Snap Crackle and Pop

As an aside...are the transmissions different power for different channels ?

It's usually the same channels which are affected by this, 'Dave' in
particular, this is by far the worst offender.

Though I seem to recall it was OK up until one of those updates a year or so
back. I think it all started after that.

Hmm.. having a quick look around the net it seems that poor peformance of
'Dave' is not uncommon.

'Dave Ja Vu' works OK though...perhaps that's why they have a 'Dave Ja Vu' ?

I'll borrow my mate's signal alignment meter and jump up in the attic and
try a realignment.

Jim.



"Jim" wrote in message
...
Many thanks Ken,

I'll check the downleads..and the earth, sounds very likely, though I'll
most likely need the services of an qualified electrician to do that
properly I guess.
I have such a person in mind..

Jim.


"UnsteadyKen" wrote in message
m...
Jim said...

Hair dryers, mobiles phones, cars passing by in the street, just about
everything you can think of seems to interfere with the signal, mainly
the
audio, it just chirrups, clicks and generally drives us all barmy.


Then again all our mobile phones cause all sorts of things to crackle
and
pop within the house, not just the telly.

My iPhone seems to be the main culprit, makes the clock radio upstairs
go
bonkers even when my iPhone is downstairs twenty or thirty feet away.

Have you checked that all the ring mains circuits in the house have a
good earth, from what you say it would seem that the house wiring is
acting as a giant aerial, picking up interference and passing this on
to the head amp and other appliances.

Have you checked the downlead for continuity, it may have suffered wear
and damaged the shielding.


The digital signal is pretty robust. For a couple of years I was in a
basement flat and used one of these:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=29193

It was hung on the wall about 3-4 feet above ground level and was
looking through a narrow gap in a row of houses at Sandy Heath 21 miles
away, I used it with several cheap'n cheerful boxes which usually
showed about 10-20% signal strength on a good day and never had any
problems with interference or breakup. I don't think it's your STB,
something is strange with your setup.






--
Ken O'Meara
http://www.btinternet.com/~unsteadyken/

Jim said...

As an aside...are the transmissions different power for different channels ?

A simple answer is, from the point of view of your aerial; yes.

The Muxes/channels you are trying to receive are on 6 frequencies
ranging from 642Mhz to 810Mhz which is why you need a wideband aerial.
The gain of the aerial varies according to the frequency so the signal
strength will vary with the channel

You have problems with Dave which is on channel 42 Mux C at c 642Mhz
which is the lowest frequency, but can get daveJavu ok which is on
channel 45 Mux D at c 666Mhz which probably means that your aerial is
not quite wideband enough as it does not have enough gain at the bottom
of its range.

The different muxes are broadcast from aerials on the mast at different
heights, see:
http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/ridgehill/ridge-hill4.php
which shows the Ridge Hill transmitter, the third photo down shows the
Freeview aerials, the group of 4 white oblong things in the middle of
the pic. So one or more of the aerials may be hidden from your aerial
peeping round the gable of your house while the old analog aerials may
be higher up or lower down, I'm not sure but I should think they are
right at the top, which would explain why you get good analog but poor
Freeview.

All these little variables add up to good reception of some channels
and some being poor or terrrible.

You should also note that on this page about Ridge Hill:

http://www.aerialsandtv.com/ridgehilltx.html

it mentions...
Ofcom report a small amount of attenuation on all the transmissions to
the South East.

This is one of the reasons why establishing your exact location is
important and why people got so aeriated when you kept it quiet:-)


--
Ken O'Meara
http://www.btinternet.com/~unsteadyken/

Excellent stuff Ken, thank you, you're a gentleman.

Jim.

"UnsteadyKen" wrote in message
m...
Jim said...

As an aside...are the transmissions different power for different
channels ?

A simple answer is, from the point of view of your aerial; yes.

The Muxes/channels you are trying to receive are on 6 frequencies
ranging from 642Mhz to 810Mhz which is why you need a wideband aerial.
The gain of the aerial varies according to the frequency so the signal
strength will vary with the channel

You have problems with Dave which is on channel 42 Mux C at c 642Mhz
which is the lowest frequency, but can get daveJavu ok which is on
channel 45 Mux D at c 666Mhz which probably means that your aerial is
not quite wideband enough as it does not have enough gain at the bottom
of its range.

The different muxes are broadcast from aerials on the mast at different
heights, see:
http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/ridgehill/ridge-hill4.php
which shows the Ridge Hill transmitter, the third photo down shows the
Freeview aerials, the group of 4 white oblong things in the middle of
the pic. So one or more of the aerials may be hidden from your aerial
peeping round the gable of your house while the old analog aerials may
be higher up or lower down, I'm not sure but I should think they are
right at the top, which would explain why you get good analog but poor
Freeview.

All these little variables add up to good reception of some channels
and some being poor or terrrible.

You should also note that on this page about Ridge Hill:

http://www.aerialsandtv.com/ridgehilltx.html

it mentions...
Ofcom report a small amount of attenuation on all the transmissions to
the South East.

This is one of the reasons why establishing your exact location is
important and why people got so aeriated when you kept it quiet:-)


--
Ken O'Meara
http://www.btinternet.com/~unsteadyken/