television reception tips Mornington

At Antenna IQ we’ve set up this page to help Mornington locals get the best television reception from their digital antenna, cabling and television. The latest tips for better installation of television antennas and digital TV reception on the Mornington Peninsula and surrounds. Recently there have been plenty of changes to local television broadcasts. Digital television has beamed into people’s houses perfect television reception.

But is it all that it’s cracked up to be? For many people in Mornington. Specifically people struggle with getting a consistent signal. This means breaking up of picture and sound, large squares (called pixellation), and even the dreaded ‘no signal’ warning.

Digital reception can give a ‘perfect’ picture, what it cannot do it correct a signal once it is below the digital cliff edge, the point at which the signal corruption means digital breakup will occur. Without a good digital antenna, cabling, and perhaps even an amplifier it should not be expected that digital reception can function when it is based around new technology that requires (as did analogue to work well) a functional television antenna. Unlike analogue it is very sensitive to impulse noise and impedence matching, as such it cannot be expected to work well from a set of rabbits ears, or an incorrectly installed antenna system.

So what are some of the causes of television reception issues around Mornington and what are some of the solutions?

First thing to note when moving into a new home is is there a suitable power supply left to run my masthead amplifier. If your television displays bad or no signal generally on every channel there is a good chance that you need to find a suitable power supply. First thing to look for is your masthead amplifier. You can usually cite the model number or voltage. This should be sufficient to find the correct voltage. If you are uncertain of the voltage it may be best to contact a qualified technician. Next thing is to trial the power supply on the different outlets. You can connect the tv to the end of the power supply labelled ‘to tv’. You will find that when the power pass link is connected your TV will work again (assuming there are not other issues with the antenna system).

We have also found a disproportionately high failure rate of several makes of amplifiers in particular older amplifiers including the Hills Q Amp, Alcad amplifier and various power supplies including the 14 volt kingray kps series power supplies.

A general rule of thumb when tracing reception issues is to check with a multimeter that the power supply is putting out no more than 50% more than it’s rated voltage (a linear power supply with no load will do this), and no less than 5% less than it’s rated output. A real time spectrum analyser or oscilloscope is the best way to check for power supply issues and as is the case with amplifier issues, a real time spectrum analyser can look for microphonics, and other harmonics amongst the noise floor.

Alway check the flylead for issues. We recommend against quadshield rg6 flyleads as their rugged construction is suited to running a cable through a wall, or on the outside of a house, but not connecting to a relatively fragile input connector on a television. We’ve seen it maybe a hundred times in the last 19 years, and it never impresses me when the wrong product is supplied damaging a client’s equipment. Wiggling the lead (not rg6 quadshield) whilst looking at the signal test mode in your television will give a guide as to issues with your TV lead. Most supermarkets sell these. Did you find the signal level fluctuate when you wiggled the lead? Check it against a new lead. Don’t hold onto the old faulty lead, throw it out and save yourself time and frustration.

As to antenna choices. Location plays a major factor in recommending a specific product. A signal meter will aid in finding the correct location and spot to mount the antenna on your roof.

Many times you may find that the problem with wiggling the cable is still present after replacing the cable with a new one. This being the case it is likely that you have a faulty wall plate.

If you are running multiple TV outlets (even if there are only one TVs running at one time) you should consider running a masthead amplifier. Without one the signals at the TVs will generally be quite weak. We now recommend to customers to buy an amplifier based on relevant filtering, gain, and capacity to work on available signal levels. Do not buy an amplifier based on signal levels without first testing the levels on a spectrum analyser. 9/10 cheap amplifiers fail due to poor filtering, inability to work on signal levels common to the mornington peninsula, or dubious design and construction.

Beleura Hill runs off either the Arthurs Seat transmitter or Mount Dandenong. Running off Arthurs Seat will require a high performance UHF antenna and a good amplifier, be it a masthead or distribution amplifier. Please note that good quality cabling is essential in the case of Arthurs Seat. Higher UHF frequencies suffer badly from attenuation through RG59, cheaper solid dialectric RG6 and lower grade airspace cables. We recommend RG6 quadshield as per the ACMA recommendations.

Please note this document is intended as a guide only and cannot take into account the specific signal levels coming into the antenna on your property, the conditions of amplifiers, splitters, taps, terminations, wall plates and leads. It is always preferable wherever possible to consult a qualified professional equipped with knowledge of potential issues within your system and the latest test equiptment. This document is based around 17 years of experience working in and around Mornington.

My phone suddenly works great, but my television doesn’t?

Suffering from mobile phone tower interference? LTE short for Long Term Evolution, is the latest in cellphone technology providing lightening fast internet to those without a NBN or phone line connection. It uses high power output on channels previously assigned for television frequencies. This means that many older aerials and amplifiers cannot cope with the massive power levels often 10s, 100s or thousands of times more powerful than the relatively weak digital television broadcasts. So from narrow band antennas, to filters and filtered amplifiers, we carry a range of solutions to fix your every problem.

Please note that it is always faster and easier to diagnose an issue using a qualified technician with a high resolution spectrum analyser.

We use and recommend technicians with test equipment similar to the UNAOHM AP01 test instrument. Better technicians know that the best test equipment, work practices, materials and experience will help resolve your problems.

Should you need a good Antenna technician Andrew Lacey can be contacted on: 0427004604