TV Antenna Problem Solved

Well, we fixed the TV antenna problem a couple of days ago, and by gee, the signal I am now getting at the TV set is degrees of magnitude better than before.

I can state that I'm in a really good signal area. Rabbit ears would actually work rather than an external antenna, as we're up on a hill, direct line of sight to the transmitter and about 2km away from it.

It was the coaxial cable run, which was done by an electrician. I can only speculate and say the electrician has let his apprentice have a go at it. Why not? He was busy wiring up the rest of the house, it's good experience for a young lad, and he's not going to kill himself with 240volt whilst hooking up a TV antenna!

Already I had mentioned in a previous post, the connection at the wall plate was a dog's breakfast.  The Antenna Man finally got up on the roof today and re-connected to the antenna.  Another big problem.  Also, the coax came into the roof cavity and was connected to a splitter (with only one output connected to it) and the job there was also pathetic.  In fact the cable fell straight out of one end of the splitter as soon as he picked it up! So the splitter has been replaced with a joiner, and the coax re-connected properly.

The digital picture is now perfect.  The ANALOGUE picture which was previously snowy and really horrible is now rock-steady. It can even be mistaken for digital quality!!!

And the real clincher is that from Wyoming, I can get quite a viewable picture on the analogue TVS (UHF CH-31) community television station from Sydney! It's a bit snowy, but it's in colour and all there. Previously it was usually not present, and a ghostly image when it was coming through.

So the problem has been the coax connections all along. Four of them simply done by an incompetent operator, and losing so much signal between the antenna and TV set.  And out of this, in practice, I get an extra TV station.

The Central Coast is probably the best area for TV stations in the country, as not only do we get Sydney stations, but also Newcastle Regional Transmissions (which are almost identical to Sydney, but not quite.  They still break out for local content occasionally, particularly NBN).  It is quite an interesting area indeed.