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GMM GMM is offline
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Default A bit OT - Fixed me telly problem!

Although we're in the centre of Birmingham, TV reception in my road is
awful: The analogue was just snow, while the digital often didn't
work, depending on the weather, and would pause for a moment if
someone switched a light, or the CH thermostat switched. I had
originally tried to set up 2 TVs on a splitter that was in the loft
when we moved in, but splitting the signal just made it worse and even
the digital never worked on the second set. Had tried a signal
booster just before the TV, but that did next to nothing.

I was thinking of a new aerial etc etc but looked into things and
decided to try a fix before getting up and falling off the roof.

So...

Got a Labgear masthead amplifier from S/fix and a roll of quality
cable (PF100) together with a proper splitter. The amplifier is
powered at the TV end, so no need to get mains up into the loft (which
was what had put me off amplifiers before).

I put the amplifier at the nearest point to where the aerial comes
into the loft, re-cabled the run across the loft to where it drops
into a plaster chase, with the splitter just before that point.

Power supply on the other end (using more of the quality cable from
the wall socket to that, then to the digibox input - Turned it all on
and - bingo! Good signal on everything (even the second set that has
never worked), and whole lot of channels I'd never seen before.

Total time (apart from two trips to S/fix), about 1 hour. Total cost,
about 30 quid, job done. Well, I was impressed (!)

The moral is that it's hardly rocket science and if your signal is a
bit dicky and you don't have any amplifier on or near the aerial, it's
well worth a try.

Only trouble is, everyone keeps watching the TV now.....Ah well...