Freeview Signal Interference

Alfrescodave

I'm now experiencing intermittent loss of signal quality with Freeview. Not every channel, not all day, not every day. Generally BBC channels are slightly better but not great. Have tried retuning which made no change. Aerial is approx 3 years old, professionally installed and previous channel signals have been perfect.
Looking on Net it could be due to mobile phone interference so I'm thinking of getting a 4G filter. Anyone any suggestions as to how to fix this problem or have experience of using this kind of filter ?

Heedtheadvice

First thing to do is see if your receiver gives you indications of signal strength for each individual channel.

Compare the good ones to the poor ones and assess if it is just weak signals.

It is not unrealistic to find that something has changed, such as arial alignment, water in the cable or trees impeding the signal, and that is probably more likely than 4G interference but not impossible.

Digital reception can be hit and miss with low signal strength being acceptable and then just a slightly lower strength failing completely. It tends to not fail gracefully so one channel can be fine and another lost altogether for very little signal difference.

Oneye12

I have a cheap second TV for freeview. The aerial is laid on the floor of the loft, the wrong downlead has been used with sharp bends in it and there is a join after the lead 're-enters the house.  But it works with clearly weak signal. Every so often one or two channels are lost or become unwatchable. 
The co-ax plug screens are checked in the TV and join - back to normal.

IvanOpinion

Alfrescodave said:

I'm now experiencing intermittent loss of signal quality with Freeview. Not every channel, not all day, not every day. Generally BBC channels are slightly better but not great. Have tried retuning which made no change. Aerial is approx 3 years old, professionally installed and previous channel signals have been perfect.
Looking on Net it could be due to mobile phone interference so I'm thinking of getting a 4G filter. Anyone any suggestions as to how to fix this problem or have experience of using this kind of filter ?

Do you also have Sky or another TV service.  All our TVs are wired together and I have found that when the SKy is on certain channels I lose access to some Freeview channels on other TVs (solution turn the Sky box off with the remote and they magically start working again).  

unforeseen

IvanOpinion said:

Alfrescodave said:

I'm now experiencing intermittent loss of signal quality with Freeview. Not every channel, not all day, not every day. Generally BBC channels are slightly better but not great. Have tried retuning which made no change. Aerial is approx 3 years old, professionally installed and previous channel signals have been perfect.
Looking on Net it could be due to mobile phone interference so I'm thinking of getting a 4G filter. Anyone any suggestions as to how to fix this problem or have experience of using this kind of filter ?

Do you also have Sky or another TV service.  All our TVs are wired together and I have found that when the SKy is on certain channels I lose access to some Freeview channels on other TVs (solution turn the Sky box off with the remote and they magically start working again).  

I am guessing that you have Sky Q. The IF used by the Sky Q LNB is between 300 & 2150MHz which means that it can hit the Freeview frequencies of 470-800MHz.
The old Sky system used an IF of >900MHz so wasn't a problem. 

J_B

We sometimes listen to Absolute Classic Rock on DAB (with hardwired aerial in the loft).

If someone puts the light on in the en-suite .... the signal goes.

Could this be a similar issue for you?

Biggus_Dickus

Alfrescodave said:

I'm now experiencing intermittent loss of signal quality with Freeview. Not every channel, not all day, not every day. Generally BBC channels are slightly better but not great. Have tried retuning which made no change. Aerial is approx 3 years old, professionally installed and previous channel signals have been perfect.
Looking on Net it could be due to mobile phone interference so I'm thinking of getting a 4G filter. Anyone any suggestions as to how to fix this problem or have experience of using this kind of filter ?

Free 4G filter and advice, apparently >>>   https://at800.tv/about/

Alfrescodave

IvanOpinion said:

Alfrescodave said:

I'm now experiencing intermittent loss of signal quality with Freeview. Not every channel, not all day, not every day. Generally BBC channels are slightly better but not great. Have tried retuning which made no change. Aerial is approx 3 years old, professionally installed and previous channel signals have been perfect.
Looking on Net it could be due to mobile phone interference so I'm thinking of getting a 4G filter. Anyone any suggestions as to how to fix this problem or have experience of using this kind of filter ?

Do you also have Sky or another TV service.  All our TVs are wired together and I have found that when the SKy is on certain channels I lose access to some Freeview channels on other TVs (solution turn the Sky box off with the remote and they magically start working again).  

Don't have Sky or any other TV service.   Last 2 days signal strength on all channels has been great with no problems !!!  Surely not weather related?

letsbehonest

We were getting very bad free view reception in our area for months, I contacted free view and they sent me a 4K filter which when connected made no difference at all. Eventually I gave up and installed Freesat which is much better.

Heedtheadvice

Could well be weather related if signal strength is marginal or getting moisture in to electronic parts......

Biggus_Dickus

Heedtheadvice said:

Could well be weather related if signal strength is marginal or getting moisture in to electronic parts......

Indeed!
@Alfrescodave

The most likely culprit that’s causing your poor Freeview reception (as stated upthread) is an aerial problem and/or associated cabling.

Aerials can become misaligned or damaged due to wind or accidental impact etc. Water ingress and general age/corrosion, especially where the co-ax cable actually connects to the aerial body, will also affect your aerials performance.

Depending how good your reception normally is a badly damaged or misaligned aerial can still work perfectly well and may only exhibit its shortcoming during bad weather etc. Freeview TV signals are delivered in distinct groups and some of these groups may be unaffected whilst other groups will be unwatchable. i.e. BBC1 & BBC2 may be fine whilst Ch4 and Ch.5 could be hopeless.

I had a problem last year which caused some of the ‘grouped channels’ to intermittently pixelate and become unwatchable. I traced the fault to the aerial connector block which was open to the elements because the plastic top cover had become dislodged allowing water ingress. The aerial had been in place and functioning perfectly for at least 10 years. The connector block was dried-out/cleaned and the plastic top-cover was resecured with a couple of cable ties. No issues since.

To reiterate,...poor aerial/cabling is the usual culprit. Other culprits are available though!