Signal meter

Verso

Hi Lads,

This is my first post so sorry for any gaffs.

I am currently receiving strong signals from RTE 1 TV3 and TG4 from a wideband aerial attached to the chimney.

However as the RTE 2 signal is not great I purchased a Labgear signal meter to align my aerial further.

However this meter when connected indicates that no signals are being received.

Any suggestions, anyone?.

I purchased an analogue/digital signal meter

watty

Welcome to boards.ie, Verso.


Maybe it's a meter for a distribution system, cable system or satellite IF/LNB signal. If so it won't work for a TV signal on an aerial.

There is not much value to a meter for aligning a TV aerial generally as typical aerials don't have to be pointed very accurately. A meter for a TV aerial needs to be very sensitive compared to those other applications.

Distribution systems do need measurements as do Cable distribution and Satellite dish alignment.
If you are within 15 to 20 degrees there is hardly any variation in aerial signal. A dish needs to be within 1 degree to get anything if its 80cm.

Has the meter got a fresh battery? (If it doesn't take a battery it's for satellite as the cable is powered).

What model is it and what measurement is the scale in?

snaps

ive noticed since DTT has been testing my RTE 2 picture is sometimes awful, but then i can switch to RTE 2 on the DTT!!!!

Verso

watty wrote: »

Welcome to boards.ie, Verso.


Maybe it's a meter for a distribution system, cable system or satellite IF/LNB signal. If so it won't work for a TV signal on an aerial.

There is not much value to a meter for aligning a TV aerial generally as typical aerials don't have to be pointed very accurately. A meter for a TV aerial needs to be very sensitive compared to those other applications.

Distribution systems do need measurements as do Cable distribution and Satellite dish alignment.
If you are within 15 to 20 degrees there is hardly any variation in aerial signal. A dish needs to be within 1 degree to get anything if its 80cm.

Has the meter got a fresh battery? (If it doesn't take a battery it's for satellite as the cable is powered).

What model is it and what measurement is the scale in?

Thanks Watty and Snaps for your comments.

Watty - the battery is a 9 volt type 6F22 and is new.

The meter is a Labgear DVB-T Signal Finder with LED level indication showing four green lights for 50, 60, 70 and 80 DBs.

When I attach this to my antenna only the red on/off light shows yet my LG HD ready TV picks up various Digital and Analogue signals quite well.

Regards,

Verso.

watty

Instructions
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Technical/DataSheets/Philex/MX27866.pdf

Labgear used to be really professional gear but is owned by a consumer brand now.

Make you have aerial on correct connector? If so it's faulty.


However it's a fairly pointless piece of gear for a basic TV aerial. Since only one channel is poor it won't help. Try an aerial that is NOT wideband and suits RTE2 best. It's likely all the other stations will be fine as Aerials are broad anyway.

Wideband aerials are often poor on Group A as they are really B/C aerials

Almost all aerials have a gentle reduction in gain at frequencies above the peak and sharper reduction of gain at low frequency.

I'm Group B, but since RTE1 & 2 are perfect and TG4 & TV3 are a little noisy I found that a small group C yagi worked better.

Also higher gain aerials are narrower band and lower gain aerials are wider band. The converse is also true:
Wide band aerial tends to be lower gain. A narrow band aerial of similar size will be a bit higher gain.
An 18 element Group B will have more gain in Groups A, C and D than a 4 element "bowtie" wideband, simply not "flat".

Verso

Thanks Watty for information.

I did have the antenna on the correct terminal so as you say the meter itself could be faulty.

Regards,

Verso.