly between 'no signal' and 'good' but only later in the day. In the morning the signal level indicates 'good' and reception is OK on all the above-mentioned channels. I have trimmed down a tree that had grown in front of the aerial and checked all the connections at the aerial, the distribution hub and between the wall socket, the digital recorder and the tv but cannot provoke a change in signal level when reception is OK on the above-mentioned channels.

I live in New Plymouth and receive signals from the transmitter on Mt Taranaki. We are in line-of-sight of the transmitter and well within its service area.

Any suggestions as to what has gone wrong will be gratefully received.

 

John.

 

 

 

Hi Mike,

A I mentioned in my original submission to the forum (November 5th) the first thing I did was check the aerial and its connections and all appeared OK.

The splitter is about 2 years old, having been installed when the house was built. It uses F type connectors and I have connected the aerial lead to that feeding the TV using an F81 female to female adaptor. 

I did try feeding the TV directly from the aerial, not through the DVD recorder, but with little effect so it seemed pointless to split the signal to feed the recorder and the TV separately.

My aerial was installed about 2 years ago when the house was built, just before the local transmitter began regular digital broadcasting and was producing test transmissions in preparation. Interestingly, I have noticed that during recent months, when everyone has been preparing for the close-down of the analogue transmitter, the aerials being installed around the town are a much higher gain type with about 40 elements.  Perhaps they are playing safe, wishing to avoid the sort of problem I have experienced. Perhaps I will have install such an aerial as well if I ever want to use the splitter again to feed other rooms.

Mike G said:

Hi John,

I don't think the transmitter power would have been reduced as there would have been a lot more complaints from your area. 

It sounds to me like your aerial or cabling has slightly reduced performance over time to the point where the signal can't overcome the losses in the splitter. I would start by checking the balun on the antenna and connections to make sure there is no water in there. It might have crept down inside of the feeder cable too and reduced its performance.

Is the splitter a good quality one with F-connectors or an older style with Belling-Lee TV plugs? Older splitters aren't great at UHF frequencies and this might not be helping. Sometimes this affects only a group of channels.

I had a similar problem that turned out to be agravated by the aerial feeding via the DVD recorder. It lost a lot of UHF signal through it. It might be better to split the feed into both devices rather than loop the signal on.

Hi John and Jo, I think the best thing that you could both do is to get an installer with a meter around to test out the reception from your aerials. I'm sure that the Kordia mux, (with Prime etc), hasn't been reduced in transmission power at either transmitter site.