Saorview signal breaking up, What am I doing wrong??

P_Cash

Hi Folks,

this should be relatively easy for me but I failed today after 6 hours.

My mothers TV , a walker digital. for a long time the signal was breaking up, sometimes go altogether and just be like freezing and pulling the picture colour etc. I redone some of the connections last year, it helped but not much, and its probably the same now again if not worse.

so, this morning i started by pulling out the old coax and put in new coax cable from Aerial on chimney to TV, its about 10 meters, less.

after that, i decided to put back in the amps that was there already, from my fathers day. by the way, with no amp we get nothing,

after putting in the amp i get the same TV signal and on the fringe meter below its 69

Im using a wide band aerial, as pictured below.
https://www.freetv.ie/wide-band-grid-uhf-aerial/


after all my work im stuck at 69 on meter and the tv recep is still breaking up every 20 seconds, sometimes only a small section of the screen will lag or break up, on worse days the tv would go blank and kick in again (so basically zero improvement).


some info,

the amp base unit is this one https://www.dipol.ie/tv-sat/amplifiers/power-supplies/power-supply-al-105-12v-0-1a-f-for-antenna-amplifiers-alcad.html

the mast amp box on the chimney has no markings, just a small round box, weather proof type, no F connectors, just strip back coax and push in and screw down, so old enough id say.

Im aware that in some cases too much high gain or amplification can cause interference or distortion,

Am I over amplified or under ?

living 6 miles from Castlebar and use the Castlebar Mast, hills within 200 meters of house, but i know neighbours in area their TVs work fine.

2 options,
ring the TV Guy. lol but im a diyer.
or
go buy another amp and/or a specific TV Aerial.

the issue i have is if i go the DIY route my trial and error could be more costly than ringing local TV lad.

Thurston?

P_Cash wrote: »

... Im aware that in some cases too much high gain or amplification can cause interference or distortion,

Am I over amplified or under ?

You said you get nothing without an amp: from your description of the work you did, I assume that's with the actual amplifier at the masthead out of the picture, but just to be certain, you didn't just remove the power supply? (The 'base unit'.)

If it is the latter case, you could try bypassing the whole lot, & see what you get.

P_Cash

Right, so your saying go straight from Aerial to TV ?. . I never tried that. Leaving both amp at mast and power supply out of the line

P_Cash

Thurston? wrote: »

You said you get nothing without an amp: from your description of the work you did, I assume that's with the actual amplifier at the masthead out of the picture, but just to be certain, you didn't just remove the power supply? (The 'base unit'.)

If it is the latter case, you could try bypassing the whole lot, & see what you get.

tried this and got 2 dots on meter, on the TV it didn't seem to make much of a difference.

P_Cash

a few screen shots at where I'm at. the below is with amp connected.

i have two TVs im trying this out on, and LG and a walker

see the signal below on both TVs and the picture breakup.

kazoo106

The Divis HD mux on CH24 is getting murdered in Co. Louth this last 24 hours or so - Dont know if this is Brougher, Mullaghanish or Billsdale causing the issue

P_Cash

Wonder could I be suffering from this

https://www.freetv.ie/saorview-and-4g-lte-mobile-interference/

P_Cash

P_Cash wrote: »

Wonder could I be suffering from this

https://www.freetv.ie/saorview-and-4g-lte-mobile-interference/

After some research I am 80% sure it's interference of some kind and will start with a 4G LTE filter at the mast ,. Insert it between Aerial and amp.

I'll post my findings

The Cush

At 6 miles from the Castlebar mast you shouldn't require any form of amplification unless distributing to a number of TV points around the house. How long has the amp been there?

Any mobile base stations nearby?

Your grid aerial covers the full UHF range, wideband aerial, including the upper UHF band which was used for TV but is now used for 4g mobile data. Castlebar, UHF 22 & 25, is in the lower UHF Group A aerial range.

If I was troubleshooting this I would first replace the wideband grid aerial with this cheap standard Group A contract aerial - https://www.freetv.ie/red-group-a-uhf-aerial/

Remove any amps and power supplies and check the signal using the TV's own built in meter, looking for good signal strength and near 100% signal quality.


Some information here from the Dept of Communication on 4g interference to TV reception - https://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/communications/topics/broadcasting-media/regulation/signal-and-interference-issues/Pages/4G-and-TV.aspx

Thurston?

P_Cash wrote: »

After some research I am 80% sure it's interference of some kind and will start with a 4G LTE filter at the mast ...

Might be easier to start by looking for something in or near the house itself: maybe try powering off any suspect electrical or radio equipment that's on when the interference is experienced.

P_Cash

Thurston? wrote: »

Might be easier to start by looking for something in or near the house itself: maybe try powering off any suspect electrical or radio equipment that's on when the interference is experienced.

Thank you for your reply.

we have a large hill that sits not too far from the house, it would be in the direct alignment with the mast, and when i exclude the amp and power box and just go aerial to TV I get about 86% signal strength and 71% signal quality. the picture doesn't seem that different to with the amps connected, it still breaks up and pixilates ,if thats the correct word.

with amps connected i get 100% strength and 93% quality.
it can only be interference.

as its a wideband aerial I was wondering of i got the particular aerial for the mast would it cut out the interference. would this red tip be the aerial i would need for the castlebar Mast ?

its either LTE/mobile interference or other TV masts .
yesterday at 11am RTE2 and Virgin 1 was particularly bad, yet i can say nothing was plugged in. its my mothers house and she doesnt have any unusual equipment on.
She would always say its worse at night.

Antenna

Electric Fence might be a possibility if you are in a rural area, get any nearby (especially to the front of the aerial) temporarily switched off and see if it makes any difference?

Not likely to be mobile or TETRA base stations overload if removing the amp and you still get reception that is still "pixelating" as before

P_Cash

Antenna wrote: »

Electric Fence might be a possibility if you are in a rural area, get any nearby (especially to the front of the aerial) temporarily switched off and see if it makes any difference?

Not likely to be mobile or TETRA base stations overload if removing the amp and you still get reception that is still "pixelating" as before

Interesting, i have a cheta electric fence myself, and it operates around the house, the neighboring farm in the direction of the mast would also have one.
ill do some trials this evening.

P_Cash

just a feed back on the initial problem.

so, with cable changed, connections redone. mast amp and power box in house.

I inserted an LTE filter between aerial and amp.

the reception and picture did improve but not 100%.

I think unplugged the electric fence and would you believe it, perfect picture.

There was an electric fence at the back of the house, a few bad joints but it also was the ribbon type fence. and parts of the ribbon itself was ticking, burning etc. ..

so i replaced all of the ribbon with a rope type with 6 steel strands, zero joints.

plugged it back in and interference has disappeared.