Weak(ish) SIgnal on Freeview

wolsty

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According to the BBC web site, Freeview is not available in my Postcode area. However, having tried a borrowed STB over Christmas, I find that I can receive BBc 1,2,3...., ITV 1,2......, Channel4....... etc, but no Ch5, Radio 4 and other minor stuff. I get occasional minor signal dropout on the received channels, but picture quality is otherwise good.

So, the question is: is it worth my while to go out and buy my own STB in the January sales and then climb onto the roof with a bigger aerial to see if I can get a better signal. If so, is any Freeview box known to have particularly good sensitivity and what sort of aerial should I look for. Would a signal booster help?

:-csmile
 

gameboy

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wolsty said:
is it worth my while to go out and buy my own STB in the January sales

Usually the digital picture is better (even with a standard aerial) if so then i would buy one - they are cheap - Aldi has one for £27.99 @ 27/12/20005

climb onto the roof with a bigger aerial to see if I can get a better signal.

The proper aerial should improve the signal over a normal aerial. You can buy specific freeview aerials.

If so, is any Freeview box known to have particularly good sensitivity

No sure...

Would a signal booster help?

A signal booster will not improve a weak signal just boosts it!

In bad weather the signal may drop in your area and with a digital signal this can be a problem - picture blocking - freezing or not showing at all!
 

wolsty

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I've got the BBC/ITV FTA stuff on my Hummy and Digibox, so it's only the encrypted channels I'm after. It's not just a question of cost either. There is a member of my family who already objects to the number of boxes under the tv, the rat's nest of cables behind it and the proliferation of remote controls. And, to make matters worse, I also have my eye on a DVD recorder.............................
 

rolfw

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Forget the postcode checker for Freeview, it is only and can only be a general guide.

If you are receiving a couple of the muliplexes, then you probably have a chance of pulling in some if not all of the others. A couple of questions, what aerial are you using at present, is it amplified and by what type of amplifier?

PS. although some people in the industry would like you to think that there is such a thing as a Freeview/Digital aerial and old ones won't work, they are misleading you. Any UHF aerial with the appropriate bandwidth, gain and possibly amplification, being in good condition can achieve digital reception, no matter what age.
 

Milkybarkid

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I use an old aerial and an Echostar Freeview box and am 35 miles from the TX and get all the muxes.
 

wolsty

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Ah, well, now. I'm embarrassed. I haven't used my terrestrial aerial for some years now so, if I'd had half a brain remaining after the Christmas excesses, I would have checked the co-ax connections before opening this thread. If I had even got as far as the wall socket behind the tv, I would have found a seriously dodgy bit of wiring. And then I would have repaired it and, lo and behold, I would have found all the channels I was looking for.

Rolfw, you're right. The Postcode is not a guide to reception, though the Ch 5 analogue signal is poor to non-existent here and I'd always assumed that if you couldn't get Ch5 analogue, digital would be unavailable. I haven't a clue about the aerial, but sometime in the next few days, I'll borrow my son's girl-friend's father's roof ladder and go up to inspect it and the 15 year-old connections. There's an amplifier in the loft, which distributes the signal to other rooms in the house, but I daren't disconnect it or my kids will make my life intolerable.

I haven't a clue about my aerial's gain, bandwidth or frequency; if I go shopping for one tomorrow, what information would I need? I assume I can find out the frequency of my local transmitter from the BBC site.
 

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see my Freeview guide, at:

www.satellites.co.uk/php-bin/forum/showthread.php?t=43646 .

Channel 5 "broke" the previously exiting rules about analogue broadcasting, and it's not uncommon to get poor ch5 analogue but ok digital reception!

An amplifier increases signal strength, but at the expense of worsening the digital bit error rate, so this isn't straightforward! A "booster" might help if your digital reception is "just marginal", ie you've got only some channels, or some pixilate, otherwise it probably won't (but that's only a general rule, there will be exceptions!).
 
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