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 Edster on April 1, 2015 at 6:26

Also, you will really struggle to guess position.. Its not only which direction to point aerial in, its which position up and down and the best over all position of your whole roof. The signals come at various waves / levels.. you need a spectrum analyser I think its called if you don't have clear line of sight . Hope that helps.. cheers

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Permalink Reply by willis on April 2, 2015 at 2:04

wheres the photo?

and what did you do wrong?

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Permalink Reply by Edster on April 2, 2015 at 13:14

what I did wrong was try to install it. Its not only which direction, its which is the best area over all on your whole roof.. Then on top of all that you have to find where the best place is height wise.. I had mine at 3.4m thinking higher is better.. He installed at aprox 1.5m.. Best signal was way under the height I had it.

Unforunately the days of self install are gone. You need some one with proper alanlysing equipment to find the sweet spot. To just guess it is almost impossible..

That is the difference between analogue and digital. with digital you need to be far more precise.. Gone are the days of just jumping on the roof and pointing the aerial in the right direction.. Unless perhaps you have direct line of sight which I didn't.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Scott on April 9, 2015 at 19:50

Hi ,I started the original discussion,about lack of signal from Wharite. I had been blaming a neighbour tree in line of "sight". However,after replacing a corroded baluns to no avail,I took up Steve J's offer to help. His signal strength meter confirmed that the aerial was picking up almost no signal. His test aerial picked up a good signal by lowering the mount position by 500 mm on the mast. A slight tweek sideways to the edge of the obstructing tree also helped. The meter also confirmed that the masthead amplifier was working ok and adding about 10 db at the STB. Steve's aerial was now able to run 2 STB's to 2 TV's . Nett result is that I have now installed a new 91 element {very long] aerial. This is a Digitech,from Jaycar. It is however rather flimsy and I suspect it wont last till my 100th birthday. But does pull in good signal though. All my do it yourself endevours were no substitute for a professional with the knowledge and equipment to determine how to get the best signal in a fringe area.

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Permalink Reply by Edster on April 9, 2015 at 20:29

yep, agree, and that's what I found out.. Need some one who can use proper gear to find the sweet spot.. Gone are the days of do it yourself TV aerial installs.. with ditgital its just too hard to fluke the sweet spot..