Get Connected

03/11/2023

13/05/2023

Another busy week this week with various signal faults. Called out to a lovely area in Hermitage to a customer I first saw 14 years ago. They called saying they were losing channels and could I take a look. Upon inspection of the dish I had put up all them years ago I found it was very corroded and the LNB was in this state. New dish and LNB and all signals were working again around the house.
Another client called who had been recommended to call me as they were still losing channels after another company had been out to her. When I arrived I found her aerial was mounted on her neighbours adjoining property and the cable, with a join in it, was laid inside a gutter that ran across both houses. I took some readings and found an aerial would work quite adequately in the loft position so fitted a latest Antiference Ltd gpK aerial with an Antiference remote powered distribution unit and with a bit of calibration perfect signals were restored. I then took down the aerial off her neighbours property and all the water damaged cable laying in the gutter.
More happy happy customers this week.
If you’re experiencing problems with your TV or WiFi signals then give me a call

09/05/2023

Called out by a frequent customer of mine to take a look at a family members aerial as the pictures were breaking up more and more. I found this old aerial was pointed towards IOW South transmitter and the readings were poor even after the amplifier. Taking some signal readings with my test aerial I found the Mendip transmitter was a much stronger alternative but the client wanted the South so that’s what I managed to get for them. The South transmitter works on 2 different polarities in this area so I fitted the latest Vision group K aerial on a vertical polarity about 2ft higher then their previous aerial and distributed the signal with the latest Antiference low noise and 4G/5G filtered amplifier as I think the old splitter was a bit outdated 😂 Excellent signal results and perfect pictures restored

09/05/2023

Work has been busy these past couple of weeks with clients wanting aerials and TV installs before the weekends celebrations. Some examples shown in the pictures and on one in particular I had to come up with a makeshift access solution to get across a fragile roof gap safely.
More happy customers this week receiving perfect pictures again

27/04/2023

Been a bit quiet recently aerial wise but a nice little loft install carried out here on a new annexe. Latest Antiference GP K Log Periodic aerial and Wolsey distribution amp feeding 4 points. All signals calibrated to give perfect pictures to each outlet. Sorted the Wifi connections out to while I was there as a quick scan on my meter showed the Wifi was going to struggle to get from the main house to the annexe so a TPLink powerline kit was a easy quick fix to sort the issue.
If your TV pictures or wifi are causing trouble then I can quickly trace the problem and come up with a solution with top quality parts

27/04/2023

So how did your retunes go yesterday? Did you get any messages on screen? Continuing from my post a few weeks ago, yesterday (26th April) the terrestrial Freeview BBC HD channels were changed to a regional version mirroring your BBC One West, South or South West SD version on CH1. I’ve had a lot of calls today and found some TVs have retuned themselves, some have put messages up to retune but continued displaying the old BBC One HD and some have just put up a NO SIGNAL message. We were warned different manufacturers equipment will react in different ways to this change as I mentioned in the previous post. Basically I’ve been advising to carry out a full retune and that way you guarantee you are getting the latest and correct channels on the correct numbers. If you’re struggling with retuning then give me a call and I can try talk you through or come out and update all your equipment with latest tuning and software versions.

07/04/2023

More great results this weeks connecting customers to wifi access and sorting out this problem aerial in a loft space. Called to a no signal fault in a bedroom, which the customer had tried to fix themselves, and when I went up into the loft I found lots of damaged cables and the aerial wasn’t even connected! Cut out the damaged cable sections and remade the distribution system. Aligned the aerial for Mendip transmitter, as it was pointing in the wrong direction and signals were really strong so straight forward to calibrate for distributing to the rest of the house.
If you’re experiencing poor TV signals or internet buffering on your wifi streaming then give me a call to see perfect pictures again.

30/03/2023

Another fantastic and varied week helping lots of clients receive great TV pictures again. I was asked to setup a new TV for a long standing client this week and as soon as I walked in the room I could see the TV they had purchased wasn’t going to fit on their cabinet as the feet on the new set were positioned at each end as is common these days. I ordered in a stand, which arrived the next day, that converts the TV to a central foot which enabled my clients to keep the existing cabinet. Annoyingly I forgot to take a picture of the front but you can see the idea. These stands are height adjustable and some versions have a swivel facility also which is another feature modern TV stands seem to have lost.
More happy clients this week so if you are watching TV with a poor picture or keeps disconnecting from your wifi then give me a call to discuss how I can help.

22/03/2023

Date for your diary.
You may of seen in the news about the terrestrial Freeview BBC HD channels finally switching to regional variants the same as satellite and cable users have had for a while. In this area we mainly receive our Freeview signals from Mendip West, Stockland Hill South West and Rowridge South transmitters. These transmitters will be switching over on Wednesday April 26th to the new HD regional services. Once the rollout has been finalised across the UK the HD and SD channels may move to new channel number depending on your equipment. Users with TV equipment newer than 2020 will probably have there guide populated by CLM internet update instead of the older over the air update so your BBC HD channels will move from the current 101, 102 etc channels to the more user friendly channel numbering 1, 2, 3, 4 etc and the standard definition channel versions will be block moved to channels above 601. Users with older equipment and non CLM equipment will still have their BBC HD channels as they are now starting at ch101. Basically there’s going to be 2 channel guide listings depending on what equipment you have. If you’re unsure what equipment you have you can look at CBBC on ch201. If it is the HD version then you have CLM equipment. If its still SD and CBBC HD is on ch204 then your equipment is not CLM compatible. Older SD only TVs and boxes will not be affected by any changes and their channel list will remain the same.
The transmitter signals are not changing just the channel numbering so a retune shouldn’t be required but from experience some equipment may need to be retuned. If you find you lose your channels or they are appearing on the wrong numbers then do a retune and that should restore lost channels and put them on the correct channel number. Any problems or questions then you can always call or message me for help.
Andrew
Get Connected Digital Services

20/03/2023

I think I found the fault post to start the week off. Just some of the things I find on a regular basis when attending a signal fault call out. I especially thought the clothes peg and electrical connector was a nice touch by someone 😂
If you’re watching TV with a poor picture then call or message me to discuss how I can help you to have clear pictures again

11/03/2023

Some pics from a couple of interesting jobs I‘ve attended this week. I was called out to a satellite signal fault which I found the dish was being blocked by a tree that had grown up over the years. Using a satellite locator app I can check for obstructions easily. Moving the dish 20 foot along the wall I could get a clear line of sight past the tree and signals were restored.
Another nice result was with a Netgear mesh system a customer had been given and was having trouble setting up. I was recommended to visit them and see if I could get it going. After eventually finding out the login information to the device I could see it was set to router mode when there was already a BT router in place. The router is what provides all the IP addresses to your devices so having 2 routers will cause miscommunication as devices will be directed all over the place on your network. I reset the Netgear Orbi to Access Point mode only as this was to be used as a mesh wifi access system all over the house. I turned off the wifi on the BT router so the customer didnt have to keep changing their devices to different networks and the Orbi had a much more powerful transmitter to reach further into the house. Strong signals were now available around the house on a single unified network. More happy customers this week.

21/02/2023

This is what a signal reading looks like when your old distribution amp shows a power level but has gone open circuit and what your reading should look like when its working and calibrated to the correct output level. Looks like it took me 20 minutes fit a new unit and change all the plugs over from coax to F type 😁

18/02/2023

Some more great results this week helping a customer receive perfect TV signals again. This one had an shop bought aerial put in a loft space as the housing estate had a covenant of no external aerials allowed. Unfortunately the customer had mounted the aerial pointing straight into a brick wall and the mount itself was positioned incorrectly and not really the right type. You can see the meter reading says 36.4db which is way outside the operating window of 45db - 65db and it shows red crosses all the way through the readings meaning no signal was being received from the aerial in the position it was in. I did a survey with the aerial in various points throughout the loft and managed to find I could get a bit more signal power but still not enough to guarantee a reliable signal. I then tried my professional aerial and found that would get the signal into the correct reception power window which I could then distribute to the rest of the house. With a Antiference Ltd distribution unit fitted and calibrated to hold the signal levels, a perfect signal was being received at the TV outlets as you can see from all the green ticks on the meter.
Another happy customer receiving great pictures now.

14/02/2023

Another WiFi access point installed today for a client near Fontmell Magna. I found a standard CAT5E ethernet cable had been run from the main router to an old Netgear 150Mbs access point but it had been laid in the gutter and was very corroded. I ran a new external grade CAT6 cable concealed down behind the drain pipe and along the wall. I mounted a new Antiference Clearflow Air13 1300Mbs access point and set it for a unified SSID so the clients devices can just hop from main router access to the extension access at the other end of the house without having to change network settings. You can see on my Televes WiFi scanner taken at the new location the client had been trying to connect unsuccessfully to the wifi showing in yellow and red where as now they can connect to the wifi access showing in green from the new access point.
More happy customers now connected

11/02/2023

Its been a glorious weather this week and I’ve enjoyed working in the lovely sunshine. More TV setups done helping clients get their new TV equipment connected to the internet and all the various apps signed in. Interesting one pictured here with a client saying their external wireless bridge had stopped working. On inspection the POE power supply wasn’t working. Fitted a new one and still no internet. Inspection of the cable running outside resulted in finding this damage to the cable as it made its way through a hedge. It looks like water had been getting into the cable and running down inside it straight back into the POE power supply. Replaced the cable by rerouting away from the hedge and behind a nearby drainpipe to conceal the external cabling even more and, as per the last picture, remade the connections with proper strain relief boots to tidy up the appearance unlike the original installer who had just left the connectors hanging off the end of the cable.
More happy customers this week

04/02/2023

A busy week again for me which included a repair on an old satellite dish where the window cleaner had snapped the LNB off the end with his ladder. Fortunately I still had some older style LNB collars in my ‘come in handy’ box so saved having to install a completely new dish. Helped a few clients out with setting up new TV equipment and recalibrating signal distributions. Finally I enjoyed taking this old aerial and rigging down from this bungalow and, after a quick survey, installing a new LTE700 aerial in the loft as signals were great in this area. I had to go over the top of the roof ridge and down the other side a bit to get access to cut the aerial and bracketry off the chimney but it was worth it to clean up the outside appearance of the bungalow. I did find I’m still getting a bit old for doing roof work 😂
More happy customers 😁

28/01/2023

A long post here but just wanted to show how I never know what state a system is in when I arrive on a job.

So many things wrong with this system when I arrived to look at a signal fault at a property this week. This family had been putting up with pixelated pictures for a couple of years since the aerial had been put in the loft because the chimney it was on had been taken down. So, what’s wrong here?
1) We don’t really use two separate aerials pointing at two different transmitters any more. Modern TV equipment asks you when tuning what transmitter channel group you want and allocates those channels to the guide. It’s possible to have a second transmitter stored but the guide doesn’t support the extra channels.
2) The red box is a old analogue combiner for combining 2 different transmitter groups together onto a single cable. Problem here is Mendips channels today are ch32-36 and 48. This aerial was connected to the 21-34 group so ch 35,36 and 48 were filtered out. Rowridge transmitter uses channels 21-28 but was connected here to the 39-68 group so no channels were coming through at all! They have then tried to connect 2 cables to the outlet connection in so doing, shorting the signal output to both cables!! As I said , so many things wrong here just on this little red combiner box.
3) The Rowridge aerial was mounted horizontally but in this area it should be mounted vertically as the signal power is much better on that polarity.
After showing the customer all the problems I mounted a new Antiference Ltd Log Periodic aerial as it’s nice and compact and can be tucked away in a loft. It also helps reject impulse noise from traffic on the busy main road outside. I directed this at Rowridge transmitter. Then used a remote powered distribution unit to send the signals to the existing TV points in the house. Calibrated the signal power output to ensure the correct signal levels were coming out at the TV points and finished off by retuning all the TV equipment so the right channels were on the right channel numbers in line with the guide. Another happy customer who has since messaged back reporting they are enjoying their TV viewing again.

21/01/2023

News just in. I‘ve invested in a new analyser to help track down faults and calibrate new installs. This new analyser by Televes can quickly and accurately scan terrestrial and satellite signals like my previous meter did but now I can scan for any wifi access point signals also to help with optimum location placement and interference problems from neighbouring access points. Investing in this sort of technology really helps to quickly track down those awkward interference problems that lesser equipment cannot find.

21/01/2023

Two photos of jobs I attended this week. The first shows the incorrect way to connect a coax cable to the aerial and secondly “I can see the problem straight away”. The first pic shows what I found when I went into the loft to track a signal problem for a customer who had just moved into a new house. The cable looked like it had been prepared with a blunt knife and the outer shielding is supposed to be under the clamp next to the centre core connection. Remade the connection properly and signal was being received from the aerial so no need for a new one. How the previous occupants received any TV is a mystery as this setup certainly wouldn’t of worked.
Second pic shows a very common sight I come across mainly the masthead amplifier has become detached from the mast and is now hanging upside down allowing all the rain water to collect in the box and leave the internal amp sitting in water. I actually found the aerial worked really well so took the damaged masthead amp out and fitted a new amp in the loft to just help distribute signals around the house.
More happy customers this week.

12/01/2023

It’s been consistently wet n windy for a while now and I’m getting lots of enquiries about signal losses during this bad weather. Here’s one of the more extreme cases of water ingress into an aerial distribution with these cables having been lazily left running along a wall inside a gutter. Not an ideal environment for cables to lay in for years and as you can see the outer sheath has rotted away to leave the centre conductors exposed to the elements. All cables removed and new ones installed on a different and correct route to restore signals again for this customer.
If you’re experiencing signal issues, especially during wet n windy weather, then you probably will have a similar problem with water getting into cables, splitter boxes and aerial connections that is shorting out the conductivity of the signal.

19/12/2022

Yep pretty much 😂😂😂

18/12/2022

This picture just popped up on my memories feed today. That’s me circled there waaaaay back in 1989! I would of been 18 years old and just starting shop floor sales after starting as delivery assistant here at Harris and Nash straight out of school in 1987. Seen a lot of advances in technology since them days of setting up a Ferguson TX wood cabinet TV and Videostar VHS recorder. This photo was taken by the Bournemouth Echo when Don Harris (3rd from the left) was celebrating 40 years in business. I can remember setting the window display up with some really really old original valve powered Ekco TVs and Roberts radios. I like the way we had colour TV printed on the side of the van as colour pictures were still something of new technology people were upgrading to similar to today where people are upgrading to 4K, 8K and OLED screen technology.

14/12/2022

How not to distribute your TV signal 😂 Customer called saying they had always had poor reception, with channels often pixelating and could I upgrade the aerial. When I arrived the signal readings were indeed very poor at the TV points, actually I was surprised they had any pictures at all. The aerial outside was fairly modern so decided to investigate the distribution in the loft first before going on the roof to the aerial. Found this novel arrangement of cables twisted and taped together. Taking a reading from the incoming aerial, all was good so it was just the distribution that was poor. New Antiference remote distribution fitted in the loft with signal levels correctly calibrated and perfect pictures displayed on the customers TV sets once again without the need for the aerial to be replaced. Another happy customer 😁

11/12/2022

Nice satisfying job working with a local builder this week. Certainly needed my cable mapper to trace where this spaghetti tangle of cables ran to. Old green tip Group C/D aerial replaced and positioned optimally with the latest Antiference Group K digital aerial for a nice equalised signal reception. The old Labgear distribution amp was also replaced for an Antiference Pro IR amp to control SkyHD pictures sent to 10 TV points. Ethernet switch also mounted in loft to provide internet connection to a new WiFi access point fitted at the opposite end of house to where the main router was and hardwire ethernet outlets behind 2 TV sets for stable catchup TV connnection. Customer was very happy with the clear pictures all around the house.

11/12/2022

As some of you may know I've not been to well over the past year but treatment has been going good and I feel a lot stronger so I'm returning to active duty installing and repairing your aerial, satellite, CCTV and internet network systems. I've invested in some latest very high tech signal analysis and measuring equipment to track down any signal faults, purchased a new modern van fully stocked with parts and topped up my knowledge base while I've been out of action and so I'm raring to go. For those that don't know me I've been servicing all things TV, Satellite, CCTV and internet distribution in this area for the last 17 years bringing my 35 years of TV equipment and reception installation knowledge to my many loyal customers. With the constantly changing way of how we receive our TV entertainment or home working connections I’m always happy to come and have a chat on the best way to receive a stable and reliable connection.

19/04/2021

Lovely views while working in Mapperton last week on fault finding various signal problems. Customer was having work done on their chimney and guttering so opportune time to look at the aerial while scaffolding was up. Found a plastic indoor splitter tucked under a tile. Obviously this is designed to be mounted indoors so it had corroded through. Aerials were old green tip type also so Mendips current transmission frequencies were being filtered out and one of the aerials mounting brackets had rusted so the aerial was only hanging on by the cable. Mounted a new aerial and distribution in the loft. Cable distribution overhauled, calibrated and brought upto date to restore perfect signal around the house. Another very happy customer.

07/02/2021

How far we’ve come. Back in 1986 when I was just finishing school and going into my first YTS work placement at Harris and Nash electrical store I would install TVs like Ferguson TX and ITT. I can remember sets being sold with optional remote control and teletext module upgrades that were fitted out in the workshop. Waiting for the page you wanted to come round then forgetting to hold the page and it would turn to next one and have to wait again 😆