TV aerial not working.

darich

Hi

If this is better off in the TV section then could a moderator please move it? Thanks

My problem........
I recently had my chimney stack removed. It had the TV aerial secured onto it and never had any issues with TV reception.

I've cut the coaxial cable and reconnected it to the aerial that was removed from the chimney stack and is now in the loft but neither tv that picks up a signal from it, shows any signal at all....both digital boxes display "no signal".
So I assumed that the aerial wasn't suitable for indoor use and purchased an admittedly cheap aerial which stated "easy installation in loft space or outdoors".
Still no signal on either TV.

I tried retuning one of TVs but no signal means no tuning so still nothing on either TV.

The cables appear to be fine and the splitter also appears to be perfectly ok. I have 2 transmitters within 16miles (Blackhill is 13miles away and Darvel is just under 16miles away. My area is supposedly good for reception.

Not sure if it'll help but I've got Sky dish and it's perfect for the other two TVs that use it. It's only the roof aerial for freeview that's not working.

What's the next step in sorting this out?
Can anyone help?

Many thanks in advance.
D

Browntoa

you problem may be the splitter , I feed digital aerials into amplified splitters in the loft and then down to the TV

are you sure you have the aerial pointing in the right direction , down here its quite critical within an inch or so otherwise theres no digital signal

I also use the high gain aerials like

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Electrical/TV+Satellite/SLx+Digital+Aerial+CAI+48+Element++Kit/d190/sd3084/p10304

and pf100 satelite grade co-ax

darich

Thanks Brown

The splitter has been in place for a couple of years and worked perfectly well during that time.
It wasn't upset or damaged by the aerial being removed or by me cutting the co-ax cable.

I suppose I could replace it (thankfully they're cheap) but hadn't thought that could be the culprit.

Cheers

EDIT : looks a decent aerial but I've now tried 2 - the one I removed from the chimney which worked fine for the 5 years I've lived here, then tried another brand new one. I could take the cheaper one back and go for the one you linked to but I could spend forever trying aerials when that might not be the problem.

alanrowell

Have a look at your neighbours aerials and point it in the same direction ensuring that the elements (the metal bars) are point vertically or horizontally like those of the neighbours.

The other possibility is that when you cut the cable you've shorted the inner & outer cables so recheck the cable.

A.Penny.Saved

The loft is the worst place for an Aerial especially if you use the loft for storing anything. Much of the signal is lost going through roof tiles.

But it could be that the Aerial isn't being positioned very well. My Humax Freeview box has a signal detection page in the options to show signal level. Something like that would be useful when positioning the Aerial providing you have someone to watch the signal level and shout out what it is.

It's whether it's possible to tune to the correct frequency/channel and transponder in order for the box to detect the signal when you get it positioned correctly.

The other thing could be a bad connection, a fine wire touching the main core wire shorting it out or something similar.

darich

Thanks Alan

I did wonder about shorting it.
My builder cut the cable when he removed the aerial from the chminey. I have about 4m of co ax cable between the aerial and the splitter so presumably I simply replace that with a few metres of cable along with the splitter.
The 2 co ax cables on the other side of the splitter have not been touched.

closed

have you wired it properly?

Have you had a full switchover, if not, try analogue to get an approximation of alignment

darich

Closed

Not sure about full switchover.
I'm pretty sure I've wired it properly but I'll swap the connections and see what happens.

A.Penny.Saved

putting your postcode into here and it will show the local transmitters and details about whether digital switch over has taken place or when it will be.
http://www.ukfree.tv/transmittersmenu.php

You can see the channel numbers and frequencies which might help with tuning or detection if your TV/box provides this.

closed

swapping the connections isn't needed, just make sure the 2 coax conductors aren't touching

if analogue is still on, you should still get something if you wave it about in the general direction of the transmitter, and are using the correct polarisation

Dave_C_2

It's times like this that you need a sanity check.
1) Assuming one of your TVs is portable enough to drag it upstairs, install it in the bedroom nearest where you had the original aerial pointing.
2) Get a short piece if co-ax and connect it from the TV to an aerial (hand-held will do) in the bedroom the aerial should point to the transmitter. Try on analogue TV.
3) If you still get a signal of any sort, then you obviously have a wiring fault.
4) Now you know how to do it, try the TV in the living room with the hand-held - you should get some signal, even if its "less snowy"
5) The rest is just tracing wiring back and checking at each junction point back to the loft.
6) Now you worry about signal quality.

HTH, Dave