Best Site for Freeview Transmitter Info.

cerebus

Thats a strange place to plug in a masthead amplifier , normally they are plugged into the light circuit in the loft  or it would mean a long lead down to the ground floor.

I'm actually thinking more about whether the amplifier was turned on and working but there's a good chance it is.

There's normally writing on the cable which tells you it's type (it's not brown in colour us it?

No way of bypassing the amplifier without a trip up ladders and unplugging it would make things worse 

JohnB47

cerebus said:

Thats a strange place to plug in a masthead amplifier , normally they are plugged into the light circuit in the loft  or it would mean a long lead down to the ground floor.

I'm actually thinking more about whether the amplifier was turned on and working but there's a good chance it is.

There's normally writing on the cable which tells you it's type (it's not brown in colour us it?

No way of bypassing the amplifier without a trip up ladders and unplugging it would make things worse 

OK maybe I'm confusing the issue here.

I'll give some detail. The aerial has a little device fitted to it, and the aerial is connected to that. Then an aerial lead is fed, from that device, down the outside wall of my house (the aerial is fitted to a pole on the gable end of the house). It comes in through the wall on the ground floor and is terminated on a wall aerial socket. Into that is a lead connected to a mains powered device and a lead from that device goes into my HDR.

So I'm confused when you say "That's a strange place to plug in a masthead amplifier , normally they are plugged into the light circuit in the loft or it would mean a long lead down to the ground floor."

Surely all externally mounted aerials would have the mains powered amplifier near the TV or HDR?

JohnB47

OK, here are pictures of the aerial and lead. I can't get all of the lead identification information, the waste pipe at the left is covering part of it. 

cerebus

No masthead amplifiers are located next to the aerial,  they are commonly used to boost a weak signal and/or distribute the aerial leads to various tellies around a property , from your description you appear to have both a masthead amplifier and a booster located next to your telly (the masthead amplifier is what was replaced when it was found full of water wasn't it?) Or are you talking about the connection box used to connect the aerial lead to the telly ?

You have wf100 cable which is correct and the aerial appears to be correct too , though not sure which letter it is though , it's a high gain aeriel too.

Have you tried removing the booster and simply tried plugging the aeriel direct into the telly ?

JohnB47

Thanks. Yes, I've probably got the terminology wrong. The unit fitted directly on the aerial was replaced when the older unit was water damaged. If that's what's called the masthead amplifier, fair enough. I though it was the unit near the tele.

Actually, when the guy replaced the unit on the aerial, he also replaced the unit near the tele. I've still got the old one and I've just looked - its labelled masthead power supply.

So it looks like no booster is fitted.

So trying to bypass the power supply would be no use.

cerebus

Ah makes sense now

They have placed the masthead power supply behind the telly and used your coax cable to power the masthead amplifier , not ideal as it's too easy to turn it off there a better place is in the loft where it won't be turned off.

OK so aeriel cable from aeriel to masthead amp, from there to power supply from there to telly , ok so that's all correct 

So that leaves aeriel positioning/line of sight ,and/or wrong band of aeriel. obviously I have no idea if that's an issue from my sofa. Without being there and running tests with a meter no way of telling. Your aeriel may benefit from a higher position , a different spot on your house , new aeriel/drop cable, slightly adjusting the angle, redoing the connections on the f plugs/coax plugs

Have you spoke to your neighbours to see if they have the same issues?

JohnB47

Thanks. I might have a chat with the neighbours.