tv booster - wolsey wps100/1

[beaneyboy]

hi, when I moved into my new house a tv engineer said I had a poor signal/reception. He recommended an aerial booster at £25 which he installed -a Wolsey wps100/1 . I get great tv reception except when we use a mobile phone/text etc as it affects this booster and then we get poor reception/picture on tv. Has anyone else had this problem as everything seems connected correctly. I asked engineer about problem and he blamed tv which not true as I have tried other tvs and no improvement. Anyone got any ideas, many thanks davey.

 

[ChrisFrost]

Mobile phones shouldn't interfere with TVs or aerial boosters unless they aren't properly screened or earthed. However, phones can cause the aerial to lose a bit of sensitivity. If you are watching Freeview and have poor reception already then this can be enough to knock out the signal temporarily.

The aerial booster you have is a two part device. The thing that says Wolsey wps100/1 is just the power supply. There is (or should be) a second box mounted up somewhere near the aerial. That's the bit that does the boosting.

OK, three bits of good news... 1) You've got the best type of aerial booster. 2) Wolsey is a decent enough brand. There are no horror stories about quality or reliability 3) You paid about the right money for the product

If you are still having problems then there is one thing to try that might help before considering some work on the aerial. However, it might not be practical if the booster is not accessible. What you'd do is provide an earthing link to the outer shield of the aerial cable just as it enters the booster. This is on the bit of aerial wire from the aerial to the booster box. If that means getting up on the roof then it's clearly a no-no.

If you have a loft aerial then the earthing link might still help, but putting it on the roof would be far better.

Other solutions include a better aerial; taller aerial mast or aligning on to a seconary transmitter where the path isn't so blocked by terrain or buildings.

You could look at switching to Freesat (freeview but with a satellite dish & box), but that means your Freeview tuner TVs would all need receiver boxes too at £50-£100 each so it can get expensive and impractical.