344 replies to this topic

[RoyG]

alanh,

You have helped me out before (with great success).  I have a mate who lives in Ashbourne (outside of Adelaide towards Victor Harbour) and he is having some issues with interference on his digital signal.

He is receiving signal from Mt Lofty using a Hills Optimax 650 (which was recommended by Hills for his area).  He could probably receive from Victor but has not tried this out.

He usually has excellent reception but gets interference some times (causing glitches and complete drop-outs) when (he believes) a nearby irrigation pump starts up and runs.

I am assuming the 650 is the same as the 600 (no data on 650) in which case it is a 2-12, 28-40 comb antenna.  Would the interference be from the antenna picking up channels 2-5A?

Would a better antenna be the Hills SMX24B4+ ?

The location of the property is 35o19'24.31S, 138o44'28.07E.

Thanks.

RoyG

[wahroonga farm]

Location: POINT I, POINT II
Name: Ashbourne, Mt Lofty
Latitude: -35 ° 19 ' 24.00000 '', -34 ° 58 ' 0.00000 ''
Longitude: 138 ° 44 ' 28.00000 '', 138 ° 42 ' 0.00000 ''
Forward Azimuth: 354 ° 34 ' 46.98 ''
Reverse Azimuth: 174 ° 36 ' 12.17 ''
Ellipsoidal Distance: 39.746 km

Probably need to know something about the cabling, type, length, splitters, masthead yes/no, analogue tv reception quality, type of stb, stb sig/qual levels, local terrain, antenna location/height etc, etc.

[alanh]

Royg,
The antenna manufacturers are not promoting digital only antennas which is a real shame for people like you. None of the Omnimax range are restricted below channel 6. The answer to this question of interference is yes.

You will find in this post a link to SA which will give the location of all transmitters in SA. There is a surprising number in the Adelaide hinterland. Get the Best Reception, Adelaide. There is a link to the available types of antennas.

The ABC Website link will give you approximate coverage areas for the Victor Harbour translators. A different type of antenna is required as well as a different direction.

In either senarios a masthead amplifier may be required. They are different types depending on if you are using Mt Lofty or Victor.

Check it out and let me know here.

Wahroonga Farm,
You did not answer his question and it was directed at me.

AlanH

[wahroonga farm]

'tat's why I let u answer it. I just asked questions. BTW its 'harbor'

[alanh]

Wahroonga Farm,
I am not an American
AlanH

[wahroonga farm]

Ask a South Australian?

[stahc]

don't f#$k with raymond

[tezza@thebeach]

Hi All,

I live at Henley Beach with a Hills "digital/analogue" antenna in the ceiling with the output sent to two wall sockets via a splitter and proper cabling. It was installed by me about two years or so ago.

It all worked perfectly on both analogue and digital reception until a few months or so ago... it gradually deteriorated and now I have apalling analogue reception and digital reception is also very unreliable (sometimes unwatchable)!

Anyone got any ideas as to why it would have deteriorated so badly over the past few months? I have removed the splitter from the system without benefit, so I think the splitter is not the problem.

My understanding of television signal/broadcasting is fairly rudimentary, but I'm happy to do a bit of cabling and installation. The equipment I'm using was purchased from Hills Industries as recommended by them for my area. As I said, it was all working perfectly, but has just got gradually worse and then dramatically seemed to fail.

Do I need absolute "line-of-sight" clearance to get a good signal? I am wondering about a large tree (and seems to have got larger) which sits about 500metres away between our place and Mt. Lofty.

Should I take the antenna from the ceiling space and stick it on a pole attached to the chimney? I could probably gain an extra 3 metres height with that.

Thank you for any advice I can get on this issue.

Cheers,

Terry.

[M'bozo]

tezza@thebeach, on Mar 25 2007, 12:56 PM, said:

Henley Beach

(Nice area.
Grew up there.)

Thinking, if the antenna is in a tiled roof space without sarking there may be corrosion on the balun of the antenna, check that. I've experienced failures where the fine wire from the balun meets a solder point and the copper wire is exposed and corrodes through.

Otherwise check all cabling/connectors for damage.

Also if the cable goes into a digital box and then to an analogue TV, there could be a problem with the RF through on the STB. Bypass it to see if the analogue picture improves.

I note you have 2 wall sockets so if they are both giving poor reception, there could be a common problem.

[Tahoma]

[quote name='Island Antennas' date='Mar 25 2007, 12:19 PM' post='625609']
(Nice area.
Grew up there.)

Thinking, if the antenna is in a tiled roof space without sarking there may be corrosion on the balun of the antenna, check that. I've experienced failures where the fine wire from the balun meets a solder point and the copper wire is exposed and corrodes through.

Otherwise check all cabling/connectors for damage.

Also if the cable goes into a digital box and then to an analogue TV, there could be a problem with the RF through on the STB. Bypass it to see if the analogue picture improves.

I note you have 2 wall sockets so if they are both giving poor reception, there could be a common problem.
[/quote

I'd get out the axe or chainsaw and prune that tree!!!

Tahoma

[mtv]

Almost certainly re-locating the antenna to the outside of the roof should help.

Height isn't always the answer, but finding the 'sweet spot' is.

Moving an antenna just a few centimetres in any direction can make the difference between reliable reception and none at all.

To achieve this without a digital field strength meter with BER readings is almost impossible.

[digitalj]

Troll Reported

[ibanez5]

burnoutking, on May 8 2007, 09:14 PM, said:

could you please send me large photos of the inside circuit board in the hills A3PU type booster so i can see what it has inside it, thanks

Could you please p*ss off? You've been banned how many times for trolling?

[mtv]

ibanez5, on May 8 2007, 10:11 PM, said:

You've been banned how many times for trolling?

One more... coming up..  

[Damaja]

hi all..

I went on holiday and disconnected the power from my STB & TV and now I no longer have SBS  

I've tried to follow the guide but I'm finding it a little confusing...I'm located 5 minutes from Adelaide CBD and according to the spreadsheet (.pdf doc) the best transmitter could be either of the 2 listed for Adelaide. As far as the rest of that document goes I'm finding it hard to interpret...

Also, am I correct to assume that the logical channel numbers are the number that appear when I try to do a 'manual program' for my channels? For example, channel 6 might be listed but it is actually Channel 7 (as ordinary people like me know it as) displaying?

The fact that my antenna worked fine before makes me question the rationale of assessing my aerial situation at all.

Any help is appreciated.

Thx.

Edit: I figured it out...always check your cables...lol  

Edited by Damaja, 17 May 2007 - 09:53 PM.

[alanh]

Damaja,
It depends on which side of the CBD you are on. If you click on the SA link in the first post in this strand, you will find the real channels for the translators in Grenfell St. You need to do an automatic scan and leave it until it gets to channel 69. Either that or scan for the real channel numbers of the Adelaide foothills translators  as well as Mt Lofty to see which are best.
At the top of the spreadsheet you will find logical channel numbers so SBS always starts with 3 and is the number used to select programs after your installation is complete. During installation the receiver needs the real channel numbers. In your case SBS will be either channel 33 or 61.

AlanH

[Kaiden]

Im in ottoway, bought a digital antenna yesterday

http://www.dse.com.a...duct/View/L4074

installed it and automatic scan and all the channels worked fine. today however, there is no longer any sound. analogue tv has normal sound and so do my input devices, is anyone experiencing this problem? and will it go away soon?

[alanh]

Kaiden,
Is the digital signal without sound or the analog signal without sound? Are you missing all analog channels or only some of them?
On the packaging or the instructions does it mention either the channel numbers it is supposed to receive or a frequency range in MHz? If so what is it?

AlanH

[Kaiden]

Digital Signal all work with excellent picture without sound.
Analogue channels have sound and the expected fuzz/snow.
The antenna is hooked up to my Sony Bravia Lcd tv with integrated HD Digital Tuner.

http://www.sony.com....m=sony bravia x

Neither of the instruction manuals mention frequency ranges

Edited by Kaiden, 22 June 2007 - 07:58 PM.

[alanh]

Kaiden,
In digital there are two sound signals sent, MPEG sound which is stereo, and AC3 sound which is surround sound consisting of 5 channels and a subby. Some standard definition broadcasts only have MPEG sound.
Either no sound is selected or the wrong sound type.
Since you have stable pictures you will have sound. Consult your manual and select the correct settings.

AlanH

[Kaiden]

it had always been set to mpeg and i saw no reason to change it.
but strangely, sound was back to normal yesterday. I cant figure out why the sound had disappeared in the first place.
thanks for the help.

[walynds]

Post 'moved' to SA reigonal, prbs with 7 HD. Any advice appriciated (ps already trolled existing threads etc)

Edited by walynds, 06 October 2007 - 01:38 PM.

[Kransky dan]

Hi all,
I'm really new a digital and don't have much experience at all.
Need help, have read the posts about better signal but hasn't helped me all that much.

I live in Mount Barker (SA) and intermittently the screen pixelates and sound crackles for approx 2 secs, this is also present also when anything electrical is turned on (light, opening the fridge etc).
Sometimes it gets so bad that the picture just freezes and sound stutters (like a skipping CD).
When I flick back to analogue the picture is bad as well (worse than usual), does this mean poor signal?

To fix the electrical issue i assume that I will need F connectors?

Is anyone able to help me out? Unfortunately I wouldn't have a clue of the antenna or much detail at all.
It is also a rental property so don't want to make any permanent changes if I don't have to.

Thanks all.

[charlesc]

Kransky dan, on Oct 10 2007, 09:16 AM, said:

I'm really new a digital and don't have much experience at all. Need help, have read the posts about better signal but hasn't helped me all that much.

Have you read the guides on digital reception from the dba site, linked to in my sig below?  They will help you get a better understanding of some of the key aspects.

[syrilion]

Hi All,

Interesting reading, all this. I think I have a fairly specific issue with reception and thought I'd ask the following prior to purchasing a new aerial.... I have really bad reception. It has improved slightly since getting HDTV receiver.... at least I no longer have ghosted images to worry about! My issues are:

1. I am in Coromandel Valley - I mean right in the valley and I have no line of sight to the Crafers towers. In fact I am on the lee side of the hill, right at the bottom.
2. I have a whopping great pine tree in the way of where line of sight would be if the hill was not there.
3. I have never, ever received SBS, even when I was using analogue TV.

Currently my analogue aerial is pointing at the church roof on the other side of the valley to get the best reception (no kidding)! It is roof mounted and is about 1 m higher than the roof line. And the only way I can get a digital picture is to use a (cheap) wall power point amplifier.

So my questions are: Would a 'digital' specific aerial help my problems (reading this forum suggests yes)? Would moving my aerial higher be better? Is there anything else I can do to get further from the digital cliff (fell off it tonight - all channels - for about 25 minutes)?

Cheers,
Syrilion