Lost channels? Look here for transmitter/reception issues

Thanks. I think there's some type of splitter/amplifier in the attic, I'll try take a look at it this evening. 4 TV points in the house but I only use one of them (other TVs in the house are just Smart TVs, Chromecast etc, not connected to the aerial).

Haven't been in the attic in a few months at this stage so haven't done anything which would have disturbed whatever's up there, which is why I was guessing it's the outside aerial on the chimney.

There's also a dish on the back of the house but that's been there since before I moved in and is unused. The TV point in the Living room has a connection for it as well but again, never used.

It's something that got progressively worse since about last Tuesday. Some channels were coming in really badly (especially HD channels), some were a bit glitchy but not too bad. The Irish channels were kind of the same; they'd be mostly fine but then could become absolutely unwatchable 10 minutes later. At this stage, there are nearly no channels that are in any way watchable.

Okay, took a quick gander in the attic, so this is what I'm working with:

The wires are a bit jumbled above so hard to find out which wires go where, so have no idea which of the four from the splitter is for the TV I use. Will try take another look when I've more time this evening. Also no idea what that combiner yoke is, possibly from the unused satellite dish?

Light on the amp simply indicates there is power there, not an indication that it's amplifying the signal correctly.

If the satellite dish is no longer in play I'd remove the satellite/terrestrial combiner and use an F-joiner to join the two terrestrial cables together.

To bypass the amp pick-up one of these f-f coax joiners locally (supermarket /hardware shop) - https://www.freetv.ie/coaxial-coupler-1s/

Are the two aerials on the roof still in use, one I assume is for reception of the UK channels from NI?

Can't see the reason why there's two aerial combiners on the mast, one would suffice for two aerials. Could they be masthead amps powered by the unit in the attic?

How many cables are coming in from the aerials?

Looks like a mixed old/new setup, brown coax is old low grade cable. Grid aerial is probably a old wideband, pre the release of the upper TV band frequencies to mobile in 2012.

What is your recommended Saorview transmitter?

Do you get the Freeview channels via the aerial also?

I have roughly the same set up but using a combiner behind the TV with Freeview from one aerial and Saorview from another aerial —- no amplifiers but 2 cables coming into the house into the combiner.

I had exactly as you describe and replaced the combiner with a A/B aerial switch and the problem went away — I have to flick the switch to change aerials but that's not a problem.

I never got to the reason why the combiner upset things — one day it would be 100% signal then in the blink of an eye the picture would break up and disappear with the signal strength bar showing No signal,weak signal or excellent signal strength.

I never lost my Freeview signal as that is a very big signal — I'm 160 miles from Mt Leinster.

As The Cush says it looks like you have a combiner on your aerial stack with only one cable coming down.

Entropy. The tendancy for everything in the universe to turn to **** eventually, happening for you at 9 years, bugger.

The distribution amp is presumably supplying power to the masthead amp for the Freeview aerial. (The green box under the grid aerial.) There will be no signal from this aerial without this powered, so you'll need to make sure a replacement distribution amp also has line power for masthead amps.

Faulty masthead amps can be a source of interference too, so it could be the case that taking this out has fixed things for Saorview.

I'm not assuming anything. The top box is an amplifier, the bottom is the diplexer/combiner/whatever.

Just to close this out, I got a new distribution amp on Saturday and fit it. Most of the Freeview stations came back fine, some didn't (depending on what channel they were coming in on). It was the same yesterday. However today for whatever reason, all perfect. Maybe it's due to whatever works were going on at Clermont Carn as posted above as that was the transmitter serving me, but not going to question it. All is right with the world again anyway.

Yeah, all channels back I think (or at least all the main ones). Some channels can be glitchy at random, maybe need to retune the telly or reposition the amp in the attic, but for the most part it's all back to normal.

Might get one myself, or maybe bypass it as I don't use the dish. At least I'll have addressed pretty much everything I can internally at that stage.

Can you still get ITV+1 , couldn't find it last night.

If you mean on satellite, see post #14 in this thread. The RXTV link gives the latest tuning details.

Ah yeah, I meant just replacing the combiner in the attic for the dish & distribution amplifier, but as per other posts above, I'm better off just bypassing it entirely. Not going to do anything to do with the aerial externally unless absolutely necessary.

Any news on Castlebar transmitter? not picking up anything on channel 25 RTE1, 22 is fine for RTE2 ?