the nitty gritty

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

"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




Sounds like a typical day! Had a similar job today where the downlead had
cut through on the slates, but was making contact with the wind moving it.
59dBuV DTT all the way down to nothing, then back again......they had put up
with it for a while!! Had another one with an existing Sky RF distribution
system, and the main TV had Freeview, but not the rest of the house. The guy
was adamant that the RF2 couldn't be disconnected because he'd checked. Of
course when I insisted on looking just to double check, the RF2 had been
yanked out and there were lots of kids toys behind there too........

"Carpy" wrote in message
...

"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




Sounds like a typical day! Had a similar job today where the downlead had
cut through on the slates, but was making contact with the wind moving it.
59dBuV DTT all the way down to nothing, then back again......they had put
up with it for a while!! Had another one with an existing Sky RF
distribution system, and the main TV had Freeview, but not the rest of the
house. The guy was adamant that the RF2 couldn't be disconnected because
he'd checked. Of course when I insisted on looking just to double check,
the RF2 had been yanked out and there were lots of kids toys behind there
too........


Forgot to say congrats on the new arrival. Takes me back a few years seeing
pictures like that. Mine is 5 now but it doesn't seem that long ago.

In article , Bill Wright
wrote:
Anyone interested in seeing the new arrival can take a peek at
http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...0Chapter%20One

Awww!

Rod.
--
Virtual Access V6.3 free usenet/email software from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtual-access/

In article en.co.uk,
Roderick Stewart scribeth
thus
In article , Bill Wright
wrote:
Anyone interested in seeing the new arrival can take a peek at
http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...0Chapter%20One

Awww!

Rod.

So is it "we are a Grandfather" now....
--
Tony Sayer

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article en.co.uk,
Roderick Stewart scribeth
thus
In article , Bill Wright
wrote:
Anyone interested in seeing the new arrival can take a peek at
http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...0Chapter%20One

Awww!

Rod.

So is it "we are a Grandfather" now....

We have been one for yonks!

Bill

In article , Bill Wright
scribeth thus

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article en.co.uk,
Roderick Stewart scribeth
thus
In article , Bill Wright
wrote:
Anyone interested in seeing the new arrival can take a peek at
http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...0Chapter%20One

Awww!

Rod.

So is it "we are a Grandfather" now....

We have been one for yonks!

Bill


Not the first then?..
--
Tony Sayer

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article , Bill Wright
Not the first then?..

No, there's Katie, six years old but acts like sixteen, broad Brummie
accent, love her to bits.

Bill

On Tue, 4 Nov 2008 03:51:43 -0000, "Bill Wright"
wrote:


"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article , Bill Wright
Not the first then?..

No, there's Katie, six years old but acts like sixteen, broad Brummie
accent, love her to bits.

Bill

Don't mean to sound a misery guts, but I find children irritating.
Feel awkward around them. They always want attention. You teach them
to walk and talk and then forever tell them to sit down and shut up
:-)


(ducks)


Marky P.

"Marky P" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 4 Nov 2008 03:51:43 -0000, "Bill Wright"
wrote:


"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article , Bill Wright
Not the first then?..

No, there's Katie, six years old but acts like sixteen, broad Brummie
accent, love her to bits.

Bill

Don't mean to sound a misery guts, but I find children irritating.
Feel awkward around them. They always want attention. You teach them
to walk and talk and then forever tell them to sit down and shut up
:-)

It's no easier when they're your own.

You'll kill anyone who harms them, and ten minutes later want to kill them
yourself.
You'll give them the food off your plate, and ten minutes later be punishing
them for stealing a £1 from you.

There's no right way to bring up kids, but if they get to 18 knowing they're
loved, trusted and respected, with a zest for life and without a criminal
record, you've done a hell of a lot better than many.