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Thread: Retune completed, I hope !!!

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    Default Retune completed, I hope !!!

    Today was our turn for the 'Fun and Games'.
    All our channels were relocated from Band 5 to Band 4.
    One thing I noticed is all the channels now end in .500 because we had 2 that ended in .625 before, I have no idea what the relevance in that change is about.
    I had a look just before 10am to see what was doing and there was one of this and nothing of another so I turned the TV off and we headed out as today is Pay Bills and fill the Larder for another fortnight.
    Returning home just before 3pm we packed away the groceries, put the kettle on and I checked one of the TV's to see we had both the ABC and SBS working but only one Commercial which promptly went off but I got the other 2 only to have them disappear too and so it went for roughly the next 30 odd minutes so I left it.
    I tried to be a clever dick and just tune each channel manually as its quicker than the full analog/digital scan but the displayed numbers were all over the place like 367 for WIN?
    Just after 4pm I did the full all modes rescan which starts by setting the Country first and then scans both modes, bloody slowly but surely and now all the TV's have been retuned and hopefully the next change will be to the 'Holographic' wall sized screen, I live in hope.............
    I stand unequivicably behind everything I say , I just dont ever remember saying it !!

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    we had a re-tune in our area yesterday, (22nd Oct) ....... all went smoothly they started about 10 am (I think) & they were coming on & going off again until about 2pm .... when all was finished

    I would like to know how people with Mystar STB FTA channels get on when the Re-tune takes place in their area ..... ? (if they have to Ring Foxtel or not ? )


    (lots of things on the Plus side about the Re-Tune ...... only a UHF antenna needed in this local area now ..... & the channels are basically all in a row in a block of six ..... here anyway)
    Last edited by OSIRUS; 23-10-14 at 06:39 PM.
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    We have been UHF Verticaly polarised here since aggregation back in 88/89 so all that happened was they went from Band 5 to 4 with the channels being grouped very much closer together than before, the old were 56,59,62,65 & 67 to now 40,41,42,43 & 44 along with all channels ending in .500 now.
    We also had most in Digital some years before analog was shut down but I doubt many used it because of then very high cost of the equipment and it was only the same channel as the then analog one with no 'extras'.
    I havent checked today but the site said there may be further testing today but it would not require any further retuning of the channels.

    Lithgow (Reservoir Hill) on the other hand stubbornly held onto their lone Verticaly polarised VHF channel when everything else was UHF Horizontal but now at last its been relegated to the history books.
    I stand unequivicably behind everything I say , I just dont ever remember saying it !!

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    I have been through 3 retunes for the area I cover, starting in June 2014, with one more scheduled for the end of October 2014.

    It has been an interesting period, most people have sailed through it, others have been perplexed. Issues have arisen when multiple transmitters service a property, & tuning problems occur when devices are not able to select the best transmitter for a particular location. A few people also found it difficult to follow the digital ready retune instructions, and needed technical assistance to sort their gear out.

    In some cases, antenna changeovers and/or relocations have been required to restore good reception. Depending on the age of the installation, this can end up requiring a complete upgrade of all distribution items.

    Then there are people, who (like myself) leave Tassie & head north for the colder months. Since a retune of their transmitter occurred while they were away, on their return, some or all of their channels might be missing, and help is required to get it sorted.

    And there are those who believe that digital television breakup is a normal thing, because so many other people appear to suffer from it, so it must be normal. It is satisfying to get these ones sorted out, when the opportunity arises.
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    Its been fun for some obviously and it seems not all TV's or devises with a tuner do their search the same way as I found when I tried to take a short cut and retune each channel manually instead of as a 'new' service from scratch.

    The other side is it keeps those like antennaman in gainful employment and off the streets running wild......
    I stand unequivicably behind everything I say , I just dont ever remember saying it !!

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    I spoke too soon as late Friday afternoon/evening, the ABC began to 'play up' with lots of pixelling and it got progressively worse on Saturday to become non existent by Sunday.
    The other 4 channels have remained 'Loud and Clear' so I presumed the loss of the ABC was nothing to do with my system.
    Yesterday (Sunday) was quite warm (for us) with a reported maximum of 30c but no visible storm activity I could see along the Signal path although I was told there were storms in the district.

    On checking this morning, the ABC is back on air again so if there was a problem with it, it appears to have been fixed.

    Even though I am on the extreme fringe of the signal, since the changeover to full Digital, I have maintained a good reception except for either storms or heat but the loss of signal is generally only for a few minutes at a time, not hours like this was.
    There is always the possibilty the power to the ABC transmitter only was lost which is not impossible but unusual as it usually takes out SBS as well. The same applies to the Commercial channels who may shut down but the ABC and SBS stay broadcasting.
    I stand unequivicably behind everything I say , I just dont ever remember saying it !!

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    Hello Gordon,

    Digital TV isn't as robust as you may think. If you have trees in the firing line of your antenna, front to back, in wet windy weather these will cause corruption to the digital stream. Is your antenna finally tuned and are your getting too much signal out of a masthead amp?

    Cheers
    Hos Here

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    We had a retune about a month ago. I forgot all about it and thought the power amp in the roof had blown up again. Lucky I turned on the radio

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    Hos here, if you knew where I am and what my setup is you would shake your head and say 'Forget it and use VAST'
    Here is a non terrestrial TV coverage area and is subsequently an approved VAST area for the Commercial channels.

    I called into a fellow who is my local 'fixer upper' and he said prior to the retune, he took measurements of each channel and once it was completed he noted the new signal levels and he found all the commercial channels had increased their signal by an average of 5db, SBS was up by about 3db but the ABC hadnt changed.
    Now what I still dont know if during the retune, did they replaced any or all of the antenna panels because it is a fairly directional signal coverage and I am WAYYYY off and behind humps and hills, the fact I get a signal on any channel is purely good luck.

    The ABC channel was oixeling this morning (10am) but now is as steady as a rock so all we can do is see what happens.

    High scattered overcast, 16c with a blustery wind presently.
    I stand unequivicably behind everything I say , I just dont ever remember saying it !!

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    Default Upgrade your antenna

    Hi Gordon.

    It has been a while. Anyway, as I know you know. And I know you know I know, digital signals have a 'signal cliff' where they just drop off. It appears you are on the inside edge of this 'signal cliff' for the ABC service.

    Actually it is not the transmission that is the source of the 'signal cliff' but rather the TV itself. Digital TV's have a pre-set minimum input signal strength and if they don't get it they go blue screen (no signal). Different brands of TV may vary slightly. The signal itself is travelling well past your house (as it did with analogue) but quality and strength are diminishing as they get further away from the source - obviously.

    As Hos Here said, wet trees and various obstacles between the TX site and you wont help. I am not a fan of mast head amplifiers. They only amplify what they receive (poor signal in poor signal out). I prefer to upgrade the antenna to a higher gain or fringe antenna. This will likely fix up your ABC reception. And if you need an amplifier booster - to push the signal to a TV at the end of a long cable run, then put it where the signal input is good (up front) not where it is bad (at the end of the run).

    But, if you have enough signal the booster amp will corrupt the signal. Some digital TV's will even display a "too much signal" message if that is the case. We had to remove an external antenna and replace it with an indoor antenna at a certain Mayor's house who lived 100 metres from the council retransmission site in WA.

    There you go. My first 2 cents worth in many months.

    Cheers.
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    G'day Beerman and yes, using MHA's can be a problem as I once saw locally a new self installed unit put out sufficient interference to blow a TV channel off air on their TV and others in the close vicinity.
    What didnt help was the VHF TV signal was coming over 120 kms (80 miles).
    While UHF does allow physically large arrays to be put together to compensate for poor signals, even they can only be so big to be practicable.
    In one small town, some went to the extreme of erecting huge 4 bay quad antenna of either Yagi or phased arrays type antennas but still added a MHA because what they had was still very weak at the TV.

    My problem with the ABC after the 'Retune' seems to have disappeared altogether now which makes me wonder if it was on 'Their end' after all.
    For over 2 years I had no issues with the signal on any channel from this Translator until the Retune and now its seeming back to normal I have done nothing to my antenna or cable run and nor can I see anything along the signal path (mostly bush) to explain why it played up but now back again?
    Because I am almost completely 'behind' a very directional beam, I wonder how a drop of a few Watts or if the panel was turned a degree or 2 away from me how that would affect me in the very 'Deep Fringe area' that I am in?
    Make no mistake, I should NOT be receiving any Terrestrial signals from this specific translator at all but I am happy that I can.
    Last edited by gordon_s1942; 19-02-15 at 02:10 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by beerman View Post
    I am not a fan of mast head amplifiers. They only amplify what they receive (poor signal in poor signal out).
    I like mastheads. In my experience, they make weak signals useable. (note I said weak, not poor.)

    Also, when people put them in because someone tells them it will fix their reception, and it doesn't, then an opportunity arises to fix it for them.

    Retune completed months ago here, there are still lots of complaints about poor reception, unfortunately I don't think people realise their reception system may need upgrading to cater for the changes since aggregation happened in 1994 (Tasmania.) Many are still using their antennas from that time, installed & optimised for analogue reception, regardless of whether they are now suitable or not for digital.

    I don't think I'll be around long enough to sort them all out!
    Never stand under a shadow that's getting bigger

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    The Retune here just went from Band 5 to Band 4 and my antenna system which was installed barely 2 years before was working far better than I ever expected it to considering my location and crossed fingers form of installing so it didnt make sense why there was a problem now.
    The ABC was the only channel affected by 'dropping out' from around 3pm of an afternoon and not returning before midnight at least (in bed asleep after that).
    It didnt matter what the weather conditions were, it just began to fade over some 5 or 10 minutes just like you were turning down the volume.
    Then it started to resume after maybe 9pm to midnight intermittently until after few days, it seemed to come back fully without any dropout after 9pm.
    Then the afternoon 'dropout' got later and later as did the evening return get earlier to now being back full time.
    I have in my 50 years of chasing TV reception here to have seen weird and wonderful reception patterns but this was odd even for here.

    Several years ago one area covered by this translator complained of reception problems (I dont know if it was just one or all of the channels affected) until finally the company checked it out and the report back was there was a bad connection somewhere in the system but the funny thing was, it never affect me so maybe however these 'Panel Antennas' are configured wasnt the part that faced me.

    I have used 'Boosters' since the early 60's starting with one in an aluminum tube powered by a 6V lantern battery to the Hills TELSTAR MHA's and now to the Kingray versions along with at least one distribution amp, mostly installed by the 'Wild Guess and hope it works' method.
    I would dearly love (then and now) to have the correct equipment to measure the incoming signal along with the knowledge to use it correctly but for most that isnt feasible due to cost and education needed and getting others to do it isnt always possible again due to cost and finding someone to come and do it so you bite the bullet and 'Do It Yourself' or go with out.
    Last edited by gordon_s1942; 21-02-15 at 03:49 PM.
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    Gordon,

    Are there any wind farms within 60Klms of you? They do very strange things to TV signals.
    "the one with the sugar coating is the one that would otherwise taste worst".

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