News

I've been made aware of the possible activation of a mobile phone mast in Crowle near Worcester.

I believe this mast may have been switched on sometime yesterday morning (Thursday 14th of February)

Due to Crowles rural location and it's distant position relative to TV transmitters many households use UHF TV mast head amplifiers to receive a satisfactory TV picture.

It's these amplifiers that are amplifying the 4G signal from the masts resulting in either poor TV reception or often NO reception at all if the mast is in close proximity.

My advice, as always is to call at800 if you believe that your TV reception problem is a direct result of the activation of a mast.

at800 - 0808 131 3800

Just in case at800 are unaware of a particular mast activation (see my news item below dated 28th March 2018) or they are unable to help within a reasonable period of time then please don't hesitate to contact me direct.

I'm often able to attend on the same day......Sunday included!

Jeremy - 075210 46629

Due to the recent high winds we've had over the past few days I was called out to this TV Aerial at Offerton farm near Droitwich on Saturday 9th of February 2019.

The following news item is taken from my Cowboys & Bodgers gallery.

Location - Offerton near Droitwich

Complaint - Sudden loss of all TV channels.

Fault - This particular fault is not over common as I only attend to a few each year but I do see many more potential problems while on my travels around the county.

PVC tape or occasionally plastic cable ties combined with a installer ignorance / incompetence is the primary reason for the loss of channels.

Firstly plastic cable ties should never be used to hold a TV coax to a pole.
Sunlight / UV light will make them brittle long before anything else needs to be replaced, allowing the coax to eventually swing in the wind, as can be seen in my photo above.

In this case it was PVC tape (industry standard) that was used.
Normally the tape will last as long as the Aerial, in this case perhaps as much as
40 to 50 years but because this particular installer was tight or possibly ignorant he only passed the tape around the pole once.

Sunlight will soon degrade this single layer of tape which in turn will allow the coax to come loose and flap in the wind, eventually snapping the soft copper inner core inside the dipole cap, as can be seen in my photo above.

Remedy - If the tape had have been passed around the pole by a minimum of 2 or 3 times then this TV Aerial could have gone on for another 5 to 10 years or so.

As this particular TV Aerial was an old grouped type and not efficient at receiving some of the lesser watched TV channels it was decided to upgrade to a wide band Digital type while I was there.