Rain interference on Freeview?

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PhilANZ

351 posts

Ultimate Geek

#80956 6-Apr-2011 16:37

Hi there

We've had freeview (HD) for a few months. At first it was fine - then we added a hard-disk recorder with two tuners - and had problems. We've since had aerial guys in and things have improved. But we still have one problem. When it rains, our signal degrades - sometimes badly. Is there likely to be anything we can do about that?

[Moderator edit (MF): "rain" is not a meaningful subject folks!]

sbiddle

30853 posts

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Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#456023 6-Apr-2011 16:56

Do you have any trees nearby that are in the aerial line of sight? Wet leaves and RF signals don't mix well.

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PhilANZ

351 posts

Ultimate Geek

#456040 6-Apr-2011 17:52

There are trees on the hills around us. I suspect that the direction the signal comes from the nearest ones are about 100 - 200m from the aerial - which is slightly higher than the trees.

B1GGLZ

1961 posts

Uber Geek

#456278 7-Apr-2011 10:34

Check your antenna joints to make sure water isn't getting into the coax connector or on to the antenna's connection circuit board as any water (even fog and condensation) getting in will rapidly degrade performance. I had this happen to me with a particular antenna Brand. Every time it rained or we got fog the little circuit board inside the antenna's plastic junction box got drowned and the picture started pixellating and dropping out until it all dried out again. Fixed it with a new antenna.

PhilANZ

351 posts

Ultimate Geek

#456303 7-Apr-2011 11:16

Thanks for that. Had the aerial guys out a couple of times - and things definitely improved. But we might get someone out to check it again. In many ways I'd love to find that was the problem rather than just some trees over a few sections.

Spyware

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#456312 7-Apr-2011 11:31

You need to look at the physical characteristics of the setup, the antenna used - is it suitable?, cabling - RG6?, amplifier if required to overcome loss from long cable run, connnectors - F type?

Do you daisy chain antenna cables between recorder and TV or use a splitter, if using a splitter is all the cabling RG6 with crimped F types.

You give absolutely zero information on the antenna used or even distance from the transmitter so it is really impossible to even judge if things should work most of the time, excluding bad weather.

Spark Max Fibre using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+, CRS125-24G-1S, Unifi UAP, U6-Pro, UAP-AC-M-Pro, Apple TV 4K (2022), Apple TV 4K (2017), iPad Air 1st gen, iPad Air 4th gen, iPhone 13, SkyNZ3151 (the white box). If it doesn't move then it's data cabled.

Jaxson

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#456314 7-Apr-2011 11:34

PhilANZ: Had the aerial guys out a couple of times - and things definitely improved. But we might get someone out to check it again.

I'd be getting different guys out too....

Chainsaw

357 posts

Ultimate Geek

#456378 7-Apr-2011 13:19

We get bad interference in rain on what must be the weaker signal channels - Maori TV, Prime and whatever else goes with them. Very annoying.