Need electrician help!

[michael]

Sorry this is not bike related at all but...

This is driving me nuts. I've recently moved into a new place and our reception is shit. I've tested the continuity of my coax cable from the wall jack to the tv and it's fine. I've checked for a short on the coax jack in the wall and its fine.
I also checked the resistance from the inner pin of the wall jack to the casing of my hi-fi (presumming its grounded) and thats "OL" (there's no connection at all).

And I've check the reception with two tv's.

How can I check if there is reception coming from my jack. Any tricks to check the aerial jack??

PLEASE HELP A I'M SO FRUSTRATED, and need to watch TV!!

[Mully]

Follow the wire from the aerial jack?

Plug in some bunny ears and see if it gets better?

[p.dath]

You need someone with a signal strength meter to measure the gain at the aerial itself, and then at the end of the wire.

I'd look up a specialist TV aerial installer in the yellow pages, rather than use a sparky.

The problem could be almost anywhere.


Is the shit reception UHF or VHF? Also, you realise different frequencies are used in different areas, so you might have to re-tune your TV?

[Juzz976]

Got a dish? could go freeview.

[michael]

Follow the wire from the aerial jack?

Plug in some bunny ears and see if it gets better?

Don't have two coax cables. but did connect my coax cable between between the bunny ears and the TV and that worked so my coax cable must be fine

[scissorhands]

If your going to spend money on an installer, do the freeview for sure

[michael]

Well the landllord got a sparky in and apparently it's fine. But when sky came they said it was f**ked. It's in a block of apartments (or town houses, something stupid like that) and they're all connected to one SKY dish so reception should be crystal clear. Both houses either side of us havn't noticed anything (wrong) in their reception

[michael]

You need someone with a signal strength meter to measure the gain at the aerial itself, and then at the end of the wire.

I'd look up a specialist TV aerial installer in the yellow pages, rather than use a sparky.

The problem could be almost anywhere.


Is the shit reception UHF or VHF? Also, you realise different frequencies are used in different areas, so you might have to re-tune your TV?

So there's nothing I can do with a multimeter to check if there's reception?

[scissorhands]

yes check for continuity, I'm a sparkie, coax developes strange faults that an ohmmeter wont really cut it

you have not even described your fault.....phone the previous people?

[p.dath]

So there's nothing I can do with a multimeter to check if there's reception?

A multi-meter can't measure attenuation.

[davereid]

You can't even start to diagnose aerial faults with a multimeter other than to look for dead shorts or open circuits.

RG6 cable for modern TV or satellite should show an open circuit from braid to conductor, and closed circuit from braid end to end, and conductor end to end, but that is all you can check without a better meter.

Older cable like RG59 will pass the same test, but it is unlikely to work with sat. or even UHF except in very good signal areas.

If the conventional antenna is shared by lots of users, the received signal is halved at each split, so it may simply be that you dont have enough signal by the time it reaches you.

Sat aerials are more difficult, you can't simply keep splitting the signal, and adding more decoders, it needs very careful setting up.

If the premises are rented, and your lease allows for the provision of an aerial by the landlord then it is his problem. Otherwise, I would suggest a sat aerial and freeview box, installed by a professional.