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Mendip Off-Air

Black Hole

Black Hole

May contain traces of nut
FWIW, Mendip went off the air about 0020 today and came back a while later. I suspected my aerial amp to start with, but then found I could still receive Mynydd Machen.
 
I know what you mean. In the past there have been transmission breaks on Waltham and the transmitter checker reports nothing is wrong, nothing has happened and nothing is going to happen.
 
I've got nothing on any mux. from Mendip currently. Anybody else got reception?
I'm starting to think it's my problem rather than theirs... :(
 
Measured the aerial amp. PSU and OK (although varying more than I would expect between about 11.1 and 11.9V). That's off load though and difficult to find the bits at this point to do an on-load measurement.
So, just went outside and had the Mk.I eyeball on the installation...

4193

This doesn't look good. The amp. is hanging by the cables as 'something' has given way, although having had the binoculars on it, it all looks reasonably intact. Doesn't flippin' work though.
 
Will see what the local cowboys say in the morning. I'm supposed to be out of here tomorrow as well. Otherwise it'll be well into next week before it gets sorted. I knew Major Inconvenience when he was a Private.
 
prpr said:
The amp. is hanging by the cables as 'something' has given way...
Will see what the local cowboys say in the morning.
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Just to complete the story - The bloke came riding in on his horse the next morning. I had to look away as he climbed up with an inadequate set of ladders - I really thought he would either fall off the roof or damage it as he clambered about. Thankfully neither of those things happened. The amp. was removed and the cables diverted inside, where they should have been in the first place, and a splitter installed in its place.
On recovering the parts, it became clear that this was a failure waiting to happen - I'd always worried about when it would.
The amp. casing is significantly rusty and having dried it out for 3 weeks it still doesn't work. The housing shows the cable entry at the top of frame, and obviously a wholly inadequate single snapped cable tie - after 11 years in the sun - which left it hanging with the cables coming out the side. I guess the heavy rain in the couple of days preceding caused the water to track down the cables and inside the box.
Signal strength figures on the T2 are now down to about 45 on PSB1 etc. and about 30 on Local - all perfectly adequate. And I guess I save about £4/year on not having to power the amp. any more.

IMG_0663a.pngIMG_0664a.png
 
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Wasn't watching live TV, but did see several short bits of BBC 1 HD throughout the evening and didn't notice any problems.
This morning; again no apparent problem.
 
hairy_mutley said:
Wasn't watching live TV, but did see several short bits of BBC 1 HD throughout the evening and didn't notice any problems.
This morning; again no apparent problem.
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Yeah, but what does your signal level show? It is still good enough for you, but is it lower than usual?

MikeSh said:
The wind started getting up a bit yesterday - has your aerial moved a bit?
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We've had a lot stronger wind than that, but I need to examine the situation - that's why I want to know if it is a common thing or just me. When I had this aerial installed only a couple of years ago signal levels were good, but now they're down on three bars with quality interruptions.
 
Black Hole said:
Yeah, but what does your signal level show? It is still good enough for you, but is it lower than usual?
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That was a quick reply, the dog wanted her walk.
I wouldn't know what my normal levels are, but are there places in the UI that show either current or post tuning levels? Remind me where and I can take a look.
 
Black Hole said:
We've had a lot stronger wind than that,
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I realise that, but things can change or loosen. The recent hot weather might have heat cycled a marginally tight fixing.

Black Hole said:
When I had this aerial installed only a couple of years ago signal levels were good, but now they're down on three bars with quality interruptions.
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That sounds like trees perhaps. The buggers do tend to grow :dunno:
 
Black Hole said:
Simples: when you change channel or press Info, there is strength and quality status in the info panel!
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That explains it, I rarely change channel from BBC ONE HD. The wife occasionally switches to BBC ONE for local news, but she can't work out the Humax, so always does that by switching from HDMI to live TV anyway. We do watch other channels, but invariably on playback.
Besides, I either need a bigger TV or new glasses; I can't count the levels in those bars without getting out of my chair, and had forgotten that they were there. Defeated by technology/eyesight/memory.

Info bar shows 7/10 on the top, 10/10 underneath at the moment on channels 1-5 & 101 - 105
Capture.PNG

Black Hole said:
That won't be much use if you don't know what they normally show though.
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I thought that there was a history of the CF retaining old strength and quality values, or has that been fixed?
 
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