Only getting RTE1 and CNN saorview

pillphil

I'm trying to get my mothers tv connected to saorview, it's currently connected to an old Chorus antenna which picks up BBC, UTV etc, if I plug in a normal aerial to receive saorview, I lose the analog stations. Is it not possible for it to receive a digital and analog signal simultaneously?

Also, when it's just the chorus antenna, it can pick up all the saorview stations and allocate them channels, but they all stay blank apart from RTE1 and CNN. What's happening there?

JDxtra

Is she a UPC subscriber?

If not, I would forget about that old Chorus aerial and look at options via satellite for the main UK channels.

Peter Rhea

pillphil wrote: »

I'm trying to get my mothers tv connected to saorview, it's currently connected to an old Chorus antenna which picks up BBC, UTV etc . . . Also, when it's just the chorus antenna, it can pick up all the saorview stations and allocate them channels, but they all stay blank apart from RTE1 and CNN.

CNN isn't on Saorview. By 'old Chorus antenna', do you mean 'cable coming from the wall' or, is there an MMDS antenna? And if so, where are you that still has analogue MMDS?

pillphil

JDxtra wrote: »

Is she a UPC subscriber?

If not, I would forget about that old Chorus aerial and look at options via satellite for the main UK channels.

No, it seems chorus/upc didn't think it was worth the effort to take the aerial away when the parents got rid of the service years ago. I can't believe it's still running.

The only solution I can think of is to run the chorus into a VCR and the rabbit ears into the tv and see if that works. It's only for her bedroom, they have freeview on the main tv's.

TBH I'm mostly curious where RTE1 (&CNN) is coming from on the chorus antenna.

pillphil

Peter Rhea wrote: »

CNN isn't on Saorview. By 'old Chorus antenna', do you mean 'cable coming from the wall' or, is there an MMDS antenna? And if so, where are you that still has analogue MMDS?

Sligo, there's a chorus aerial on the roof, picks up BBC1, BBC2, UTV, Ch4, Eurosport, I can't remember what else.

It's not saorview it's picking CNN up from, and the RTE it's revieving doesn't seem to be saorview either. When it's tuned in, if I disconnect the chorus antenna and connect in rabbit ears, rte doesn't work any more on that particular tuning.

Peter Rhea

The channels picked up by the Chorus antenna will be coming from the local MMDS transmitter. You could connect the downlead & the Saorview aerial lead to a combiner & the combined feed to the TV. Or just use the VCR for the analogue channels, like you mentioned already.

I believe digital MMDS in ex-Chorus areas uses the DVB-T standard, so that could explain channels picked up on a 'Saorview' scan with the Chorus aerial. RTE1 & CNN mustn't be encrypted.

pillphil

Is either of these things a combiner?


And since I'm asking anyway, can anyone see any logic in this set-up,

I'm just guessing here, but as far as I can tell, the black round thing pictured above, should have VHF coming in one side, UHF coming in the other and the combined feed going out the middle, whoever put it in had chorus going IN the middle, a feed coming OUT of each side going IN to the white box pictured above. I've drawn a rough diagram.



I have no idea what whoever did this was trying to achieve

pillphil

I think I've found an answer to my last question

Peter Rhea

pillphil wrote: »

I think I've found an answer to my last question

This question?

pillphil wrote: »

I have no idea what whoever did this was trying to achieve

If it was wired as per your diagram, it would appear that the installer didn't have a distribution amplifier with a wideband input & had to separate UHF & VHF (the 'round thing' is a diplexer: a splitter/combiner with filtered ports), before recombining them in the amp.

pillphil

I didn't realise it worked both ways, I thought it was wired in reverse.
As far as I know, there's two aerials on the roof, one is the chorus one and the other is the old RTE one, I'm assuming that the diplexer was used to combine and split them?
So shouldn't that have picked up saorview?

Peter Rhea

The diplexer in your photo is just splitting the common feed into VHF & UHF so they can be fed to the 'Labgear Cablevision' distribution amplifier.

RTE analogue in Sligo would mostly have been band III VHF: not sure how that would combine with the down-converted MMDS signal.

pillphil

Thanks, you wouldn't have a link for an appropriate kind of combiner, would you?

All I can find is ones for satellite and aerial.

Peter Rhea

It would be worth posting a photo of the aerials on the roof. It's possible you may have an aerial suitable for Saorview already up there.

TBH, I don't know a whole lot about MMDS & the frequencies that would be output by the down-converter & any local variations etc. Posts in the forums here would seem to suggest that frequencies below 400 mHz are used, including the 'Hyperband'. Those 2-input distribution amps tend to exclude most of the Hyperband frequencies, so it might not be part of the 'Chorus' setup at all.

pillphil

I think using the VCR might be the handiest thing.

There are the aerials anyway.

Antenna

The lower aerial is VHF Band III, it was correct for RTE analogue in your area. Whilst not correct type for Saorview (should be UHF), it may work OK with a strong signal (and the same polarisation )..
Try connecting that to UHF of your distribution amplifier, and 'chorus' directly to the VHF input (after the Power supply box) and see what happens

Peter Rhea wrote: »

Posts in the forums here would seem to suggest that frequencies below 400 mHz are used, including the 'Hyperband'. T.

Usually yes, but I think some setups downconverted to UHF in some parts of the country.

THe OP should go into tuning menu on TV and show what frequency shows for one of the channels concerned

Peter Rhea

The non-MMDS aerial in your photo is VHF band III & would have been for RTE analogue from the Truskmore transmitter.

Saorview is UHF but, as you are in a strong enough signal area for an indoor aerial to work, the VHF aerial would probably provide a good enough signal, although any UHF frequencies it picks up are probably filtered out before they get as far as the TV points.

Would be interesting to know just what frequencies the 'Chorus' channels are showing up on.

watty

In any case if you watch even the UPC unencrypted MMDS (the old Chorus) they can retrospectively bill you. This actually applies to cable too.

In Ireland MMDS (ex Chorus and NTL, now UPC) is regarded as a Cable Service. That just happens to go wireless at the chimney!

Using it without payment is "Theft of service".

You need a UHF aerial for Irish TV and a Dish + Satellite receiver for free UK TV. Both FAR higher quality than the old MMDS (Analogue or Digital).

Would be interesting to know just what frequencies the 'Chorus' channels are showing up on.

I know what they used to be.
Most of the MMDS 2.5GHz LNBFs / Downconverters convert into part of band III and all of Hyperband (275MHz to 470MHz approx). All of the separate box kind.

There are alleged to be some "newer" ones that convert to UHF, but the one UPC gave me for testing something in 2007 or so was inside the stalk and was same band as the old separate box with fat cable in and F connector out. They are powered up the coax cable.

The gear, including PSU and power /RF splitter inserter all belongs to UPC now, even if Chorus supplied it.

pillphil

This thread is probably breaking all kinds of forum rules then isn't it?

watty

Not yet.

lucernarian

It may be time to call UPC to get rid of their old equipment all the same...

I've seen too many ex-Chorus aerials blown over in Drogheda recently and you don't want to find the old aerial on top of a car for instance!

watty

Or worse, inside it.

Antenna

watty wrote: »

I know what they used to be.
Most of the MMDS 2.5GHz LNBFs / Downconverters convert into part of band III and all of Hyperband (275MHz to 470MHz approx). All of the separate box kind.

I know someone with MMDS and found this -, the Sagem STBs, in ex-chorus areas, would display (downconverted) MUX frequency, Signal Strength and Signal Quality info, if you were curious.

Press MENU -> Information -> Signal Information
and you then see the following:



At least in my locality - 218MHz is the lowest downconverted MUX frequency (has the main Irish TV channels) and going up to three hundred and something MHz in channels that are in 8MHz steps

As an experiment at that location (whilst in this signal information screen) I disconnected the MMDS feed and instead connected a rooftop UHF aerial to the STB. I keyed in the frequency of a regular DTT MUX and pressed OK. It would show strength and quality readings for it, but would not actually tune in any such channels, even if they were MPEG2 (the box is MPEG2 only).
The Signal Strength reading would also work if a non-digital TV signal was keyed in. I keyed in the frequency of an analogue TV signal from a modulator and the 'strength' reading would give a level for it, though 'quality' shows (as expected) zero. Doing this with a saorview box I tried gave zero signal strength.