i got a tv for the upstairs bedroom,living room tv runs from telewest

i had my tv running in the bedroom for a few days with no problems, yesterday i thought id try and make it better so -

existing was-- tv ariel on roof cabled into attic "taped" joint then 15 meters of coax (i fitted a plug when i bought the tv -and droped cable through ceiling)

i tried to --fit new tv coax point and box at the "taped joint" in attic, plugged in an extension lead from tv point down to tv approx 3 meters in length,

after that there was no signal,i retuned hardly picked up many chanels and tv screen looked like lots of pixels

i got my basic continuity tester and tested between the centre pin and the outer and i was getting a reading ?? of 4 ohm, a very near dead short ?? surley this shouldnt be a correct reading ??

it did rain the other day and also the ariel has been in for many years

any help appreciated
do i need a new ariel

i checked on the satcure site but cant see much regarding testing a tv ariel
my ariel has the connection box on top,mebae theres water in it ?? or have i blown something in the ariel after cutting the wire

londonman wrote on Nov 10^th, 2011, 6:48pm:


i was thinking that last night after i "fixed" it  

i disconected the cable from the tv point and tested the cable on its own after re stripping the end and still got a reading from centre core to the outer screen ?

i think ive properly fooixed  

A standard TV aerial will present a short when tested with a multimeter.

To test properly you need a signal meter whicg measures gain and signal to noise ratio, not a tool that most sparks would fork out on unless they do aerials quite often.

I would double check all your plugs and joints for shorts (whiskers), and remove as many joints as you can.  If you need to joint, use two F connectors and a coupler.  These make a solid joint rather than a casual one.

Choosing a replacement aerial is not as simple as thinking "bigger the better", if you get an aerial that is too large, you recieve too much signal, and this is worse than too little.  Don't neccessarily go by what you have already - it could have been installed incorrectly already.  And the same goes for looking at the neighbours!  If the street seems to all have the same type/size, then go for it!

f plugs are a doddle to use, and make a good connection, not sure they work that well on low loss crap though.  

I have one of these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FRINGE-2-1-Satellite-TV-Signal-Meter-Finder-Sat-/19037...

worked fine at my house, where there is crap signal.

Lectrician wrote on Nov 11^th, 2011, 9:25pm:


Oh the bliss of decent test gear.  Many many years ago I was a lecturer at the BBC Engineering Training Centre.  What test kit they didn't have, wasn't worth having.  Borrow it for the weekend?  Not a problem!