reception problem

Hello group,

I'm located in the SS0 area and reception of terrestrial freeview is
fair to poor. I live in a flat on a busy main road, and sometimes it
seems that certain vehicles (2-stroke motorbikes, tricked cars,
sometimes lorries) cause interference to the extent that it will cause
the picture to block, and then the box resets. I have a rooftop aerial
that looks like it is pointed to Dover, but some of the neighbouring
aerials seem pointed towards Crystal Palace. I'm roughly equidistant
between the two.

What I want to know is:

1. are there some freeview boxes better than others in handling marginal
signal situations and noise? Which are the best? I'm not looking for
mega features, just need to know if there is anything out there that can
make more of a limited signal. Like the difference between a Tandy
shortwave receiver and a Yaesu FRG-8800. My current noname freeview box
is pants

2. what can I do to eliminate electrical interference from vehicles? Not
every vehicle causes this, just a minority. Maybe they have failing or
broken interference suppressors in their ignition system. I dunno. When
they rev up, it gets worse.

thanks!
--
comp.john

comp.john wrote:
Hello group,

I'm located in the SS0 area and reception of terrestrial freeview is
fair to poor. I live in a flat on a busy main road, and sometimes it
seems that certain vehicles (2-stroke motorbikes, tricked cars,
sometimes lorries) cause interference to the extent that it will cause
the picture to block, and then the box resets. I have a rooftop aerial
that looks like it is pointed to Dover, but some of the neighbouring
aerials seem pointed towards Crystal Palace. I'm roughly equidistant
between the two.

What I want to know is:

1. are there some freeview boxes better than others in handling marginal
signal situations and noise? Which are the best? I'm not looking for
mega features, just need to know if there is anything out there that can
make more of a limited signal. Like the difference between a Tandy
shortwave receiver and a Yaesu FRG-8800. My current noname freeview box
is pants

2. what can I do to eliminate electrical interference from vehicles? Not
every vehicle causes this, just a minority. Maybe they have failing or
broken interference suppressors in their ignition system. I dunno. When
they rev up, it gets worse.

thanks!
Sounds like poor downlead to me.

Rob.

"comp.john" wrote in message
...
Hello group,

I'm located in the SS0 area and reception of terrestrial freeview is
fair to poor. I live in a flat on a busy main road, and sometimes it
seems that certain vehicles (2-stroke motorbikes, tricked cars,
sometimes lorries) cause interference to the extent that it will cause
the picture to block, and then the box resets. I have a rooftop aerial
that looks like it is pointed to Dover, but some of the neighbouring
aerials seem pointed towards Crystal Palace. I'm roughly equidistant
between the two.

What I want to know is:

1. are there some freeview boxes better than others in handling marginal
signal situations and noise? Which are the best? I'm not looking for
mega features, just need to know if there is anything out there that can
make more of a limited signal. Like the difference between a Tandy
shortwave receiver and a Yaesu FRG-8800. My current noname freeview box
is pants

2. what can I do to eliminate electrical interference from vehicles? Not
every vehicle causes this, just a minority. Maybe they have failing or
broken interference suppressors in their ignition system. I dunno. When
they rev up, it gets worse.

You need to check that your aerial is working properly, and that the cable
is a CT100 type.

Bill

On 2009-08-18, Bill Wright wrote:

You need to check that your aerial is working properly, and that the cable
is a CT100 type.

Sorry to appear dense, but what does 'working properly' mean in the
context of an aerial? It gets signal it seems, it's pointing to Dover
(that can be adjusted). How would one tell if it's working properly in
this context?

I agree the cable will need replacing, it's just regular co-ax that's
been up there since 1990. WF100 for external?

cheers
--
comp.john

"comp.john" wrote in message
...
On 2009-08-18, Bill Wright wrote:

You need to check that your aerial is working properly, and that the
cable
is a CT100 type.

Sorry to appear dense, but what does 'working properly' mean in the
context of an aerial? It gets signal it seems, it's pointing to Dover
(that can be adjusted). How would one tell if it's working properly in
this context?

You need to measure the strength and quality of the signals coming from the
aerial and assess whether they are reasonable, bearing in mind the field
strength in the area. I'm sorry if that isn't helpful, but it's the only
truthful answer.


I agree the cable will need replacing, it's just regular co-ax that's
been up there since 1990. WF100 for external?

If you can get to the aerial yourself why not replace it if it's 19 years
old? What kind is it?

Bill

Its amazing how much rubbish that old low loss stuff picks up. Of course I'm
not sure whether the aerial is of the correct group for digital in that
area, but I'd suggest talking to a good local firm and see what they suggest
as to where you need to go. Aerials of that age at the very least will
need attention I feel.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"comp.john" wrote in message
...
On 2009-08-18, Bill Wright wrote:

You need to check that your aerial is working properly, and that the
cable
is a CT100 type.

Sorry to appear dense, but what does 'working properly' mean in the
context of an aerial? It gets signal it seems, it's pointing to Dover
(that can be adjusted). How would one tell if it's working properly in
this context?

I agree the cable will need replacing, it's just regular co-ax that's
been up there since 1990. WF100 for external?

cheers
--
comp.john

In message , comp.john
wrote

I'm located in the SS0 area and reception of terrestrial freeview is
fair to poor.
I live in a flat on a busy main road, and sometimes it seems that
certain vehicles (2-stroke motorbikes, tricked cars, sometimes lorries)
cause interference to the extent that it will cause the picture to
block, and then the box resets. I have a rooftop aerial that looks like
it is pointed to Dover, but some of the neighbouring aerials seem
pointed towards Crystal Palace. I'm roughly equidistant between the two.

SS0 is Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex so unless you have a local obstruction to
the line of site to the transmitter I'm not sure why you are getting
your signal from Dover.

I live just 'down the road' in Southend (East) and when I had an aerial
rotator and tried for Dover the signal strength was very poor whereas
the signal from both Crystal Palace and Bluebell Hill (Kent) were high.
I currently have my aerial pointing at Bluebell Hill to avoid the shadow
of the tall buildings in the town centre and have no problems with
digital.

Albeit requiring a wide band aerial, you may get better reception from
Bluebell Hill and CP is probably better than Dover if the neighbouring
aerials are point that way.

As other have said, a decent quality down-lead may held with local
electrical interference as may repositioning your aerial to point to a
different transmitter.

--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 2009-08-18, Bill Wright wrote:

You need to measure the strength and quality of the signals coming from the
aerial and assess whether they are reasonable, bearing in mind the field
strength in the area. I'm sorry if that isn't helpful, but it's the only
truthful answer.

Actually, that is useful.

In terms of fiend strangth, is a larger number better? For example, I
looked up on the web.

Crystal Palace 61 dBuV/m
Bluebell Hill 52 dBuV/m

Have they dropped off the minus? Otherwise the converse is true. Which
is the best signal here?

If you can get to the aerial yourself why not replace it if it's 19 years
old? What kind is it?

I can't get on the roof, it's a rented flat, I am on the 1st floor, and
I don't have ladders. It would need a professional in to do it, to get
access to the roof, as there is a floor above me, so it will need long
ladders.

I'm thinking of going down the freesat route because theoretically I can
take the dish with me, and it would be on a wall presumably rather than
the roof, and signal problems will go away. I wonder how it would cope
with interference though? or rain?

--
comp.john

On Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:59:15 +0000 (UTC), "comp.john"
wrote:

I'm located in the SS0 area and reception of terrestrial freeview is
fair to poor.

If this is the first part of your postcode, which I presume, then this
is Westcliffe-On-Sea.

I live in a flat on a busy main road, and sometimes it
seems that certain vehicles (2-stroke motorbikes, tricked cars,
sometimes lorries) cause interference to the extent that it will cause
the picture to block, and then the box resets.

Your aerial system is picking up impulse interference. There are
aerial riggers pros here (I'm not one) who should be able to give some
advice to help with that, but if, as in your case, the interference
doesn't originate from within your property, you may not be able to
elimiinate it altogether.

I have a rooftop aerial
that looks like it is pointed to Dover, but some of the neighbouring
aerials seem pointed towards Crystal Palace. I'm roughly equidistant
between the two.

Dover? From Westcliffe-On-Sea? Seems a rather strange choice. I
have a programme on my website that can map the signal path between
any of the UK transmitters and your home.
http://www.macfh.co.uk/Test/UKTerrestrialTVTest.html

As you can see, Dover is obstructed near your home.

I can't verify your postcode in the official postcode checker because
you have only given half of it, but you can:
http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/postcodechecker/

An extended version of my website page that I am developing on my PC
will also try and work out the best local transmitter for a given
locality. For Westcliffe it gives the following (please note that
such predictions are not an exact science, especially given the lack
of publicly available information on some important transmitter
characteristics, so the following should be viewed as a guide - in
particular, the signal levels should be viewed as relative rather than
absolute):

Best Analog
========
Sudbury, TL913377: 51.14km, -45.4dBm
Crystal Palace, TQ339712: 54.80km, -47.3dBm
Bluebell Hill, TQ757613: 27.66km, -55.1dBm

Best DTTPre
========
Sudbury, TL913377: 51.14km, -60.9dBm
Crystal Palace, TQ339712: 54.80km, -64.3dBm
Bluebell Hill, TQ757613: 27.66km, -66.8dBm

Best DTTPost
============
Sudbury, TL913377: 51.14km, -49.4dBm
Crystal Palace, TQ339712: 54.80km, -54.3dBm
Bluebell Hill, TQ757613: 27.66km, -56.8dBm

As you can see, Dover doesn't feature.

Are we talking at cross purposes here? Are you really in Westcliffe,
or was 'SS0' either a typo or another sort of reference?

What I want to know is:

1. are there some freeview boxes better than others in handling marginal
signal situations and noise? Which are the best? I'm not looking for
mega features, just need to know if there is anything out there that can
make more of a limited signal. Like the difference between a Tandy
shortwave receiver and a Yaesu FRG-8800. My current noname freeview box
is pants

I think I'd prefer to let others comment on that.

2. what can I do to eliminate electrical interference from vehicles? Not
every vehicle causes this, just a minority. Maybe they have failing or
broken interference suppressors in their ignition system. I dunno. When
they rev up, it gets worse.

Impulse interference is much best cured at source, but, beyond going
round your own property ensuring that things like c-h thermostats,
fridges/freezers, and light dimmers are clean, and having a tactful
word with neighbours who own such vehicles, I'm not sure that there's
much you can do. Ofcom are supposed to watch over the airways, so I
suppose if you could get a few car numbers together (but how do know
which car from many is causing a problem) they technically ought to be
interested, but, as I tend to refer to them as HandsOffCom, I rather
doubt it!

Increasing the signal level should help, so if you can point to a
transmitter with a higher signal in your area, that should at least
make the effect of interference less severe.

I think you'll have to hope that the riggers here can help.

Here's some information about the above transmitters. It's laid out
for my website's programming use, not human readability, but the basic
info you need, such as aerial groups and polarity, is all there ...

Sucbury:
{
name:"Sudbury",
ngr:"TL913377",
aerht:189,
dsobeg:new Date(2011,01,01),
dsoend:new Date(2011,12,31),
children:["TM305346","TM159446","TM086492","TM027240","TM271 498"],
transmissions:
[
{
type:"Analog",
bbc:"East",
itv:"Anglia",
aergrp:"B",
aerpol:"H",
aerht:227,
erp:250,

channels:[{name:"BBC1",number:51},{name:"BBC2",number:44},{n ame:"ITV",number:41},{name:"Ch4",number:47}]
},
{
type:"Analog",
itv:"Anglia",
aergrp:"W",
aerpol:"H",
aerht:165,
erp:50,
channels:[{name:"Ch5",number:35}]
},
{
type:"DTTPre",
itv:"Anglia",
aergrp:"E/W",
aerpol:"H",
aerht:178,
channels:[{name:"Mux 1",number:49,erp:7},{name:"Mux
2",number:68,erp:8.1},{name:"Mux A",number:48,erp:5},{name:"Mux
B",number:39,erp:7.5},{name:"Mux C",number:54,erp:1.5},{name:"Mux
D",number:50,erp:1.1}]
},
{
type:"DTTPre",
itv:"Anglia",
aergrp:"E/W",
aerpol:"H",
aerht:184,
channels:[{name:"Mux 2",number:56,erp:1.1}]
},
{
type:"DTTPost",
itv:"Anglia",
aergrp:"E",
aerpol:"H",
channels:[{name:"PSB 1",number:41,erp:100},{name:"PSB
2",number:44,erp:100},{name:"PSB 3",number:47,erp:100},{name:"Com
A",number:56,erp:100},{name:"Com B",number:58,erp:100},{name:"Com
C",number:60,erp:100}]
}
]
}

Crystal Palace:
{
name:"Crystal Palace",
ngr:"TQ339712",
aerht:312,
dsobeg:new Date(2012,01,01),
dsoend:new Date(2012,12,31),
children:["TQ296900","SU734856","TQ411587","TL499214","TQ291 588","TQ343557","SU877911","SP956008","TQ380946"," TQ319647","TQ169482","TQ386360","TQ349934","TQ5476 60","TQ251908","TQ438362","TQ656715","SP905006","T Q408781","SU975486","TQ232786","TQ272854","TL05406 5","TL087044","SU780822","TL320137","SU856942","SU 856974","TQ329592","TQ245820","TQ374878","SU841885 ","SU897933","TQ160538","TQ378628","TQ265965","TQ3 14587","TQ458652","TQ533603","TQ382812","TQ256521" ,"SU777902","TL132069","TQ254647","TQ378897","TL22 3161","SU839936","TQ024454","SU916873","TQ460794", "TQ264773"],
transmissions:
[
{
type:"Analog",
bbc:"London",
itv:"London",
aergrp:"A",
aerpol:"H",
aerht:321,
erp:1000,

channels:[{name:"BBC1",number:26},{name:"BBC2",number:33},{n ame:"ITV",number:23},{name:"Ch4",number:30}]
},
{
type:"DTTPre",
itv:"London",
aergrp:"A",
aerpol:"H",
aerht:302,
channels:[{name:"Mux 1",number:25,erp:20},{name:"Mux
2",number:22,erp:20},{name:"Mux A",number:32,erp:20},{name:"Mux
B",number:28,erp:20},{name:"Mux C",number:34,erp:20},{name:"Mux
D",number:29,erp:20}]
},
{
type:"DTTPost",
itv:"London",
aergrp:"A",
aerpol:"H",
channels:[{name:"PSB 1",number:23,erp:200},{name:"PSB
2",number:26,erp:200},{name:"PSB 3",number:30,erp:200},{name:"Com
A",number:22,erp:200},{name:"Com B",number:25,erp:200},{name:"Com
C",number:28,erp:200}]
}
]
}

Bluebell Hill:
{
name:"Bluebell Hill",
ngr:"TQ757613",
aerht:243,
dsobeg:new Date(2011,01,01),
dsoend:new Date(2012,12,31),
children:["TQ767675","TQ738530"],
transmissions:
[
{
type:"Analog",
bbc:"South East",
itv:"Meridian",
aergrp:"E",
aerpol:"H",
aerht:243,
erp:30,

channels:[{name:"BBC1",number:40},{name:"BBC2",number:46},{n ame:"ITV",number:43},{name:"Ch4",number:65}]
},
{
type:"DTTPre",
itv:"Meridian",
aergrp:"W",
aerpol:"H",
aerht:242,
channels:[{name:"Mux 1",number:59,erp:3},{name:"Mux
2",number:24,erp:2},{name:"Mux A",number:27,erp:2},{name:"Mux
B",number:45,erp:3},{name:"Mux C",number:42,erp:3},{name:"Mux
D",number:39,erp:3}]
},
{
type:"DTTPost",
itv:"Meridian",
aergrp:"E",
aerpol:"H",
channels:[{name:"PSB 1",number:43,erp:20},{name:"PSB
2",number:46,erp:20},{name:"PSB 3",number:54,erp:20},{name:"Com
A",number:45,erp:20},{name:"Com B",number:48,erp:20},{name:"Com
C",number:61,erp:20}]
}
]
}

Dover:
{
name:"Dover",
ngr:"TR274397",
aerht:357,
dsobeg:new Date(2011,01,01),
dsoend:new Date(2012,12,31),
children:["TR103561","TR311430","TR188449","TR004602","TR221 359","TR190359","TR169344","TR262458","TR167427"," TR370701","TQ950571","TR385651","TQ904198","TR1533 44"]
transmissions:
[
{
type:"Analog",
bbc:"South East",
itv:"Meridian",
aergrp:"C/D",
aerpol:"H",
aerht:372,
erp:100,

channels:[{name:"BBC1",number:50},{name:"BBC2",number:56},{n ame:"ITV",number:66},{name:"Ch4",number:53}]
},
{
type:"DTTPre",
itv:"Meridian",
aergrp:"C/D",
aerpol:"H",
aerht:342,
channels:[{name:"Mux 1",number:68,erp:1},{name:"Mux
2",number:61,erp:2},{name:"Mux A",number:55,erp:2},{name:"Mux
B",number:58,erp:2},{name:"Mux C",number:57,erp:1},{name:"Mux
D",number:60,erp:0.5}]
},
{
type:"DTTPre",
itv:"Meridian",
aergrp:"E/W",
aerpol:"H",
aerht:356,
channels:[{name:"Mux 1",number:45,erp:2},{name:"Mux
2",number:42,erp:2},{name:"Mux C",number:39,erp:1}]
},
{
type:"DTTPost",
itv:"Meridian",
aergrp:"C/D",
aerpol:"H",
channels:[{name:"PSB 1",number:50,erp:80},{name:"PSB
2",number:51,erp:80},{name:"PSB 3",number:53,erp:80},{name:"Com
A",number:55,erp:40},{name:"Com B",number:59,erp:40},{name:"Com
C",number:62,erp:40}]
}
]
}

======================================

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On 2009-08-19, Alan wrote:

SS0 is Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex so unless you have a local obstruction to
the line of site to the transmitter I'm not sure why you are getting
your signal from Dover.

Neither do I! (it's rented accomodation)

Albeit requiring a wide band aerial, you may get better reception from
Bluebell Hill and CP is probably better than Dover if the neighbouring
aerials are point that way.

Can you please decode what CP means? The aerial looks like those ones
you see everywhere - a reflector at the back, on a rod about 3 feet long
with little metal bits going across it in the horizontal plane.

As other have said, a decent quality down-lead may held with local
electrical interference as may repositioning your aerial to point to a
different transmitter.

What I'm also weighing up is cost - if I can get permission to get a
dish fitted for freesat, I might go down that route, because I can take
it with me should/when I move. Improving the aerial or getting another
one fitted is a sunk cost.

cheers
--
comp.john