269 replies to this topic

[jrp001]

steven1221, on Jan 17 2011, 05:34 PM, said:

Hi i live in Pomona and until around the 8/01/11 we had good digital reception now we only have analogue reception anybody have any ideas as to why this could be happening?

Was it after a storm when you lost digital & did all of them go @ same time or have you still got  2 or 3?

When you had good digital did any stations break-up at all if so did they break up days before it went, or when it was windy?

Is analog good, grainy or very snowy?

Is it a digital box you have or a digital tv or recorder & what make & model?

Edited by jrp001, 17 January 2011 - 07:34 PM.

[steven1221]

jrp001, on Jan 17 2011, 07:28 PM, said:

Was it after a storm when you lost digital & did all of them go @ same time or have you still got  2 or 3?

When you had good digital did any stations break-up at all if so did they break up days before it went, or when it was windy?

Is analog good, grainy or very snowy?

Is it a digital box you have or a digital tv or recorder & what make & model?

Every channel just went during the rain, they are all back now (althought ten and seven channels skip) except the chanels associated with nine, the tv is a jvc lcd, analog is quite grainy on the jvc as well as the old analogue tv

Edited by steven1221, 21 February 2011 - 05:54 PM.

[Wombat2]

Anyone know why the ABC regularly looses signal - "weak or no signal"  on 2 and 21 when we are only 550 meters from the Tewantin tower - direct line of sight - no trees in between. Other channels are fine when this happens.

David L

Edited by Wombat2, 08 March 2011 - 10:23 PM.

[Seacomms]

Following from previous posts a few months ago, after replacing all connections including the wall socket through to the tv with F connectors, all channels are now great.

Or were...

for the last 3 or 4 days, watching channel 10 and signal quality is at 100%, signal strength at 90%.  Once every 3 to 4 minutes the signal quality drops instantly to 0 whilst the signal strength stays at 90%.  It only last for a few seconds then it all comes back good again.  And only on 10/11..  

Edited by Seacomms, 12 April 2011 - 07:38 PM.

[brisdigitaldan]

Seacomms, on Apr 12 2011, 07:36 PM, said:

Following from previous posts a few months ago, after replacing all connections including the wall socket through to the tv with F connectors, all channels are now great.

Or were...

for the last 3 or 4 days, watching channel 10 and signal quality is at 100%, signal strength at 90%.  Once every 3 to 4 minutes the signal quality drops instantly to 0 whilst the signal strength stays at 90%.  It only last for a few seconds then it all comes back good again.  And only on 10/11..  

Hi there,

There could be a possability there is too much signal which can give the same results as having very little signal. Again, this is only a possibility. You may wish to try an attenuator to slightly decrease the signal and see if this works?

[Seacomms]

brisdigitaldan, on Apr 13 2011, 11:05 AM, said:

Hi there,

There could be a possability there is too much signal which can give the same results as having very little signal. Again, this is only a possibility. You may wish to try an attenuator to slightly decrease the signal and see if this works?

Not sure too much signal would be my problem as I have only just finished fixing up all the cabling to get enough signal to stop channel 7's and ABC from breaking up and dropping out.

This one is weird, only on the 10's (10, 11 and oneHD), signal strength isd constant at 90% but the signal quality drops from full to none and the screen goes completely black with NO SIGNAL for about 2 seconds (no sound as well) then it comes straight back.  At minimum every 2 to 3 minutes now, seems to be getting worse.

TV is a 6 month old Panasonic P54V20A, but I just hooked it up to my old Topfield SD STB to test if it had the same problem, and it does...  So it would seem to be external to my hardware at least?   There is no amp in my set up, just cable from the antenna to the tele.

These are a couple of videos I took of the problem happening (first two from the tele directly, last one using Topfield STB):

http://s63.photobuck...t=WP_000058.mp4

http://s63.photobuck...t=WP_000059.mp4

http://s63.photobuck...t=WP_000060.mp4

[mtv]

Possibly impulse noise or other strong RF interference.

Any other devices connected to, or nearby the TV with RF modulators?

Difficult to tell without being there with test equipment connected.

[Seacomms]

mtv, on Apr 13 2011, 11:45 PM, said:

Possibly impulse noise or other strong RF interference.

Any other devices connected to, or nearby the TV with RF modulators?

Difficult to tell without being there with test equipment connected.

I did think about that tonight, nothing has changed apart from a new mobile phone I just received. There is also a wireless network repeater beside the tele which has been there for months, so I switched off everything else and the problem persists.  Only on the ten network, and its now every minute or less - very annoying!  Wondering if anyone else is suffering the same problem off the Tewantin tower?

In further testing, all three ten channels drop out for the two seconds simultaneously (10, 11 and oneHD) whilst no signal strength change happens, and no other channels alter in quality at the same time....   sounding more and more like channel ten itself!

[M'bozo]

In my experience, a signal strength of 9, for a UHF channel on a V series Panasonic, equates to just under 50dBµV.

If it was a signal dropout, I'd expect the strength to disappear as well, which it isn't doing.

I've seen similar issues where one channel would suffer from breakup, (not complete loss of), or freezing of picture, on a cyclic basis, and it turned out to be a transmission fault.

Seacomms, on Apr 14 2011, 12:01 AM, said:

In further testing, all three ten channels drop out for the two seconds simultaneously (10, 11 and oneHD) whilst no signal strength change happens, and no other channels alter in quality at the same time....   sounding more and more like channel ten itself!

That occurs as all 3 channels are in the one multiplex.

Check if your neighbours have the same issue.

See if channel 10 are aware of any difficulties.

At the end of the day, if that gets you nowhere, time to call someone in.

Unless, of course, it goes away  

[mtv]

I agree, check with others if they are experiencing the same issue, as it's either the network's transmission, or something causing interference to that frequency.

[DX Fan]

Is it possible to have a look at the analogue channels (especially is there are any weak ones that you receive) to see if you can see any interference/static etc that might coincide with the signal quality loss.

[Seacomms]

Just posted up on facebook and same thing is happening to others from the same tower too - but none of them have complained as there is no phone number for SC10 to complain to!!

Edited by Seacomms, 14 April 2011 - 09:22 PM.

[jaaa]

Seacomms, on Apr 14 2011, 09:21 PM, said:

Just posted up on facebook and same thing is happening to others from the same tower too - but none of them have complained as there is no phone number for SC10 to complain to!!

live at northern end of sunshine coast and have had the same problem for a few days.  Analogue is ok and other channel ten stations (i.e Brissy stations) not on 662.6 MHz do not have the same problem.

Now i just have to find someone to complain to who will then blame me or my equipment and do nothing about it

Edited by jaaa, 15 April 2011 - 09:24 AM.

[James T Kirk]

Regional QLD
Southern Cross Media
Ph0262422400
Fax0262422461

Edited by James T Kirk, 14 April 2011 - 11:05 PM.

[Seacomms]

James T Kirk, on Apr 14 2011, 11:00 PM, said:

Regional QLD
Southern Cross Media
Ph0262422400
Fax0262422461

Arent they Canberra numbers?  I have found the local Sunshine Coast number - nothing on the web sites or google, actually had to pull out the yellow pages - 07 5443 2110.  Prob only the local advertising contacts, but I am sure they would be interested to know people cant watch the channels

Edited by Seacomms, 15 April 2011 - 07:23 AM.

[Seacomms]

Seacomms, on Apr 15 2011, 07:21 AM, said:

Arent they Canberra numbers?  I have found the local Sunshine Coast number - nothing on the web sites or google, actually had to pull out the yellow pages - 07 5443 2110.  Prob only the local advertising contacts, but I am sure they would be interested to know people cant watch the channels

UPDATE:  That was a fax number....

However, I called the Canberra number advised previously and they put me through - they found a problem this afternoon and have rectified it!   Not home to check it but I will presume all is good again

[Serendigity]

I live in the Maleny area (26.767S 152.853E) and use the Bald Knob transmitter. For SBS I have appallingly bad reception. For all other stations I get fair to good reception. From Alan's table, a H5 antenna is recommended for my area. SBS uses channel 36 585 MHz in my area, which falls outside the range you stated for H5: Channel range: 37 – 69 (589 – 820 MHz). The filters you mention seem to filter out SBS also.

I dearly wish SBS was channel 50 here as that would put them all in the good reception range for me.

The irony is that SBS is the channel I most desire to watch, followed by some ABC. I don't watch any of the commercial networks at all so do not care if I cannot receive those.

I currently have an antenna which looks like the H5 X-shaped dipole with screen reflector and it appears to point towards the Bald Knob transmitter (basically due East of me).

Please, I would appreciate a suggestion on the best type/brand of antenna for my circumstances.

Anyone else from Maleny experiencing similar SBS woes?

Regards,  Steve.

[alanh]

Steve,
Your path between you and the transmitter has blockage where Mountain View Rd is.

The antenna you have covers from channel 20 - 80. Since you have a blocked path, I would stick with your current antenna and add a masthead amplifier
AlanH

[Serendigity]

Thanks AlanH,

I already had a masthead amplifier. I decided to go up onto the roof and have a look myself. I have absolutely no idea about DTV reception or antennas, but I looked at my setup. I have 2 antennas, one the UHF H5 x-shaped dipole, the other an older UHF/VHF hybrid for analogue. Both are connected through the masthead amplifier. The x-shaped dipole was pointing towards Bald Knob. My line of sight across the road is blocked by a 200m wide line of 30m high hoop pine trees. I think this coupled with the rise in the ground at Mountain View Road will never afford me any reception at all for Sunshine Coast channels. I then looked at the older aerial and its orientation into a gap between two large trees. I decided to move the x-shaped dipole so it could also point towards this gap in the trees. I then looked at the masthead amplifier box. It was full of swarming ants, but there was no apparent nesting detritus in there. I looked at the settings of all the little jumpers, made sure they were tight and changed one to increase db.

I now have perfect reception from Brisbane for all the channels from all the networks. A local aerial installation guy wanted me to spend $550 on a new setup. I am disappointed that he did not consider a simple re-alignment of the x-shaped dipole, but I guess he was after as much money as he could get out of me.

[BLACKIE69]

Hi Alan
I'm hoping you can help me. I assist with the Administration for an over 50s village in Caloundra. There are 171 homes in the village and the TV and telephones are controlled by a private company. I have never seen such reception issues (total reception drop out, pixilated pictures, fuzzy, crackly) and this is going on on a daily basis.

Can you recommend a solution to the problem?

I am inundated every few days from people saying particular channels at particular times won't work. It's extremely difficult to get a broad definition on what is affecting who, because the channels and times differ from household to household. Not to mention the fact that some households are still on analogue, some have set top boxes and others have digital ready TVs.

I live nearby and often suffer from poor reception myself.

Is there any way I can find out if there were reception issues affecting a certain area at a certain time?

How can I ever tell if the problem lies on our side or whether it's affecting everyone in this area?

I eagerly await your response!

Hannah

alanh, on Dec 23 2004, 12:43 AM, said:

All,

Analog TV switchoffs are;
Sunshine Coast between 1^st January - 30^th June 2013


Follow the sequence below to determine what you need to do. This applies to new and existing installations, in which pixellates (picture breaks up into blocks) and the sound chirps)

Antenna Selection

1. Determine the most appropriate transmitter site
Most regions have a main transmitter shown in bold and some translators. Translator is of lower power than the main transmitter for the region. Translators are used to fill in a shadow area caused by the local terrain. A translator converts the signal from one channel to another to prevent interference.

Click on Transmitter List to find you likely transmitter site(s)

Open on another screen
Coverage Area Maps and select the state and your DTV transmitter. If present this will give you a coverage area map to determine which site is best for you.

If an antenna technician can provide evidence that there are no signals at your site, you can get the ABC, SBS, two commercial stations and some radio channels directly from a satellite. Go to the end of this post.


2. Select the antenna type
From the spreadsheet use the antenna type to select the link below


H5
V5

Caravans/Marine
Band 3, 4 - 5

Indoor Antennas

Antenna Type Drawings

“Antenna Replace”
Red background, white print.

Digital TV will never use channels 0 – 5A. This is due to the problem of impulse noise from electrical switching and arcing. You can minimise this problem if you antenna is not designed for these channels. Channel 0 – 5A antennas are very wide and are more liable to get bird and wind damage as well.

The best antenna is one designed for the TV channels to be received in your area. This is because all of the metal work will get used. This gives greater sensitivity to the channels you want and less to the unwanted ones.

“Antenna Replace”
Pale Blue background, red print.
A change in UHF band. Only replace antenna if the signals break up which may be weather dependent.

All analog channels within the antenna channel range will be receivable.

Cabling
It should be quad shielded RG6 with F connectors at any joins.
This is to minimise the pick up of electrical switching and TV signals other than picked up by the antenna.

Masthead amplifiers Should only be considered if the measured digital signals show there is too little signal. If that is not an option try the above techniques first.

Recognising interference
Better Television & Radio Reception

Please note this is general information. Use an antenna installer who can measure and error rates of digital signals (They should be able to give you Bit Error Rates (BER) figures of less than 8e-4.) If they cannot do this, get someone else.

Apartments and retirement villages use Master Antenna TV systems (MATV)

MDU Handbook. This document is designed for presentation to the Body Corporate or the building owners.

Remember that analog transmitters will be switched off between Dec 2009 Metro, and 2013 in the last regional areas.

These systems contain amplifiers for individual channels. In any non-digital installations you will generally find some digital channels are not receivable due to this filtering. Prior to upgrading or installing an MATV system make sure all receivers are digital or have a set top box. This will mean that the channel amplifiers can be retuned or replaced rather than installing another set of 5 amplifiers. Then specify that the installation must conform to Australian Standard 1367-2007. This will ensure that all digital channels will be available, including HD and surround sound when available.

Radio – FM, DAB and DRM
FM
None of the antennas listed above are designed to receive FM radio. The best way is to have an independent system Please read FM Antennas

DRM is another type of digital radio which will replace AM radio and will not use any of the above equipment.

More Information
How to get into Digital TV Pt 2 -What to do about the antenna "Silicon Chip" April 2008
For TV Antenna Basics +
For Radio Thread

If an antenna technician can prove no TV signals are available, then a free to air satellite receiver is an option.
Stations available

Out of Area reception

Stations available

The programs on Aurora are transmitted through the satellite in digital form using DVB-S transmission and MPEG-2 compression, but in some towns are then retransmitted in analog. A home satellite receiver will receive the signal in digital, however there is none of the enhancements such as multi channel, wide screen etc.

Aurora is being replaced by VAST in time with the analog switchoff. This service uses DVB-S2 and MPEG-4 compression, so an HD satellite receiver with an authorisation card is required. The programs will include the same number of programs that all other Australians can see. The programs are aimed at the Remote regions of NSW, SA, Vic, and Tasmania.

For more information
Free to Air Satellite Service News

To obtain reception read the following link
Out of area  reception

AlanH

Please post any queries in this geographic viewer's forum

[James T Kirk]

Hello Hannah

Excuse my intervention but I have done so to save you some pain with AlanH.

Firstly, are the problems with 7, 9 and 10 Brisbane with ABC and SBS or is this related to Seven Qld, Southern Cross Ten and Win?

If you are having problems with all channels for so many in one lifestyle village with a cabled system to each unit or dwelling there's a good chance the system there may have a fault and the private company you describe needs to be called in to check the system. They will likely call a professional antenna installer in your area.
Do any of the homes in the village have their own TV antennas? If so do they have the same trouble? This is important so please check this.

What you describe is complicated by you stating similar problems occur at your own home. Does your home have its own external antenna for television? Is it a single dwelling or a unit?  I assume you have checked with your neighbours to see if they too are having trouble?

If everyone you know in all the circumstances above are having trouble please call the TV networks and advise them, they should respond promptly, particularly the commercial networks, they don't like you missing any advertising.

If you don't get a response promptly, send me a personal message (PM) and I'll see it is passed on to the appropriate people for investigation.
(Remember, don't place personal phone numbers or personal addresses here on this forum or in the PM to me. I'll give you a contact number for the appropriate network based on your responses above)

Looking forward to your reply.

James

Edited by James T Kirk, 23 June 2011 - 05:37 PM.

[alanh]

Hannah,
Digital Transmissions.
TVQ (TEN Brisbane program) channel 56, ABQ (ABC) 62, SBS 36, TNQ (TenQld) 47, STQ (7 Qld), BTQ (7 Brisbane program) 53, RTQ (WIN) 68 and QTQ (9 Brisbane program) 59.

With so many transmitters it is unlikely that they will all have a low output unless the tower falls down or the transmitting antenna is fault. All networks computer monitor signal quality and transmitted power.

In addition no other forum members have complained, so it would appear that the transmissions are ok. This leaves the problem of antenna installations.

You have not mentioned which channels are giving trouble.

Poor antenna installations are most likely to affect Nine, ABC, 7 Queensland, and WIN.

The Villiage is most likely to use a separate amplifer for each network. If these amplifiers have not been retuned for the digital channels then the most reliable signals will be TEN and 10 Qld.

Read
Use an endorsed installer

Don't bother answering rude posters.

Alanh

[BLACKIE69]

Thank you for your answer, James.

Ok- to address the questions you've raised:
1. The problems are with 7, 9, 10, ABC and SBS, however they are also sometimes the local 7 win and SC10 channels as well. Sometimes half the village is affected, sometimes the whole village. Sometimes it's only one or two homes (although I can't be certain as not everyone rings to let me know, and not all people are watching tv at the same time)

2. The homes that are on Austar do not have reception issues ever.

3. My own home aerial has suffered wind damage, so I think this may be the cause for my own tv woes.

4. I suppose I want to know if there's a website like this where I can investigate whether there were reception issues in this area on a certain date/ time.

Thanks again James!

Han

James T Kirk, on Jun 23 2011, 05:23 PM, said:

Hello Hannah

Excuse my intervention but I have done so to save you some pain with AlanH.

Firstly, are the problems with 7, 9 and 10 Brisbane with ABC and SBS or is this related to Seven Qld, Southern Cross Ten and Win?

If you are having problems with all channels for so many in one lifestyle village with a cabled system to each unit or dwelling there's a good chance the system there may have a fault and the private company you describe needs to be called in to check the system. They will likely call a professional antenna installer in your area.
Do any of the homes in the village have their own TV antennas? If so do they have the same trouble? This is important so please check this.

What you describe is complicated by you stating similar problems occur at your own home. Does your home have its own external antenna for television? Is it a single dwelling or a unit?  I assume you have checked with your neighbours to see if they too are having trouble?

If everyone you know in all the circumstances above are having trouble please call the TV networks and advise them, they should respond promptly, particularly the commercial networks, they don't like you missing any advertising.

If you don't get a response promptly, send me a personal message (PM) and I'll see it is passed on to the appropriate people for investigation.
(Remember, don't place personal phone numbers or personal addresses here on this forum or in the PM to me. I'll give you a contact number for the appropriate network based on your responses above)

Looking forward to your reply.

James