Sep 18
4
A fault on a large TV aerial system
We were called out the other day to a building that you don’t get to work on every day, it was a castle! The customer had developed a fault on the Freeview TV system and was only getting intermittent reception for the Freeview stations. On inspection our engineer was unable to locate the TV aerial as it was such a large building so off he had to go following cables back to the start of the system. Once the aerial was located it was then a case of following them back again to locate the TV distribution amplifier.
Checking the signal with a meter
Once our engineer had located the Freeview aerial and the amplifier he had to then go about taking signal readings to try and find out what was causing the loss of reception, this was done by working back through the system and by a process of elimination working out what part of the TV system was faulty and then replacing or repairing the problem.
Repairing the faulty TV amplifier
After diagnosing the fault the engineer traced the problem back to a faulty amp, but the problem was it was located above a bathroom in a very small and very old loft space, so it was on with the dust mask and up he went to change the faulty part. On inspection it was discovered that rain water had been tracking down the inside of the aerial coax cable and this had damaged the amplifier. The engineer changed the amp and then had to rewire the system coax cable from the aerial back into the loft to the TV booster.
Checking signals and re-tuning
Once all the work was completed it was time to check all the signal levels from the loft space and at the TV in the lounge of the castle. It was found that everything was back to normal but a few of the Freeview channels were missing, so a quick re-tune of the TV and everything was as good as new. The customer was happy with the repair to the TV system and the price we charged, so payment was completed and a written guarantee was issued.
