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Had a nice time on the roof today fixing our TV reception. I couldn't work out why our TV reception was so poor. We have an external antenna in the house we're in at the moment. The problem was twofold. The antenna was connected to a different outlet in the house, not the outlet in the lounge room and the antenna was pointing in the wrong direction!
The first time I got on the roof I checked the connection of the cable to the antenna's balun. It was OK but the connector (an F-Connector) was shoddily done. Instead of being crimped with a crimping tool, this connector had been fitted with a pair of pliers or something, it wasn't round or hex crimped, just crushed. So I took the tape off the mast to release the cable, draped the cable over the gutter and fitted a new connector. I then wanted to test the cable for continuity. For that I needed to make sure it wasn't plugged into the TV. I noticed that the type of cable coming out of the floor in the lounge room (no socket, just a cable out of the floor... yay) was a different type to that which is coming down the antenna mast. So I ended up cutting the connector I fitted off anyway to get the baluns rubber boot back off the cable.
I remembered noticing a stub of coax that had been cut off poking out the side of the chimney cover. I went to check that out next, but dropped the damn thing down the chimney! Luckily it was pretty rigid and folded on it's self in an 'S' shape touching the sides, halting it's descent. I just reached in and grabbed it. I then taped it with a long piece of tape to the mast so it didn't happen again.
The little stub of coax didn't actually reach out of the chimney so I had to terminate it with an F-Connector (Properly crimped!) and then use a joiner and fly lead. I sealed the lot up with tape and connected the fly lead to the antennas balun. The connectors I used were different to what was on there. The type I used were weatherproof. They have a rubber 'O' ring in the bottom of the screw thread to seal the cable end and on the crimp end they are injected with some sort of grease which forms a seal on the other end when you force the cable in.
I drew a map and got the bearing to the ABC transmission towers from here. I copied that line onto my map and voila. I borrowed a compass off Dad and oriented it. I climbed onto the roof and pointed the antenna parallel with my ABC towers line. The nuts on the U-Bolts on the bottom end of the mast weren't budging, so I had to reach up and loosen the U-Bolt on the antenna and rotate it that way which was a bit precarious as I had to use both hands and lean on the chimney.
I don't know how (or if) the other neighbors TV are working. The two neighbors either side have archaic, bent and cracked antenna elements and they aren't pointing in the right direction anyway. Most people in the street must have cable or something because not many others have antennas.
The reception is now flawless! I'm really pleased. It should also do well for my digital tuner card in the home theater PC.
I also started building a shelf in the garage. I ran out of screws though 