315 replies to this topic

[beeblebrox]

 M'bozo, on Mar 24 2011, 04:54 PM, said:

Wear it.

If I could find mine I might....  no just kidding I filed it with all the other ones...

[The Strikester]

 alanh, on Feb 2 2005, 10:54 PM, said:

Antennas for digital should not be able to receive ABC1 analog in Murray Valley (Swan Hill), Upper Murray (Mt Baranduda), Central Victoria (Mt Alexander), Western Victoria (Mt Dundas) Colac, Coleraine, Corryong, Orbost, Myrtleford, Warnambool (Tower Hill)  in addtion it should not be able to receive Southern Cross Central Victoria, Prime Corryong, Myrtleford, Orbost.

AlanH,
At my caravan in Bright, Victoria, we have full digital reception from an antenna in a tree somewhere (sorry, I can't be more specific ), yet we still can recieve ABC1 and Prime in Analogue.

Any chance why?

Thanks,
The Strikester

[alanh]

The Strikester


The Bright Translators
Analog
SBS  RF channel 29
ABAV channel 32 (ABC1)
AMV35 Prime
VTV41 WIN
GLV44 TEN Vic

Digital
SBS28
ABAV31
AMV34
GLV36
VTV40
All of these signals can be received on a Band 4+ or Wideband UHF caravan antenna.

My warning is for the main transmitters at Broadcast Site 14 km S of Wodonga MT BARANDUDA where there is a very strong ABAV channel 1 transmiting ABC1.

AlanH

[grapenose]

Does anyone know how to set up a Hill's SFX 91WB yagi for vertical polarisation. The instructions that came with it only mention horizontal. It comes with a brace but if you turn it for vertical the elements get in the way of fixing the brace. The supplied u bolt will only fit towards the end( towards the transmitter) of the antenna away from the centre of gravity, so if I try to fix directly to the pole, it is off balance. The antenna comes in two pieces. so if I fix off centre the end assembly puts a lot of strain on the joint Hills have, so far, not been a lot of help.  
Grapenose

[M'bozo]

 grapenose, on Apr 6 2011, 04:28 PM, said:

Does anyone know how to set up a Hill's SFX 91WB yagi for vertical polarisation.

As far as I know, and I've just looked at the one I have, the antenna is assembled for horizontal polarisation, and the centre support bracket is rotated 90° in the mounting bracket.

(Unless the boom construction has changed since I purchased this one.)



EDIT: I'm referring to this one: click

Edited by M'bozo, 07 April 2011 - 07:32 AM.

[beeblebrox]

 grapenose, on Apr 6 2011, 04:28 PM, said:

Does anyone know how to set up a Hill's SFX 91WB yagi for vertical polarisation. The instructions that came with it only mention horizontal. It comes with a brace but if you turn it for vertical the elements get in the way of fixing the brace. The supplied u bolt will only fit towards the end( towards the transmitter) of the antenna away from the centre of gravity, so if I try to fix directly to the pole, it is off balance. The antenna comes in two pieces. so if I fix off centre the end assembly puts a lot of strain on the joint Hills have, so far, not been a lot of help.  
Grapenose

could the a good use of a standoff to get it vertical.. not many antennas need standoffs nowadays but it used to be quite common.

[alanh]

Hi,
The standoff is to prevent the metal mast being part of the antenna as it is parallel to one of the elements. If a stand off is used, the mast can be separated from the antenna by at least a 1/4 wavelength.

AlanH

[beeblebrox]

 alanh, on Apr 7 2011, 12:36 AM, said:

Hi,
The standoff is to prevent the metal mast being part of the antenna as it is parallel to one of the elements. If a stand off is used, the mast can be separated from the antenna by at least a 1/4 wavelength.

AlanH

Yes and it also provides a way of mounting an antenna that has no or very poor vertical mounts.

[grapenose]

 M'bozo, on Apr 6 2011, 05:54 PM, said:

As far as I know, and I've just looked at the one I have, the antenna is assembled for horizontal polarisation, and the centre support bracket is rotated 90° in the mounting bracket.

(Unless the boom construction has changed since I purchased this one.)



EDIT: I'm referring to this one: click

Yes that is the one,  if you turn the brace through 90 degress and try and fix it to the boom the elements are in the way.This is because the brace is not part of a rectangle but part of a trapezium. I have been in contact with Hill's Tech Division who's only suggestion has been to turn the brace through 90 degrees. I am aware that I should not fix it directly to the pole and use an offset but this will not solve my problem. I'm beginning to think that this is not designed for vertical and therefore not fit fot the purpose it was sold for. Will attempt to get a refund.

[M'bozo]

 grapenose, on Apr 8 2011, 03:48 AM, said:

suggestion has been to turn the brace through 90 degrees.

Which is also what I was saying (although maybe not as clearly).

I can't recall issues fixing other antennas in the Hills range directly to the mast in this way, however, I can measure signals, so I would have optimised the antenna's position.

What is it you are trying to do?

Edited by M'bozo, 08 April 2011 - 07:55 AM.

[grapenose]

 M'bozo, on Apr 8 2011, 08:28 AM, said:

Which is also what I was saying (although maybe not as clearly).

I can't recall issues fixing other antennas in the Hills range directly to the mast in this way, however, I can measure signals, so I would have optimised the antenna's position.

What is it you are trying to do?

I have tried horizontal to a relay transmitter where I am on the edge of the footprint. I am now trying another relay transmitter on vertical but this time through the trees that surround the property.This should supply a better signal if I can set the antenna up for vertical.

[M'bozo]

 grapenose, on Apr 8 2011, 03:18 PM, said:

I have tried horizontal to a relay transmitter where I am on the edge of the footprint. I am now trying another relay transmitter on vertical but this time through the trees that surround the property.This should supply a better signal if I can set the antenna up for vertical.

There are licensing issues to consider, with either passive or active retransmission of television signals.

Digital television should be available via VAST, if this is what you are after.

[grapenose]

 M'bozo, on Apr 8 2011, 05:05 PM, said:

There are licensing issues to consider, with either passive or active retransmission of television signals.

Digital television should be available via VAST, if this is what you are after.

I have three transmitters in a triangle around my property. Two on vertcal and one horizontal. They all transmit on the same frequency ( Band 5) I'm trying to optimise th best signal as  I am on the edge of all the transmitters footprints. I have  trees all round the proerty which complicates things.VAST could be an optin but not until they come up with a PVR model.

[M'bozo]

 grapenose, on Apr 9 2011, 03:12 PM, said:

I have three transmitters in a triangle around my property. Two on vertcal and one horizontal. They all transmit on the same frequency ( Band 5) I'm trying to optimise th best signal as  I am on the edge of all the transmitters footprints. I have  trees all round the proerty which complicates things.VAST could be an optin but not until they come up with a PVR model.

Sorry my bad I thought you might be trying to set up some sort of TV retransmitter.

In areas such as you are describing I usually have better results with phased arrays.

Others may disagree with this.

Finding the best spot is not always easy without measuring equipment, and sometimes I have used a reflection of the signal from surrounding terrain when there is not a sufficiently good direct path.

Good luck with it.

[grapenose]

 M'bozo, on Apr 10 2011, 08:18 AM, said:

Sorry my bad I thought you might be trying to set up some sort of TV retransmitter.

In areas such as you are describing I usually have better results with phased arrays.

Others may disagree with this.

Finding the best spot is not always easy without measuring equipment, and sometimes I have used a reflection of the signal from surrounding terrain when there is not a sufficiently good direct path.

Good luck with it.

Tried Phased array, seemed to be losing frequencies at the top and bottom of band when horizontal. Have managed to rig up a brace for vertical for the Hill's, some improvement compared with horizontal until the wind came and was losing the extremes again.Will try phased array on vertical. Have someone coming out with metering equipment next week.Thanks for all advice.

[M'bozo]

 grapenose, on Apr 10 2011, 05:48 PM, said:

Have someone coming out with metering equipment next week.Thanks for all advice.

That's the way to go.

Let us know how you get on.

[grapenose]

 M'bozo, on Apr 10 2011, 06:22 PM, said:

That's the way to go.

Let us know how you get on.

Weather really bad at the moment so still waiting. Really pissed off with Hill's, they have just ignored my emails. I can only conclude that the antenna is not suitable for vertical as supplied. Don't deal with Hill's whatever you do.

[colhood]

Not sure if I am posting in the right place. I am in Yarrawonga and was recommended an ultimax 36 antenna to use for Shepparton reception. I have found that the reception is worse with the new antenna and amplifier than it was with the twin uhf vhf antenna. I am using a kingray mhw34fs amplifier. I only get the win stations from Albury. Am i better off trying Albury or is there a transmitter in Wangaratta I could try. Any help would be appreciated. Also would programming be much different on the Albury transmitter? Thanks,

[alanh]

Col Hood,
Do you have the plug pack and power inserter plugged into the wall plate feeding the receiver. If there is a splitter, this outlet must be the one cabled power pass.
Make sure there are no poor connections.

The antenna you have should be pointed at Mt Major which is south of Dookie. Your antenna is not designed to receive WIN which is on RF channel 9. All other transmitters are in the bottom end of band 5. 48 km away at a bearing of 216 degrees.

Upper Murray transmissions come from MT BARANDUDA You are 81 km away at a bearing of 109 degrees. You need a Hills DY14 band 3 antenna for this site.

You are in the Goulburn Valley licence area not the Upper Murray Licence area.

The recommendation you were given for your location is wrong.
Go to the first post look at the transmitter list, find the antenna category. In that post click on that category which in this case is H34+. Click on that link.

If an antenna installer installed this antenna get them back to fix your reception.


AlanH

[alanh]

Col Hood,
Apologies for an error in my above post. The recommended category is not H34+ but C34+
Be warned, however that this may change in 2014 when the digital restack occurs.

AlanH

[beeblebrox]

 colhood, on Apr 19 2011, 08:10 PM, said:

Not sure if I am posting in the right place. I am in Yarrawonga and was recommended an ultimax 36 antenna to use for Shepparton reception. I have found that the reception is worse with the new antenna and amplifier than it was with the twin uhf vhf antenna. I am using a kingray mhw34fs amplifier. I only get the win stations from Albury. Am i better off trying Albury or is there a transmitter in Wangaratta I could try. Any help would be appreciated. Also would programming be much different on the Albury transmitter? Thanks,

As Alanh says in his technical way ... your antenna is not ideal for shep reception as it won't pickup win which is on vhf channel 9 and vertically polarised.  

Unless there are some major signal impediments in the way  close by I would have thought shep was better than albury from a signal perspective.  (not much difference in programming really just the ads are different).  My sister lived up there and had no problems with the signal from shep and I didn't even install the antenna....

[Chris Dowling]

Hey alan I've been using the digitek 01cupa2 phased array I noticed this antenna is not in your list? Is the antenna not recommended?

Areas are tower hill warrnambool warrnambool city and in some instances ballarat I can tell u what transmitters they are later I'm on my phone atm
Cheers

[grapenose]

 grapenose, on Apr 13 2011, 08:52 PM, said:

Weather really bad at the moment so still waiting. Really pissed off with Hill's, they have just ignored my emails. I can only conclude that the antenna is not suitable for vertical as supplied. Don't deal with Hill's whatever you do.

Hill's eventually got back to me , full of apologies for the delay. ( do they read the forums ). Agreed that it was difficult to set the antenna up vertical but it was possible, even if it sagged a bit.I am assuming that this meant that you connected the bracket to the brace by turning the antenna vertical this would solve the problem. Told them I tried this and I was not convinced that this would survive in the long run ( it sagged a lot and put extra pressure on the join between the two parts and when I saw a white cockie jumping up and down on it I took it down, they are very big birds!!!) . They then offered me a replacement of a  Phased ArrayUltimax 36. Have now put this up and it works really well.Ha no luck with getting anyone out to look at the anntenna, they either did not reply to my message or offered to come out but did not turn up. This area  ( Latrobe valley ) is going diital from May 5 so the are probably happy doing straight forward installations.
Thanks for all advice

[mjt57]

 alanh, on Mar 5 2011, 11:33 PM, said:

mjt,
As I said on the 15th May your problem will go, particularly when you have a band 4+ antenna. The FM signals will not be anywhere as strong as the interference from ABC analog.

Well, May 15 has come and gone. Unfortunately my reception problems remain.

I'm going to redo the antenna connections and look at getting an installer in to check it all out.

Thing is, the Panasonic Bluray HDD recorder is the only device on that antenna which experiences problems.

I have the antenna which goes to a splitter about 3m from the antenna. From there a 20m run to the family room which has:

* Panasonic DMR 780 recorder
* MystarHD pay TV PVR
* Panasonic 38" full HD TV

On a shorter run to the lounge room:

* Topfield 4400 PVR (SD)
* Panasonic DVD/HDD recorder (analog)
* Panasonic SD plasma (analog tuner).

When the analog was running both the HDD recorder and the TV had no problems with the signal. The Toppy also has no problems with the signal.

Now, only the Toppy is connected to the antenna outlet. No point in the other gear being connected as there's no analog signal.

I'll get it all checked out then if there's still problems then it may be a problem with the Panasonic.

I only have to move the Blueray recorder a few milimetres for its reception to turn to **** on some channels, mostly 10/11/OneHD. But just now everything except for WIN/GEM/GO were working. Moved it and they came good.

[mtv]

mjt57,

What?... still not working?.... but AnalH said your problem will go on 15th May, he had decreed that, so it should have happened... yeah, right...

Just a thought....

There have been some issues with interfering radiation from some HDMI cables.

Try disconnecting the HDMI cable (assuming you use one on the Blu-Ray) when the reception problem is happening.

Try disconnecting at one end, then both ends to compare.

It's wise to turn off power to both devices when connecting/disconnecting HDMI cables.

Your problem may still be signal-related, or with the Panna.... but it's worth a try.

When you have accurate signal/testing performed, we'll have a better idea from that what's happening.