Any other Perth users got ABC reception problems?

SimonB · Post by **SimonB** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 15:01

Between the 6th and 8th of Dec, something has happened to ABC Perth's transmitter and I am not receiving the signal well enough to maintain a good image and sound. The signal strength meter dips into the LH red area constantly and I get constant dropouts. None of the other services are affected.

I just rang ABC transmission and got the classic fob-off of "nothing's changed, we'd know if something was wrong" which I know is a crock of $h?t*. She suggested I rescan services (which I did yesterday) and reset to factory defaults as "something could have got scrambled". I am doing that now, to humour them.

At least when I called Ch9 a few years ago, I got to speak to a real live tech instead of some silly helpdesk.

But, I am keen to know if anyone else is seeing any problems?

Cheers,

Simon....

IanSav · Post by **IanSav** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 15:05

Hi Simon,

Have you had your antenna checked out to see if it has moved or been damaged in any recent winds/bad weather?

Regards,
Ian.

IanB · Post by **IanB** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 15:33

With the commencement of ABC3 they have changed there encoding scheme to be the same as the commercial stations, this change was to increase the available bandwidth and consequently will have decreased the level of forward error correction available slightly. It was done a few weeks before abc3 started.

Also older VHF-H analogue antennas were designed to work best from channel 7 to channel 10. Many still work adequately beyond this range but may have less directionality and be more susceptible to interference at the higher frequencies. Has anyone in the neighbourhood got any new toys.
_

SimonB · Post by **SimonB** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 15:42

Guys thanks, but I don't think it's this. The antenna was new when I moved into the premises, admittedly, quite a few years ago but has been fine since then. I don't believe it's anything to do with that.

Don't know about new toys in the area, but anything's possible, I guess - but 24 hours a day?

This is most frustrating.

IanSav · Post by **IanSav** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 16:04

Hi Simon,

You appear to have discounted antenna damage/issues without checking. I strongly suggest that you get the antenna checked out just to be sure.

Regards,
Ian.

tonymy01 · Post by **tonymy01** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 16:08

Cockatoos have a habit of perching on the thing and bending stuff, or worse, getting bored and munching thru the coax. Water ingress can slowly cause corrosion of the connections. For some of those combined VHF/UHF antennas, they have a diplexer to join the two bands and the birds can munch that cable also (& water can muck with the cable connections too). Just because it doesn't impact other channels doesn't mean it is still not the reason. The broadcasters send from different locations and at different power levels & frequencies and so guessing why one broadcaster works while the other doesn't is not easy.

prl · Post by **prl** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 16:08

IanB wrote:With the commencement of ABC3 they have changed there encoding scheme to be the same as the commercial stations, this change was to increase the available bandwidth and consequently will have decreased the level of forward error correction available slightly. It was done a few weeks before abc3 started.

Also older VHF-H analogue antennas were designed to work best from channel 7 to channel 10. Many still work adequately beyond this range but may have less directionality and be more susceptible to interference at the higher frequencies. Has anyone in the neighbourhood got any new toys.
_

The change also decreased the resistance to errors caused by multipath and signals from multiple SFN transmitters. In Melbourne, you're only on an SFN if all your channels are on UHF (channel number > 28). If you had problems with ghosting on analog, then that's a sign that you have multipath (signal reflections).

SimonB · Post by **SimonB** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 17:30

Okay, I'm not getting anywhere else fast so I will see if I can find an antennae person around that can come before 2011 and that won't rip me off - even if it's only to eliminate that issue.

Cheers,

Simon....

Jan · Post by **Jan** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 18:16

Hi Simon

I'm in Perth Northern suburbs, and no problems here!

Grumpy_Geoff · Post by **Grumpy_Geoff** » Fri Dec 11, 2009 18:42

Jan wrote:Hi Simon

I'm in Perth Northern suburbs, and no problems here!

Same here - Northern suburbs (Marmion) and no problems (although my antenna is only about 4 months old).

SimonB · Post by **SimonB** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 01:26

Thanks guys, I checked a friends STB tonight too, no issues there - so it must be something local to me. All I was after.

Simon....

SimonB · Post by **SimonB** » Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:50

Guys, I fiddled with the antenna connection on the end of the coax last night before gojng out (undid it, unscrewed it and re-assembled it) and it appears to have resolved the problem.

Thanks...

Any other Perth users got ABC reception problems?

Any other Perth users got ABC reception problems?

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