Tuning TV without signal in order to align aerial

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donnsuil

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Geek

#139086 27-Jan-2014 18:04

I have just put up a UHF aerial in place of a dish. I pointed the aerial roughly in the direction and orientation of the neighbours', with a view to use a signal finder I bought to fine tune the direction. Then I blew up the signal finder.

The TV cannot find any channels, due to weak signal etc. I did detect a weak signal before it blew up, but it's not enough.

I thought I could try manually tuning the TV to TV1 or something and use that as a signal finder i.e. move aerial around until the TV channel is clear. What do I tune it to? Every place I've looked refer to auto tuning the TV, but none of them say what the channels are on.

Any help would be appreciated.

Location is Okahu Bay, Auckland near the bowls club, and I don't think the signal is going to be excellent where I am located anyway.

Cheers,
Martin

DarkShadow

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#975294 27-Jan-2014 18:25

The frequencies vary depending on which transmitter you're pointing to.
http://www.freeviewshop.co.nz/digital-terrestrial-i-8.html

donnsuil

18 posts

Geek

#975296 27-Jan-2014 18:33

I think it's pointing to the pine Hill one, although the polarity appears to be vertical on the neighbours aerials. Maybe it's pointing to the Sky Tower, and I just have a bad sense of direction.

That link, does that mean I just tune to 28 (530MHz) 32 (562MHz) 40 (626MHz) for 3 channels?

andrewNZ

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#975297 27-Jan-2014 18:34

I don't think you can manually tune a channel. There are 3 only frequencies to broadcast all the channels. Unless the manual tuning process provides a way of specifying the part of the multiplex to tune, you're out of luck.

Do you have a friendly neighbor that will let you pretune the telly at their house.

It might be worth your time getting someone to align it for you, digital TV is horrible to watch with a marginal reception.

turb

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#975301 27-Jan-2014 18:45

Can you borrow a tv from a (local) mate? That will already be tuned to all the right frequencies.

It is a good idea to check all the channels as you may find that the mux that carries TV 1 is fine, but the one that carries TV3 is more pernickety. Or the other way round...

I know this isn't a very geekzone thing to say, but you should think about getting someone in. Then at least you'll know your signal is as good as it possibly can be. There's nothing worse than getting a bit of pixellation during Grand Designs and the missus glancing over at you...

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donnsuil

18 posts

Geek

#975303 27-Jan-2014 18:48

I was mistaken on the polarity, they are all Horizontal.

I'll try to line it up a bit better and retune, and if that doesn't work I'll try and haul the TV to the neighbors.

Cheers for the replies.

Bung

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#975331 27-Jan-2014 19:48

I lined up on a transmitter 60km away by using the distance measurement tool on Google maps between the transmitter and the chimney. The line traced on the aerial! view gave me the local objects on that line to aim at.

If the wind pushes my aerial around I now know that I just aim at the corner of a house 2 streets over.

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B1GGLZ

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#975407 27-Jan-2014 21:36

donnsuil: I think it's pointing to the pine Hill one, although the polarity appears to be vertical on the neighbours aerials. Maybe it's pointing to the Sky Tower, and I just have a bad sense of direction.

That link, does that mean I just tune to 28 (530MHz) 32 (562MHz) 40 (626MHz) for 3 channels?

Point the antenna at the transmitter and look for manual tuning in the TV menu. Then tune to ch28, 32 or 40 and check the signal strength. Should be some sort of bar graph displaying strength and quality. If pointing at Waiatarua try ch 29, 33 or 45.
Check frequencies and polarity here
http://www.freeviewshop.co.nz/information/technical/digital-terrestrial-i-8.html

resurrect

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#976653 29-Jan-2014 13:21

donnsuil: I have just put up a UHF aerial in place of a dish. I pointed the aerial roughly in the direction and orientation of the neighbours', with a view to use a signal finder I bought to fine tune the direction. Then I blew up the signal finder.

The TV cannot find any channels, due to weak signal etc. I did detect a weak signal before it blew up, but it's not enough.

I thought I could try manually tuning the TV to TV1 or something and use that as a signal finder i.e. move aerial around until the TV channel is clear. What do I tune it to? Every place I've looked refer to auto tuning the TV, but none of them say what the channels are on.

Any help would be appreciated.

Location is Okahu Bay, Auckland near the bowls club, and I don't think the signal is going to be excellent where I am located anyway.

Cheers,
Martin

at that distance from the skytower you should be fine with a paper clip as your aerial.

you mentioned that you had a sat dish, so is your setup made for DVB-S or T? as having a satellite receiver wont be able to do what you're wanting it to do.

may we have more info like is the aerial cable going straight into the TV from the aerial or into a set top box and what model of device you're using please.

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KevinL

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#976666 29-Jan-2014 13:30

Bung: I lined up on a transmitter 60km away by using the distance measurement tool on Google maps between the transmitter and the chimney. The line traced on the aerial! view gave me the local objects on that line to aim at.

If the wind pushes my aerial around I now know that I just aim at the corner of a house 2 streets over.

This. It's the easiest way by far to line up an antenna (also make sure your polarity is correct for the transmitter you are aiming at).

donnsuil

18 posts

Geek

#976880 29-Jan-2014 20:04

resurrect:
at that distance from the skytower you should be fine with a paper clip as your aerial.

you mentioned that you had a sat dish, so is your setup made for DVB-S or T? as having a satellite receiver wont be able to do what you're wanting it to do.

may we have more info like is the aerial cable going straight into the TV from the aerial or into a set top box and what model of device you're using please.

Don't have line of sight to Sky Tower. I read that it (line of sight) matters, but got nothing to lose trying it anyway... except some time mucking around, but I don't begrudge that.

Had a satellite dish and a satellite decoder, but that died recently and I've been meaning to sort out the UHF aerial so this is the kick I needed really. The TV has built in freeview digital decoder, so it should work, not that I've ever used it.

resurrect

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#977088 30-Jan-2014 09:35

donnsuil: Don't have line of sight to Sky Tower. I read that it (line of sight) matters, but got nothing to lose trying it anyway... except some time mucking around, but I don't begrudge that.

Had a satellite dish and a satellite decoder, but that died recently and I've been meaning to sort out the UHF aerial so this is the kick I needed really. The TV has built in freeview digital decoder, so it should work, not that I've ever used it.

if you have a set of rabbit ears try those, if they work then the problem isn't your t.v.

is it possible that you might have multiple coax cables for the different aerials?

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trig42

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#977089 30-Jan-2014 09:44

Is your UHF aerial pointing the same way as your neighbours?
It doesn't have to be exact, it's not like a satellite dish. It sounds as though you have issues other than reception (like cabling).

I would have thought, in Okahu Bay, even though you may not see the Sky Tower, you should still be close enough to it to get a signal. If not, there may be an infill on the Shore or something you can point at.

donnsuil

18 posts

Geek

#977677 30-Jan-2014 21:18

Moderate Success.

Pointing at the Pine Hill transmitter did not yield any result. Looking at the neighbours, they look like they are pointed more towards devonport, so I think I was mistaken to assume it was Pine Hill.... no idea what they are pointing at.

I tried the Sky Tower, and that worked right away! A bit of pixellation on channel 1 and 2, but most of the others are all good. Pretty stoked about that, just need to tweak it now.

Interesting to note a lot of the neighbors aerials that are pointed at the Sky Tower have horizontal polarity. Mine is vertical, so I don't know what's going on there.

In both cases, the Google Measurement Tool and the link for the transmitters was of great use. Cheers for your suggestions/links.

The plan is to have a bit of a play to see if I can get a better reception where it is for the short/medium term. Then when I grow some balls, I'll get a new aerial (one that ain't rusty) and set it up higher on the roof, and cable it all better so it can service more than just the lounge.

This page here has been informative: http://www.aerialsandtv.com/aerials.html