TV AERIAL PROBLEMS

[Deleted User]

Hi,

RumRat is right, there is no such thing as a digital aerial, you were maybe 'sold' one but the set top box was the device that converted analogue to digital at the big change over.

another_casualty

Well, you both answered my question . 😹
I'm going back to 2002 or thereabouts . 

A lot of confusion back then .
I'll leave it there 😼

stator

Well when freeview was launched, it was running at the same time as analogue, so it used a different range of frequencies and used lower power transmissions. So at the time you might have needed a new antenna. When they turned off analogue they moved freeview onto the analogue frequencies and increased the power, so  your "freeview" antenna should still be fine.

However they have recently started moving things about again. To launch 4G/5G they are changing the frequencies of many of the Freeview transmitters. So if you have a C/D antenna and the transmitter has changed to group A, then you might need a new one.

If you find out the name of your local transmitter I can find out if it's changed recently.

MinuteNoodles

11fernsroad said:

Hi

for last five years we keep having Lost TV signal or No TV signal messages and EVERY year we need to get TV aerial person to either climb up and sort aerial/buy new booster/buy new transmitter etc.

Would this be happening at times like this when the weather is very sunny and there's a high pressure area over the UK? If so then you're losing the signal due to interference from transmitters abroad. There's a thing called propogation and this can make radio signals travel much futher than they normally do. For the frequencies that TV uses that usually coincides with a high pressure weather system that covers the UK and the western fringes of mainland northern Europe. Certainly as a radio ham over the last few weeks I've been receiving contacts on VHF and UHF frequencies from our continental cousins 400-600 miles away whereas normally you'd only get 40/50 miles so if you've experienced it in the past few weeks, especially earlier this week, it would come as no surprise.

In times gone by on analogue TV you'd get the picture and sound from the foreign station coming through but with digital TV you just get freezing pictures and no signal.

In that case there's absolutely nothing you can do. No amount of new antennas or boosters will fix it and in fact boosters will make it even worse.

Heedtheadvice

Ham? Usually they are very 'switched on'

Probably written in haste @MinuteNoodles but without propagation you will get no signal, wanted or unwanted!

You can sometimes do something about interference, but not always. Antenna realigment to reduce the interferening signals but maintaining sufficient wanted signal is sometimes possible (especially with lots of wanted signal) and ones with narrower pickup pattern can also help. Not so easy at longer wavelengths I grant you but at uhf+ a definite possibility.

Mind you not probably a given for mr average tv man!!

Neil49

You shouldn't have to keep replacing your aerial or associated equipment every year, it should last for decades once in place. The fact that your neighbours get a good signal implies that it could be a cabling issue (as mentioned previously). Any decent engineer should be able to check the signal strength reaching your tv and compare it with that at the mast.

Putting it in the loft won't improve the signal and could even make it worse.

As a last resort get a satellite dish installed and plug it into a freesat box. 

RumRat

Neil49 said:

You shouldn't have to keep replacing your aerial or associated equipment every year, it should last for decades once in place. The fact that your neighbours get a good signal implies that it could be a cabling issue (as mentioned previously). Any decent engineer should be able to check the signal strength reaching your tv and compare it with that at the mast.

Putting it in the loft won't improve the signal and could even make it worse.

As a last resort get a satellite dish installed and plug it into a freesat box. 

Agreed you need a good signal for a loft aerial, hence the first part of my post. If you have a good signal it won't make a jot of difference to your picture having one. Also, it's no good just throwing it in there or leaving it just draped across a beam. .
All that said, I don't think that the problem is the OP's aerial, I agree with you that the problem lies elswhere.  He should never again use the aerial company that has been ripping him off for the last few years.
A satellite dish won't help as his TTTV box doesn't have a Freesat Tuner.

Mickey666

Get rid of the aerial altogether, sounds like you'll save a small fortune paying for annual aerial adjustments!

I gave up my aerial and dish about ten years ago and now just have a smartTV.  It's amazing how quickly you forget about broadcast TV and suddenly realise how trivial it all is and how much of your life it wastes.  Really, give it a try for a month, you can always go back to it, but you probably won't.  You can also save money by not buying a TV licence as long as you avoid BBC channels, so win-win really

[Deleted User]

11fernsroad said:

we just about 3-4 miles from nearest transmitter.

Is that 3-4 unobstructed miles, or is there something in the way? You should be able to get a signal off a piece of wet string at that range, so if you're needing a signal booster there's something wrong somewhere.
I'm at 12.5 miles range, and a 15 element loft aerial on 10m of cable is good enough to lift the signal strength indicator most of the way to maximum.

JJ_Egan

Mickey666 said:

You can also save money by not buying a TV licence as long as you avoid BBC channels, so win-win really

More than bbc channels   , please don't cancel a licence and watch live TV .