Signal Strength

Customer Information

DTV Reception Trouble Shooting Guide

The signal received may be too poor to allow the digital receiver to find some or all available channels.

Your old antenna may not be designed to receive all DTV channels.

Antenna reception performance has deteriorated due to weathering, corrosion of antenna connections / cabling and broken elements.

If you live within 5-10Km of DTV transmission towers, a combined VHF/UHF antenna should be adequate. Outside this area, separate VHF and UHF antennas provide superior reception performance.

Depending on DTV signal conditions, some installations may instead require a VHF/UHF masthead amplifier.

In a shared antenna system the existing Master Antenna TV (MATV) system may have been originally designed for analogue PAL TV only, and may require a substantial upgrade or replacement to also carry DTV signals. Please consult your Body Corporate.

For your safety any external antenna should be installed by a reputable qualified installer and should comply with Australian Standard AS1417.1.

Some channels display ‘No Signal’ or ‘Loss of Signal’

Received signal is “too weak” (i.e.; poor quality) to generate a stable picture. Please check antenna & cabling or contact your local TV antenna installer.

There are some towns and regions in Australia that cannot yet receive digital television. In some towns and regions not all broadcasters have commenced their digital services.

Picture regularly breaks up on some channels

The received signal may be too weak to allow the digital TV receiver to reliably “lock” to the desired signal and generate a stable picture. Please check antenna & cabling or contact your local TV antenna installer.

Impulse Noise

Interference from household appliances such as fluorescent lights, refrigerators, washing machines, electric stoves etc may cause pictures to break up and audio to mute or distort momentarily

In the first instance, replace antenna fly-lead with a quality RG6 or RG59 Quad Shield 75 ohm coaxial cable fly lead. If problem persists, check / improve antenna & cabling or contact your local TV antenna installer. The possible cause could be poor quality coaxial cable installed in the walls or ceiling picking up impulse noise. This coaxial cable will need to be replaced with quad shield.

A masthead amplifier may be “over-boosting” the antenna signal, which is overloading the DTV tuner, resulting in poor reception on some or all channels.

Picture very infrequently breaks up on some or all channels

Electrical atmospheric interference caused by local or distant lighting storms or heavy rain with wind in “leafy” locations may cause pictures to break up and audio to mute or distort momentarily.

Impulse noise interference from an infrequently used electrical appliance, or a passing vehicle or lawn mower with a “noisy” ignition system.