Another freeview question

[cameo]

I have a portable tv in my kitchen and at christmas bought a freeview box. I connected it up just using the portables own aerial. Everything worked fine, recieved all the channels and the picture was perfect.
On Wednesday this all changed, lost most of the channels. I re-scanned the digi-box, only got five or six channels. Did this a few times and eventually got most of the channels back on the list, not E4, CH5, FIVE US or FIVE life.
Even though they appear on the list, a lot of them still have no picture and it says 'no signal'.
My question is this - If it was working ok is it possible that my neighbours have moved something next door and this is affecting the signal I receive? (Our house i joined to theirs and my TV is right next to the joining wall?
Or is it just a case that my little aerial needs replacing?
We do have a digi-box in another room and that is still fine by the way.
Sorry about the length of this question, thought I would explain everything fully!!!

[Buenchico]

All sorts of things can affect the signal strength your aerial receives. As you state, it's possible that your neighbours might have moved something inside their house. Or either you, or they, might have plugged in a device which is causing electrical interference to an already weak signal. (All electrical devices emit electromagnetic radiation. Simply plugging in a new printer, or even a fridge, could cause the problem).

Additionally, nature can play some strange tricks. Sometimes a tree coming into leaf can be sufficient to interrupt the path between the transmitter and your TV. The time of year can also make a difference. (The height of the reflective layer of the atmosphere, which bounces radio waves, changes between day and night. As days get longer, the reception of radio signals can change. Even if the signal you require isn't directly affected, other signals which interfere with and weaken your signal might be altered).

Lastly, sunspots on the surface of the sun have a significant effect on radio communications on earth. They come and go on an 11-year cycle and are often responsible for 'unexplained' reception problems.

All of that simply means that you're right. You do need to replace your aerial. However, you're obviously in quite a good reception area because most people can't get any digital signal from a portable aerial. There's quite a good chance that you could use the same aerial as your other digi-box uses. You simply need to put a splitter box in the cable and run a new cable to your kitchen.

Chris

[cameo]

Wow! What a brilliant answer!

Thanks. I'll pop out and but a new aerial tomorrow!!

[matt1e]

I agree a good answer and it saved me typing loads :-) one more thing tho, give it a couple of days, the transmitter could be just on reduced power for maintenance

[Confab]

In addition to the excellent answers above try unplugging everything checking the connections and re-plugging it all back in. something simple like a coax wire becoming loose could cause the problem.

[pug100]

Best place for checking reception problems is here,
BBC Reception

http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/transmitters/in dex.shtml