Aerial antenna, WTF..!!! Anyone cluey?

We moved into a rented premises that had a great looking aerial on the roof. Plugged the TV and set top box in and nothing.. I bought RABBIT EARS and no worries! ..
The TV in the bedroom (both digital LCD's) worked no problems straight from the aerial port in the bedroom.

So, we move into one of our rentals and low and behold, another great looking aerial on the roof. I thought, sweet! No worries with the TV's then..

Once again there are TV ports in the bedroom and lounge, none of them have any decent signal.. My set top box reads 15% signal strength!

I got on the roof and checked the aerial, everything 'looks' o.k although I'm no antenna tech.

I removed the wall bracket and its wired in o.k, the only thing that I can think of that may, or may not be holding my signal back is this.

I note that the lounge-room port has the aerial cord that comes direct from the aerial, PLUS, a link, that I believe must go to the bedroom port. Someone told me that if you hook two signals up together you loose signal, but I don't know if this is true?

Is there anyone that might be able to shed some light cause I'm dying to watch Hey Hey this Wednesday. :confused:
 
aerial connections should have splitters at the junctions
splitters ensure there is little degradation of the signal
just cutting the cable and attaching it to terminals on the plates is not good enough, there can be standing and reflected waves in each line segment diodes in spltters reduce all the crosstalk
splitter-HP202.jpg
SP4G00.jpg
 
Thanks! :)

So without the splitter, my symptoms are as described?

Before I purchase one, should I simply disconnect the cable that goes to the bedroom (thats the one that is slaving) and see how the signal is?

I cannot get even one channel as it stands right now.
I can on the normal TV side (very very blurry at that, but not on digital).
 
Most likey there is nothing wrong - you're just missing a link that should go with the house, but by its nature is often removed in error by a former tenant or owner.

When you install 2 or more wall connections off one aerial, the signal degrades. To get around this, the technician installs a little amplifier in the roof or under the house. The amplifier needs a power source, but the technician is not an electrician.

So where does the amplifier get power? From the wall connection. The missing link is a little device you can buy from Dick Smith for $20. If you ask for "the power pack thingy you attach to your antenna outlet to power your signal amplifier" they'll know what you mean. :)

When you get it, you will see that it has three connections - an electrical power pack that goes in a power point, a bit to go in an antenna point, and another antenna outlet (so you can still use that outlet for a TV). You only need one and you can connect it to any of the points in the house. As long as the power pack is taking power, it will send power to the amplifier and all the antenna outlets in the whole house will work.
 
Deejay, I think you're right!

It all makes perfect sense,

I saw there was an amplifier ON the arial, but without power, how's it going to work! I'll go buy one now and let you guys know if it worked tomorrow, thank you! :)

I bought a $40 powered rabbit ear type the other day and it works very well, but only in the stupidest place in the whole house for each room, I need to run a chord from one end of the bedroom to the other and we trip over it all the time, and in the lounge-room its ugly as sin because its RIGHT in front of the TV! the only place it works :mad::confused::eek:
 
I assume the second connection is wrongly slaved onto the terminals of the first one (home handyman)
deejay assumes the setup is properly wired but outgoing removed amplifier powerpack.
either is equally likely, the symptoms are identical,
test as you suggested
remove the slaved wire from the back of the first connector panel
if signal improves install $10 splitter
if signal does not improve install $10 power pack
either human error, it happens pretty often
notify landlord, pm, retain device when you leave, likely it will happen again.
I get people removing the splitter when they move, they think they have to return it with any set top boxes, the cable guy comes to install the next service they put another one(two,three) in, on the cable already in the walls, The province is wired for pretty much by one cable company, they know they get em back eventually.
 
Thanks guys, I'll work it out eventually.

Its one of OUR rentals and we might be there a while me thinks so best to get it going.

I'm going to buy the powered thing and also the splitter.
 
I saw there was an amplifier ON the arial, but without power, how's it going to work!

That's a masthead amplifier and gets power up the same wire as the signal comes down, but it still needs a power pack which appears to be missing.

The existance of this tells us it's short of signal to start with, so even if you install a proper splitter it's only going to split a poor signal.
 
Excellent, I've just found it in my Jaycar catalogue.
'Replacement power supp for Masthead amplifiers'

Its $24.00 inc GST,
I'm going to re-solder a new plug onto the slaved lead and plug it into the splitter that will be plugged into the Masthead amplifier junction. Awesome! :)

Seems like they work the same way as condensor microphones in terms of power supply.
 
$24, gone up since the last time

there will be a marked improvement
Often the prewire at frame does not install the splitters or connectors, either on phone data or tv,
coz builders halfinch em
then the finish guys dont know much, so they just screw all the wires together
 
Hah, we tried everything to get digital tv at our old house. Only thing that would have worked would have been a 30m tower or something, but the cost prohibits. Bigger aerial, different aerial, powered amplifiers, the works, all failed.

So we got satellite tv. Perfect crystal clear reception, but only two unlocked channels - abc and sbs. Need to live 1km down the road (in any direction) or get a TV tech out to say our signal is bad to unlock all the other channels :(
 
i assume, with the bad signal, you tried tuning your tv for a new area?

i got caught out once, where i called out the aerial guy thinking the connections were buggered, only to find out that the new house accessed a different station transmitter tower than the old house - cost me $40 for him to retune the channels on the tv for me!

next two moves i auto tuned it myself.
 
Your coaxial cable is not just two insulated wires. It is a 70 ohm (nominal) transmission line. Big difference.

I could not explain what that means so I guess the best I can do is to say that any and all branches in your transmission line should be terminated by a 70 ohm input device or a 70 ohm resistor in a cap. An open circuit termination is as bad as a short circuit one. A "splitter" should divide the signal into two 70 ohm branches, not two 35 ohm ones, but any you buy would do so, that's why you buy them.

Assuming that the antenna is correct for your area, using as few splitters as needed and terminating all branches correctly will go a long way to fixing it. I hired a pro to run my cable and it was good value.
 
Well, We have TV SUCESS!!!

A big thanks to Deejay and Almostbob.

All I did was hook up the power supply and there it was, crystal clear pictures on ALL channels. Hey Hey here I come! :D

I don't know why this isn't common knowledge?
Out of all the rentals I've been in, I've never once seen one of these.
 
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