OK, so a couple of installers have just visited to fix my intermittent Freeview channels, and I wanted an opinion of the work they’ve done.
To recap, I moved in a year ago and took the advice of Graham Thompson to fit a Vision V20-4260L mast head amplifier to recover missing channels from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter about 30 miles away, placing it just inside the loft. It worked a treat.
Then in March the 5G clearances led to a retune and Com7 & Com8 becoming the rather unreliable host to BBC4 HD and Channel 4 HD+1 etc. Phoning the Freeview helpline eventually led to them sending the pair of installers to do whatever was needed to restore the channels, at their cost. With my 20+ year old basic/contract aerial looking distinctly old against generally newer and more elaborate designs nearby, I was fully expecting a new aerial to be fitted.
One of the installers connected his meter (with small TV screen and costing a few £k he said) and quickly diagnosed 4G interference. I pointed out my masthead amp claims to screen this out, but he had little truck with this claim. His meter also said I was picking up Waltham, even further away than Sutton Coldfield to my surprise. So he went to the loft and inserted a 4G filter (see picture) between aerial feed and masthead input. He complimented my choice of masthead amp compared to the DIY store junk most people use. The yellow patch cable he used looks push-fit not F-type screw-on, is this a bodge?
Measuring again downstairs, he seemed to think there was still interference (could this be picked up by the descending coaxial cable after the masthead amp/filter?) so he fitted a second filter down there. After this, he pronounced success. The signal strength (from Humax HDR-2000T) was on some channels down at 4 out of 10 but quality for all was 10; he said to ignore these built in strength meters. He said that 4G masts vary their strength during the day; elsewhere I've read they’ve been upping their power to see what they can get away with without complaint.
Obviously, only time will tell if this is all successful. There is indeed a 4G mast a few hundred meters away, in the vague direction of the aerial. He said my strength (post masthead amp) was midway between 45 and 65dB range needed.
So, not a complaint, just a question for the experts: Was this a decent job/solution?
Attachments
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Living_Room_4G_filter.jpg (98.8 KB, 2 downloads) 5 years old - Loft_4G_filter.jpg (89.6 KB, 2 downloads) 5 years old
- Mast_Head_amp.jpg (92.7 KB, 5 downloads) 5 years old
