the nitty gritty

On Mon, 3 Nov 2008 17:36:48 -0000, "Bill Wright"
wrote:

Paul is on paternity leave, so I'm back at grassroots level!

The first one was interesting because the son-in-law had come up from London
armed with a spectrum analyser and had correctly diagnosed that the Emley
Moor DTT signals were almost as good as the Crosspool ones, despite the
aerial being on Crosspool! Crosspool reception was unreliable. Swapping the
aerial was quick; tuning in the three analogue tellys took ages. The DTT set
had already tuned itself to Emley on three muxes, but I did a full retune of
course.


You didn't say you'd retuned the analogue sets as well, but thanks!
I was planning on delivering some STB's shortly, you've taken the
pressure off.

Love the photo's of the new arrival, don't hospitals love stockinet for
putting on babies heads g My daughter had hers in May and at one point
he'd been taken to another room wearing a matching hat and baby grow, comes
out minus hat and wearing stockinet for head gear g

--
Joan Archer
http://www.freewebs.com/crossstitcher
http://lachsoft.com/photogallery

"Bill Wright" wrote in message
...
Paul is on paternity leave, so I'm back at grassroots level!

The first one was interesting because the son-in-law had come up from
London armed with a spectrum analyser and had correctly diagnosed that the
Emley Moor DTT signals were almost as good as the Crosspool ones, despite
the aerial being on Crosspool! Crosspool reception was unreliable.
Swapping the aerial was quick; tuning in the three analogue tellys took
ages. The DTT set had already tuned itself to Emley on three muxes, but I
did a full retune of course.

The second one was the result of a phone call that I couldn't make head
nor tail of. I thought I'd better just go along and try to figure out what
she was on about. On the roof were two cheap ten-element wideband aerials
looking at Belmont. This was in a poor reception area. The lady still
couldn't explain in any meaningful way what the problem was, so I put the
telly on and found that it was tuned in to the Waltham analogue channels.
There's no chance of Waltham reception whatsobver at that location. It was
a strange make, 'Technica-T' or something similar. From Tesco apparently.
Big black-faced flat screened thing, almost brand new. It seemed to scowl
at the room. I found that there was no analogue autotune (apparently) so I
tuned the four channels in manually (no C5). The pictures were far worse
than the crap aerial would suggest. I did a digi tune and the set
automatically re-tuned analogue as well, and did it wrong. So I'd wasted
my time. The set claimed to have found everything on the main BBC and ITV
muxes, but reception was almost zero. I checked the signals entering the
set and they weren't too bad considering the aerial. Reception should have
been much better on both analogue and digi. I asked the lady what the
story was and she gibbered incoherently, but did say that DTT had been
perfect until the other day. Searching for a loose cable I dug through the
mound of tapes, DVDs, teddy bears, discarded takeaways, etc, and pulled
the telly forwards. Under it I found a Sagem DTT box, which had been
hidden behind the rubbish. The box was turned off but was connected via
RGB. I asked if there was another remote and she gave me a Sagem one,
remarking that it was the one she changed channels with, but it hadn't
worked since the trouble started. It would have been nice to have known
this earlier. The only reason the box hadn't worked was because it was
behind all the rubbish so wasn't getting IR commands. It turned out that
she hadn't realised that the new telly had digital built in, and had
continued using the old Sagem box with it. Hence the telly had never been
tuned in. The Sagem had a fault in that it would turn off immediately it
had been turned on, but if you persisted it would stay on. I explained as
best as I could about the box and the telly and suggested she contacted
Tesco. The telly was obviously faulty. Possibly it had been out once, been
tuned in, and then sent back with a flea in its ear.

The third one was an old gent whose DTT kept freezing. He'd looked on
t'internet and found out that it could be the central heating, so he'd
conducted a shivery week-long test, to no avail. His next theory was that
it was 'the electric'. "It comes in here just through that wall for the
whole row, and it's negative earth you know, in Maltby."
"I see."
"In the old days we didn't have this trouble, when it was 'cumulators."
"No, it was better in those days."
"Mind you that was wireless; I suppose this is a different kettle of
fish."
"Yes it is really. I'll just have a look on the roof."
The downlead cable had rubbed almost through on the slates.

Next, a call from the council. No reception in the entire building. This
turned out to be an exageration. The complainant had unpugged the VCR to
vac up, and had forgotten to plug the VCR back in, thus cutting off the RF
loopthrough. A neighbour came onto the landing to ask if I would check
his.
"Is there something wrong with it?"
"Well no, but I thought I'd get you to have a look at it while you're
here."
"Is you picture alright?"
"Oh yes, it's champion. Well, sometimes Channel Five err, sort of . . "
"Well, err . . . oh go on then."
His picture was ever so snowy. The flylead had two loose or maybe shorted
plugs.
"Oh, it's like a new telly!"

After all this I started on my own work, which mercifully was very slight.
Anyone interested in seeing the new arrival can take a peek at
http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...Chapter%20One/

Bill

wrote in message
...
On Mon, 3 Nov 2008 17:36:48 -0000, "Bill Wright"
wrote:

Paul is on paternity leave, so I'm back at grassroots level!

The first one was interesting because the son-in-law had come up from
London
armed with a spectrum analyser and had correctly diagnosed that the Emley
Moor DTT signals were almost as good as the Crosspool ones, despite the
aerial being on Crosspool! Crosspool reception was unreliable. Swapping
the
aerial was quick; tuning in the three analogue tellys took ages. The DTT
set
had already tuned itself to Emley on three muxes, but I did a full retune
of
course.


You didn't say you'd retuned the analogue sets as well, but thanks!
I was planning on delivering some STB's shortly, you've taken the
pressure off.

The bedroom one was OK, but the signal levels in the front room were low.
Analogue pics were just about OK, but I think DTT might be dodgy in there. I
didn't do anything because she said that they didn't use it -- in fact she
seemed surprised that it worked at all. I didn't bother tracing cables, etc.

Bill

"Joan Archer" wrote in message
...
Love the photo's of the new arrival, don't hospitals love stockinet for
putting on babies heads g

Is that what it is? I vaguely wondered.

My daughter had hers in May and at one point he'd been taken to another
room wearing a matching hat and baby grow, comes out minus hat and wearing
stockinet for head gear g
I wonder if the NHS sells on eBay . . .

Anyway, I'm off round to see His Lordship later on, soon as my dad gets here
to hold the fort.

Bill

On Wed, 5 Nov 2008 14:22:27 -0000, "Bill Wright"
wrote:


wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 3 Nov 2008 17:36:48 -0000, "Bill Wright"
wrote:

Paul is on paternity leave, so I'm back at grassroots level!

The first one was interesting because the son-in-law had come up from
London
armed with a spectrum analyser and had correctly diagnosed that the Emley
Moor DTT signals were almost as good as the Crosspool ones, despite the
aerial being on Crosspool! Crosspool reception was unreliable. Swapping
the
aerial was quick; tuning in the three analogue tellys took ages. The DTT
set
had already tuned itself to Emley on three muxes, but I did a full retune
of
course.


You didn't say you'd retuned the analogue sets as well, but thanks!
I was planning on delivering some STB's shortly, you've taken the
pressure off.

The bedroom one was OK, but the signal levels in the front room were low.
Analogue pics were just about OK, but I think DTT might be dodgy in there. I
didn't do anything because she said that they didn't use it -- in fact she
seemed surprised that it worked at all. I didn't bother tracing cables, etc.

Bill


I found a DA hidden in a bathroom cupboard feeding the other sets, so
they *should* be getting equal signals. A problem for another time.

On Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 14:43:54h +0000, RG wrote:
I found a DA hidden in a bathroom cupboard feeding the other sets

With the high humidity in a bathroom, is that a sensible location for
a distribution amplifier?

Or is the cupboard airtight / moisture proof?

On Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:23:48 +0100, J G Miller
wrote:

On Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 14:43:54h +0000, RG wrote:
I found a DA hidden in a bathroom cupboard feeding the other sets

With the high humidity in a bathroom, is that a sensible location for
a distribution amplifier?

Or is the cupboard airtight / moisture proof?

I don't think it's in any danger from humidity as it's in an airing
cupboard close to the hot water tank. If anything it will be the
prolonged high temperature that gets to it.

wrote in message
...
On Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:23:48 +0100, J G Miller
wrote:

On Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 14:43:54h +0000, RG wrote:
I found a DA hidden in a bathroom cupboard feeding the other sets

With the high humidity in a bathroom, is that a sensible location for
a distribution amplifier?

Or is the cupboard airtight / moisture proof?

I don't think it's in any danger from humidity as it's in an airing
cupboard close to the hot water tank. If anything it will be the
prolonged high temperature that gets to it.

If this was uk.diy we would now be talking about part "P"
of the Building Regulations and equipotential bonding.
--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

On Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 14:43:54h +0000, RG wrote:
I found a DA hidden in a bathroom cupboard feeding the other sets

With the high humidity in a bathroom, is that a sensible location for
a distribution amplifier?

Or is the cupboard airtight / moisture proof?

I don't think it's in any danger from humidity as it's in an airing
cupboard close to the hot water tank. If anything it will be the
prolonged high temperature that gets to it.

If this was uk.diy we would now be talking about part "P"
of the Building Regulations and equipotential bonding.
--
Graham.


What a load of old baloney Part P is. I've recently inspected two
installations with serious faults that had recent part P inspections. On one
the tester hadn't the faintest idea of earthing arrangements and the
installation was lethal.