TV Aerial Question.

[stephec]

Can anyone riddle me this one please?

A two bedroom flat has an aerial in the loft that connects to a booster with three outputs, one connected to the living room, and the other two connected to a bedroom each.

At the moment there's no faceplate in the living room, just a back box with a cable dangling out of it.

A TV was plugged into bedroom two to confirm that there was good reception, all five terrestrial channels came through with a good picture, the TV's a none smart Toshiba that's about ten years old.

Bedroom two face plate was removed and fitted to the blank back box in the living room and the TV connected to it using the same cable that was used to connect to the socket in bedroom two.

Now all that comes through is ITV, C4, and C5, there's no BBC1 or 2.

The only difference is the output on the booster, and the cable from the booster to the wall socket.

It's probably going to be Monday before I get round there with a new faceplate for bedroom two, when I'll then connect a TV to that and see what the result is, my other plan is to swap the cable running to the living room to a different booster output, anyone seem this before?

It must be about thirty five years since I last played with coax cable.

 

[sleuthey]

Swap the living room cable to the output on the booster that worked well for the bedroom. If it's solves the problem in the living room then it's the booster at fault - spray contact cleaner in the boosters socket.

If it doesn't solve the problem then it's the living room cable/tv that's the issue - fit a new connector at the booster end. Retune TV OR Try the bedroom TV in L room.

Good luck

 

[CXRAndy]

Also check the braided outer conductor has no strands touching the inner core. This will almost kill signal and you can lose some or many channels.

 

[stephec]

Swap the living room cable to the output on the booster that worked well for the bedroom. If it's solves the problem in the living room then it's the booster at fault - spray contact cleaner in the boosters socket.

If it doesn't solve the problem then it's the living room cable/tv that's the issue - fit a new connector at the booster end. Retune TV OR Try the bedroom TV in L room.

Good luck

Off to Screwfix in a bit for a new faceplate so I might have another look at the current one in the living room whilst I'm at it.

 

[Broadside]

Make sure there are no other cables near to the coax as the shielding does not always work very well. I’ve had particular problems with HDMI cables nearby causing enough interference noise to knock out some TV channels. Separate the cables and the channels come straight back.

 

[stephec]

Make sure there are no other cables near to the coax as the shielding does not always work very well. I’ve had particular problems with HDMI cables nearby causing enough interference noise to knock out some TV channels. Separate the cables and the channels come straight back.

I never knew that, I think there's a scart lead from a dvd player alongside it.

 

[Gunk]

Freeview is coming via the internet later this year, you won’t need an Aerial or a dish soon. That’s a whole industry that’ll be looking for alternative employment.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Is this where we chime in with, haven’t got a TV?

 

[gom]

If you look up Freeview multiplexes you will probably find that BBC 1 & 2 are on one multiplex (i.e. channel / frequency) and the others on another. It may be the the BBC multiplex is being received less strongly, and can be decoded only if there is little signal strength drop by the time it gets to the TV. I'd expect BBC 3 & 4 to be missing as well.
Something to check is which freeview channels you can and can't pickup, this will show which multiplexes are coming through OK. When I moved into my present house I found that of the 6 multiplexes (at that time, don't know about now) I could only get 4 - all BBC and many other channels were missing.
One cause of this is an aerial that is designed for frequency bands different to those used in your area. (A change of aerial fixed it for me.) As it's a flat, this may be beyond your control. In that case it's back to ensuring a good signal is coming through. And not all TVs (& other signal receivers) are created equal, some are much better with weak signals than others.