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All posts by David Nash

Below are all of David Nash 's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.


On Thursday 19 February all my freeview channels disappeared or just turned into a complete mess of broken up images. It's as if the signal has gone through the floor. I retuned and that just made it worse as the weakest ones have been dropped completely.
My aerial is pointed at sandy heath with no issues for 13 years since I moved here (near St. Neots).
Could something have gone wrong with the transmission or some new interference occurred? Maybe 4g mobile?

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Hi thanks for the replies.
It look like it could be a failed distribution amplifier as removing power from that seems to resolve the problem.
I initially thought the equipment was fine as the (poor) signal disappeared completely when I unplugged the aerial cable, indicating so I thought that it was supplying some signal.
Turns out the amplifier is cutting the signal, at least when powered up.

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Yes it's a little odd I agree.
The aerial downfeed goes into the amp, and it has 8 outputs, only one of which is in use although some of the others have cables going to other rooms, but not connected to a receiver. The amplifier is Wolsey, described as "8+1" output. One output (the one I normally use) is marked "Full" and the others are marked 1-8.
This has been the same for >10 years and working properly until now.
With the amp on, the signal is very poor, some channels are detected by the TV but not all, presumably some muxes are not seen although I didn't bother checking which.
With the amp off, and all cables plugged in, signal is fine, all channels detected OK.
With the output from the amp unplugged, ie. just a cable to the TV, there is still a signal. I guess being only 7 miles from the transmitter the cable is picking up the signal itself.
Turning the amp on definitely breaks things.

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Hi again.
It's not the LTE model, as it precedes 4G by a long time.
I did actually try one of the lower gain outputs with no luck.
I guess I will replace the amplifier anyway.

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I will try that test when I get a chance, thanks for the suggestions.
To answer your other questions, the aerial is in the loft and the amp has the traditional (as I know them!) co-ax sockets, not F-connectors.
Mike: I am splitting to 6 room sockets which all have an outlet, I'd like them all to be usable without poking around under the stairs, although currently only one is in use. Hence an 8-way amp (obviously 6-way would do!).
An 8-way SLX amp is inexpensive on Amazon so I may as well.

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