Loosing freeview whenever it rains

plattinum

A few months ago we had some work done to the roof, during this work the aerial was moved, and since it was put back it has never been the same. Every time it rains all the channles disappear stating no signal, appart from bbc1, bbc2 and bbc3 which sometimes freeze. They told me to rescan the box, which I did but this made no difference. When they sent an engineer out to investiage the problem, he just stood looking up at the coaxes saying, its because the original coax has been cut into and split (we have one aerial with one coax running into the lounge and another running into my sons bedroom) we never had any problems before this work was done, and by the roofer moving the aerial, he has now voided my guarantee. Any ideas or advice where I stand would be great. Thanks

espresso

plattinum wrote: »

A few months ago we had some work done to the roof, during this work the aerial was moved, and since it was put back it has never been the same.

The aerial needs realigning, obviously the roofers did not do this.

Every time it rains all the channles disappear stating no signal, appart from bbc1, bbc2 and bbc3 which sometimes freeze. They told me to rescan the box, which I did but this made no difference.

Due to insufficient signal strength.

When they sent an engineer out to investiage the problem, he just stood looking up at the coaxes saying, its because the original coax has been cut into and split (we have one aerial with one coax running into the lounge and another running into my sons bedroom) we never had any problems before this work was done, and by the roofer moving the aerial, he has now voided my guarantee. Any ideas or advice where I stand would be great. Thanks

Who is "they"? The co-ax should not be split to feed two rooms by splicing in another cable. You should have a proper distribution amplifier.

ABH_3

Write a letter to the company asking that they make right that which they changed in the process of undertaking the work on your property, detail what their 'engineer' did or didn't do ie: he didn't turn up with a signal strength meter, or point the aeriel in the right direction etc. Didn't climb onto the roof to check the connections from the aeriel or whatever.

Request that they sort the problem out to your sattisfaction, or sugest that you will be forced to get a 'proffessional' in to sort out the problem and they will have to sattisfy the bill. If they refuse, then you have to follow the claims procedure through the small claims court. Point out that you don't wish to be confrontational about all of this, just want your tv reception back as it was before the work was undertaken, but see the above as your only options.

Alternatively, look through your local yellow pages for someone to install a 'high gain' tv aeriel plus installation and upgrade your installation. It may cost you less in the long run and give you a better reception as well.

http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/reception.html
http://www.tvaerials.com/

HTH

TimothyEBaldwin

espresso wrote: »

Who is "they"? The co-ax should not be split to feed two rooms by splicing in another cable. You should have a proper distribution amplifier.

No need for an amplifier if the signal strength is good enough, but an impedance matching circuit of some sort is needed.

espresso

TimothyEBaldwin wrote: »

No need for an amplifier if the signal strength is good enough, but an impedance matching circuit of some sort is needed.

Well obviously the signal strength is not good enough in this case!

:rolleyes:

plattinum

Many thanks for the replys. ''They'' are the company that did the work on the roof, advise you to rescan your box as this often fixes the problem. I just wish I knew at the time that the coax should never be split, that seems to be their explanation of why we are now having these problems, although like I said it was all fine before.

espresso

plattinum wrote: »

Many thanks for the replys. ''They'' are the company that did the work on the roof, advise you to rescan your box as this often fixes the problem. I just wish I knew at the time that the coax should never be split, that seems to be their explanation of why we are now having these problems, although like I said it was all fine before.

The problem is that roofers are not aerial installers, so although they can put the aerial back in a similar position to how it was, they do not have the necessary equipment to check the signal strength correctly.

terrierlady

we had this problem every time it rained and it was rain water getting into the power box attached to the aerial, we live in a poor signal area and have a block of flats behind us, we had the box replaced and hey presto all go again

Conor_3

It's simple.

When the aerial was replaced, the connection wasn't made watertight by wrapping it in mastic tape.

So what happens now is every time it rains, water gets into the co-ax and creates a short between the core and braid. If you leave it too long, expect the freeview box to go pop when the water finally reaches it through the co-ax unless you're lucky and it's wired to a wall socket so it drips out of the wall socket instead.

Solution: The co-ax is scrap. It all needs ripping out and replacing, preferably by someone who has a clue. Make sure all the joints outside of the house are made weatherproof by wrapping them in mastic tape.