[allblackfan]

I live in a small 2 bedroom 7th floor flat in London W11. I think my signal comes from Crystal Palace. Two years ago I had an aerial installed outside on the terrace, which leads to a box (signal splitter/booster? or something like that) in the living room which splits the signal and feeds it to four TVs in the kitchen, living room, and 2 bedrooms. Until recently I have had perfect reception in all rooms apart from the occasional signal loss which would be for no more than an hour or so at the most.
However in the last few months I have been losing the signal for days at a time. I will get BBC1 and BBC2, film 4, BBC3 and BBC4 plus a few odd music and shopping channels, but everything else just disappears and the TV says 'no signal' The only TV unaffected is the old TV in the kids room with no built-in freeview or freeview box which only gets channels 1-5 anyhow. When the other TV's read 'no signal' this one continues to get channels 1-5 as normal.
I have tried turning off the TVs and also retuning the freeview. I have also tried turning off computers and other appliances but nothing seems related to the problem, including the weather. I have checked all wires and connections. When the signal does come back it is perfect and we get all freeview channels with perfect reception without having to retune. I cannot find anything that causes the problem. Some days we have perfect reception and all channels, at other times we have no signal for most of the freeview channels.
Any help would be appreciated as I cannot stand another Saturday night watching Xfactor on the kids 12" TV!

[Phlog]

Did you retune all the Freeview TVs a couple of months ago?

Can you discover if your "splitter" is passive or active i.e. does it have a mains lead? If it's passive you may need to replace it with an active device - it'll be less than £20.

Other than that, do check the external aerial and down-lead. If the aerial is slightly out of alignment that may have degraded the signal sufficiently to be causing the problems. If the down-lead is ancient, water may have got into it. Or there could be new buildings, trees etc. that have grown into the signal path.

No simple answer I'm afraid.

[Geofbob]

Hi allblackfan - I think you can rule out any problem with the Crystal Palace transmitter. I live in a block of flats with a communal aerial in W2, a mile or so to the East of you, & our reception has been fine in recent months.

You say that even before the current drop-outs you had occasional signal losses for an hour or so at a time - & that doesn't sound quite right. The problem might be with the type or alignment of the aerial (as Phlog suggests) but is there any possibility of some type of interference from a nearby flat or premises?

[MarkE19]

Interference would be my best guess as I can't see the channels coming back if the aerial was misaligned.
Could it be the central heating causing the interference as obviously that is switched on more often at this time of year? Try turning the heating off when you have lost channels and see if you get them back. It could even be a neighbours heating (or whatever) that causes the interference, but that will be more difficault to prove.

You could try plugging your Freeview equipment into the likes of a Belkin mains conditioner that filters EMF & RFI - I have all my equipment plugged into a few of These. Not cheap but they do offer peace of mind and may well filter the interference you have and prevent the channels from being lost - try to borrow something similar to see if it helps.

Mark.

[allblackfan]

Thanks for all your quick replies. My flat is on a slight hill and is the the highest in the area and we are not overlooked from any direction. (I can see the London Eye from my living room window!) There are also no tall trees or other new structures around that could cause problems.

I retuned all my TVs a few months ago when it was required for that September 30th update thingy. Everything worked perfectly - for a while.

My central heating has not yet been turned on - I cannot afford the bills. No doubt everyone else in the building is toasty warm but regardless, last winter we used our heating and did not have the same problem.

My splitter is plugged into a mains and I have checked all connections which are all working ok (or at least the lights are on!).

I have considered if the aerial is out of alignment, or the connections damp or damaged but this does not make sense because when the channels work they are all there and perfect. We have had no reception since Thursday. But this morning I woke up and everything was working perfectly.

I am reluctant to call in an expert because firstly, I cannot afford it, and secondly the chances are he will visit and everything will be working perfectly. I just cannot predit when it will/will not be working.

Any more suggestions welcome! Thanks

[ROYOLD]

Originally Posted by allblackfan

I have considered if the aerial is out of alignment, or the connections damp or damaged but this does not make sense because when the channels work they are all there and perfect. We have had no reception since Thursday. But this morning I woke up and everything was working perfectly.

Rainwater may have entered the outside aerial connections.

When it dries out the signal will be OK. When its damp the signal will be reduced. Hence the reception on the stronger Mux (BBC channels).