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All posts by Alan Goss

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


I have 3 TV's in the house (different makes), working off a common amplifier with the aerial directed to Heathfield. It has worked fine for a number of years. Yesterday evening (5/7/16) only BBC was working properly, all other channels pixelated and broken with squeaks and noises on all TV's. I assumed it was a temporary problem. It was the same this evening so I checked the amplifier, which appeared OK, and tried retuning the sets. This appears to have generally cured the pixellation (although there is still odd random events) but I now do not have HD reception on any TV. They report 'no programme' when changing to HD channels. Has the signal from Heathfield changed?

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Thanks for all the responses. Some of the info requests are a bit beyond my knowhow. The signal strength does seem to have dropped:
Living Room - Sony - Quality 21-29, strength 38-42
Conservatory - Toshiba - Channels 41, 42, 44, 49, 52 - Strength weak to average, Quality Good
Bedroom - Logik - Channel 42 Quality 40, strength 48
Channel 49 Quality 35, strength 48
Channel 52 Quality 35, strength 54
I did note this TV (always a bit weaker, not HD) has lost channels 33-100

The aerial is in the loft so not subject to wind and weather. The amp is an SLX 6X and is not showing any fault lights. This has probably been there for around 10+ years without problems and tuned to HD OK when TVs were changed in the past.

From what is said in the responses above it would appear that the signal strength has dropped.

I have tried connection directly from the aerial to the living room and conservatory TV's with a 2 way splitter but just get 'No Signal' on the Sony and Toshiba sets. I then connected each TV separately directly to the aerial and only the Toshiba worked. The others showed 'No Signal'.

Put the amp back on with TV's connected and they are back to as above so the amp does appear to be working.

Any more comments gratefully received. I normally watch the F1 in HD and the British GP is on Sunday!

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Just found another 'page' on the Tosh and the signal strength is 26-30%, Quality 92% Lots of other figures I don't understand.

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A
Heathfield (East Sussex, England) transmitter
Friday 8 July 2016 7:36PM
Tunbridge Wells

Hi, I am in Tunbridge Wells, postcode TN2 5HE.

The signal strengths are obviously too low now, but the system has been fine for many years. I am 'over a hill' in a dead spot for the Tunbridge Wells transmitter, hence the Heathfield transmitter is he only one I can receive from.

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Update: Removed the FM aerial from the amp and things got a little better for some reason, quality and signal strength improved but not enough for HD. I think my SLX 6 is an older one as it has LED's for power, short and surge which later ones do not going by instructions I could find on the net. It only has connections for UHF in, VHF/DAB in and 6 outs, nothing about 18db gain out.

Checking other external aerials around I thought mine could do with angling slightly more so adjusted as much as possible in the roof space. This has resulted in 100% quality and 54-60% signal strength on the Sony (which seems to be the most difficult set to satisfy) and HD is back. I can't see how he aerial could have moved as I never go to that end of the loft normally. Hopefully it will keep working for another 10 years without problems.

Interestingly this site appears to recommend Dover as the transmitter for my postcode, seems a long way off and nobody around seems to use it (including a new neighbour with a new aerial fitted last month).

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Thanks for the info.
For being on the edge of a reasonable sized town we are blinded a lot by the terrain. There are a lot of wooded areas all round and between us and Heathfield. So much for modern comms! We also have a choice of EE or EE for mobile phone reception as they are the only one with a transmitter on the downside of the hill.

Other than using a high mast for the aerial I assume there is not much I can do to improve TV reception. Would also be nice if they upgraded the transmitter to give full services.

This looks like the spec sheet for my SLX6X, probably 10+ years old but has given no problems.
http://www.philex.co.uk/a….pdf


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Thanks, I have rotated the aerial clockwise a few degrees but will have to change the mounting to get any further as the roof angle is bending the reflector (in fact the top rod is now bent). The picture is now OK on normal reception but breaks slightly and drops out at times on HD.

I appreciate what you mean about the reference to 4G on the amp instructions, which I didn't think would have been around at that time, but the picture is definitely the format of my amp, it is a 6X as shown.

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Interesting, I remembered my phone has a compass and tried various angles with the Sony on Channel 4 (following the F1):
190 deg: 80% quality, 46% strength
195 deg: 99% quality, 50% strength
200 deg: 99% quality, 54% strength
205 deg 100% quality, 58% strength
Can't go any further due to the roof but seems to be a fair way off the nominal 190 deg. (Have now broken the top bar of the reflector trying to bend it further, hopefully no real detrimental effect).

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Alan Goss: Interesting, I remembered my phone has a compass and tried various angles with the Sony on Channel 4 (following the F1):
190 deg: 80% quality, 46% strength
195 deg: 99% quality, 50% strength
200 deg: 99% quality, 54% strength
205 deg 100% quality, 58% strength
Can't go any further due to the roof but seems to be a fair way off the nominal 190 deg. (Have now broken the top bar of the reflector trying to bend it further, hopefully no real detrimental effect).

(sorry, last post seemed to go in a new thread, hope this will work).

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Thanks.
What would be a low powered booster? I was thinking of something like an SLX2 between the aerial and existing amp. Is that too powerful?

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