Confused regarding TV aerial wiring in rented accomodation

[graines]

Just recently my girlfriends television picture has took a turn for the worst. We have tried all the obvious - simple ways to see if we could correct this i.e. booster, new internal antenna etc etc all with no joy.

We got in contact with the tenant and he stated that they could send someone out but if it turned out to be fault of our equipment there would be a call out fee. He also suggested that the antenna was in the loft.

So this is where the confusion is...I went up into the loft and located a brown coax lead coming up from the lounge - ok that makes sense, i followed the brown lead to what seems to be a junction box. Also at the junction box there is 2 heavy duty coax leads going into it and also a white coax lead. i traced the white lead which seems to disappear down the other far corner of the loft and the two heavy duty leads seems to run from the joining neighbours. there are no outside antennas. Also upon further inspection of the junction box the plate to which the coaxial leads are screwed to is split, cracked, broken down the middle! would this effect the picture? Also the other confusing part was when i unscrewed all the leads the picture on the television didn't change!! but it did if i wiggled the leads when they were plugged in!!

Sorry for the long story but it has left me rather confused! hope someone can shed some light on the wiring diagram or what i could do to improve the picture! thank you

 

[rebuke]

Are you a mid-terrace house - it sounds like there might be one aerial shared between a whole set of houses?

A picture of the junction box would probably be useful if you have a digital camera. Also, I assume when you say "We got in contact with the tenant" you mean the landlord - presumably you are the tenant?

What would probably be easiest in your situation is find a friend with a TV that you can borrow briefly, try that on the aerial, if that still has a bad picture, then get the landlord to sort it (as at that point you know it's not your equipment)...

 

[graines]

lol, yeah sorry i meant landlord!!

We live in a mid terrace yes.

Heres a rough diagram of what the junction box looks like -

Untitled

• graines
• 8 Jan 2009
• 1

The crack is what concerns me - i'm not sure whether this would effect the picture!

we have recently changed the tv and that had no effect - same poor picture. Thanks for your help.

 

[rebuke]

I would guess (without seeing it it's difficult to tell for sure), that one of the thicker cables is aerial in from the previous property, the other is aerial out to the next, and the brown and white are feeds to within your house (the brown one you know about, the white probably appears in another room somewhere).

If the thick cable on the right in your diagram is aerial in, then depending on exactly what's cracked (if it's just plastic it's probably fine, if it has metal tracks on the board for the signal then that's bad), then it could be you have a break between the aerial in, and the rest of the connections, so obviously it wouldn't work.

I'd suggest getting your landlord in to take a look (mention you've seen a junction box in the loft which appears to have a crack in it)...

 

[graines]

thanks very much for your help - the bit which got me was the fact that when all the leads were unplugged there was still a picture downstairs!!

The cracked material seems to be a fibre glass type / metal material! - thanks for your assisitance!

 

[rebuke]

Cabling can act as a bit of an aerial, so if you're in a reasonably strong signal area the cable itself probably picked up some of it...

 

[graines]

do you know what would be the specific term for that junction box? just in case i need to buy one?

thanks

 

[electronicsuk]

The plate to which the cables are wired is probably some form of PCB, if it's cracked then that certainly explains your poor reception. This part may be a splitter or a tap, we don't have enough information to say for sure. I suspect it'll be a tap as you have large trunk coax and the smaller cables to the local sets, but there are many variations of tap available so it isn't such a simple part to swap.

Anything you change, if not done properly, may also affect the signal at your neighbours TV sets. As this is the case, it would be best for you to call a specialist.