Freeview signal from Wharite

Can anyone tell me if there has been a recent problem/lack of signal strength from the Wharite transmitter ?

Background : I have a property at Waikawa Beach which is in the Manawatu,many km south from Wharite. Until recently I have been able to receive sufficient signal to run two seperate UHF decoders to give good stable pictures.

Out of the blue a few weeks ago the picture started to pixelate quite often. So I disconnected the splitter and ran one decoder. This helped a bit ,but was still unacceptable. Did all the usual cable checks and found corrosion at the aerial baluns. Reconnected this but with no improvement..

I have now fitted a new baluns and a Matchmaster 15 db masthead amplifier. Still no improvement!!!

I can receive Al Jazeera and a few others. but TV 1,2,3,4 etc shows "no signal"

I have swapped decoders,made new F connections, and am now at a loss to what to try next.

Perhaps I should cut down the neigbours tree which is about 80 metres away in line of sight?

Any suggestions/or knowledge would be appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by forumuser on March 27, 2015 at 15:47

Enviromental factors are likely to be the cause of your reception woes, there has been no works on the transmission site.

Especially if you are located far from Wharite site it might be best to see if the neighbors tree can be cut because of the sensitivity of the signal which could be interrupted with the tree in line of sight.

Regards
Joshua

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Permalink Reply by Steve J on March 27, 2015 at 18:13

I can see the Wharite signals. Im 74 Kms away and not line of site , as as far as I can tell on the service meter the MER / BER and SIG level is normal .

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Permalink Reply by Alan Scott on March 28, 2015 at 13:54

Thank you Steve and Joshua for the info on the Wharite signal.

The tree is unfortunately out of my control. I will now try a new cable run to the decoder. If that doesn't work, I will have to consider going to a satellite dish and new decoder.

Regards, Alan

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Permalink Reply by Steve J on March 28, 2015 at 17:24

It did some tests a few months ago in Mangapirau ST and signal was fairly healthy .
Is there any change in levels between Day and Night and Wet and Dry conditions ?

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Permalink Reply by Alan Scott on March 28, 2015 at 20:07

Thanks Steve, It seems from your and the other replies that there should be a good signal at my place. This is a holiday house which we stay at occasionally,so have not experienced wet weather recently. Day and night, the same poor signal. I understand that wet foliage is great at masking signal.

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Permalink Reply by willis on March 28, 2015 at 23:55

try raising or lowering the aerial by about 1/2m

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Permalink Reply by Steve J on March 29, 2015 at 8:45

also sideways I have found places where heigh

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Permalink Reply by Biggles on March 29, 2015 at 8:53

What sort of Baluns are you referring to. The balun on a UHF antenna is usually just a circuit board inside the box where the f connector connects. If that is showing corrosion then I'd recommend replacing the whole antenna. There should not be any external balun. It's also possible you may not have the appropriate type of antenna for your location. Can you put up a photo of the installation?

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Permalink Reply by Alan Scott on March 29, 2015 at 12:33

As I said in my original post,the TV picture was fine untill recently. I did find corrosion to the baluns PC board,so I removed it and fitted a new cylindrical baluns with a sealed rubber boot over the F connector. The aerial was a combination VHF/UHF,from which I have removed the VHF elements and the diplexer. The UHF elements are correctly polarised,have 13 elements and is typical of other installations in the area.

This is a holiday property so cannot attach photo at the moment. However I will attempt to send a sketch.

Any comments would be appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Steve J on March 29, 2015 at 12:45

Alan If you private message me with contact details , I live fairly close to you !!

Steve

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Permalink Reply by Biggles on March 29, 2015 at 13:17

OK. Good sketch though.

I think you'll find that balun is not suitable for that antenna. It's probably only useful for VHF and you are probably getting massive signal loss thru the balun. Dump the antenna and get a new one.