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Hard to locate OTA problem , SOLVED !

1534 Views 9 Replies 7 Participants Last post by kenglish, Nov 13, 2010

pixeltricks

Discussion Starter · Nov 9, 2010

I just installed a new preamp on the antenna and ran a new cable to my tv. No channels. I thought the power was the problem, measured power at the antenna going to the amp, 18vdc. Removed all the cables and looked for problems with connectors and got some channels but very low signal constantly dropping out. I thought maybe the cable is bad. Went to unscrew the connector from the tv and the channel came in perfect, 97 signal strength . Take hand off connector and lose signal. Now my mind is thinking maybe it is some grounding issue. So I check the outside ground block grounding, nope that is good to.

I was lost, it just didn't make sense. I had done everything I could think of so I started to put the tv back straight on the stand and put everything back in its place on the shelf . The signal came back at 97. It was the base for the cordless phone. When I was moving cables around I had sat it on the same shelf with the tv. Moving it near the tv made the tv lose channels, take it away and the tv was fine. As long as I keep it about 2 feet away the tv gets everything perfect. The reason the signal came back when my hand was touching the connector is because my arm was going between the phone and the tv blocking the signal from the phone.

This is a GE phone , one of the DECT 6.0 models. A good phone just keep it from near your tv or you will not get OTA .

Now I'm going to go get something to drink and cool off.

Hope this helps out someone else !

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kenglish

· #2 · Nov 9, 2010

One more of those things that we are finding cause interference to DTV (and other) signals. I think that sort was mentioned in the report Gary Sgrignoli sent me, highlighting some of their "field test" findings.

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arxaw

· #3 · Nov 9, 2010

Folks often come to AVS with reception difficulties and several posters often suggest that they turn off everything else in the house, to rule out interference from other devices in the house.

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pixeltricks

Discussion Starter · #4 · Nov 9, 2010

I was thinking later that this could be a problem for a lot of people having issues. I never would have thought of it because the frequency that the phone uses is much higher than the DTV signals. Then there are people that are using wireless connections from their bluray players to the network. I wonder how many of those are interfering with OTA .

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Jedi Master

· #5 · Nov 9, 2010

Congrats.

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kmueller44

· #6 · Nov 9, 2010

I've been trying to get better OTA reception as our dish service is going to be cancelled as of the 12th. We've had enough of the 70/month payments! I only get a couple of channels with an amplified indoor antenna. Could my troubles be from my wireless router sitting right behind the TV?

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deltaguy

· #7 · Nov 10, 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmueller44

It could be. It could also be the television. The average indoor antenna comes with a coax of around 6 feet. From my experience, this is not long enough to escape interference from a plasma set. If you're having problems, particularly VHF ones, you need to use a longer cable in order to escape the interference.

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arxaw

· #8 · Nov 10, 2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by kmueller44

Uh, yep.

Move the router to another room and move the antenna away from any electronic wireless stuff giving off radio waves. See reply to your other post for details.

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hasan

· #9 · Nov 10, 2010

Quote:
Originally Posted by pixeltricks /forum/post/19457501

I was lost, it just didn't make sense. I had done everything I could think of so I started to put the tv back straight on the stand and put everything back in its place on the shelf . The signal came back at 97. It was the base for the cordless phone. When I was moving cables around I had sat it on the same shelf with the tv. Moving it near the tv made the tv lose channels, take it away and the tv was fine.

Now I'm going to go get something to drink and cool off.

Hope this helps out someone else !

There's a very good chance that the real culprit is the wall wart that power the phone, not the phone itself. They have very noisy switching power supplies that many times are very poorly filtered. If you have anything powered by a wall wart, it pays to see if it is a switching power supply (nearly all cell phones and many house phones are).

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kenglish

· #10 · Nov 13, 2010

Quote:
Originally Posted by hasan /forum/post/19467721

There's a very good chance that the real culprit is the wall wart that power the phone, not the phone itself. They have very noisy switching power supplies that many times are very poorly filtered. If you have anything powered by a wall wart, it pays to see if it is a switching power supply (nearly all cell phones and many house phones are).

Or, even better, get RID of the switched-mode wall wart, and get a plain old linear power supply (they say something like "117 Volts 50/60 Hz" on them, where a SMPS says something like "120/240 Volts 50-60 Hz", and doesn't have a switch to change the voltages).

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