Losing some Freeview channels during the day.

[flobadob]

For some reason I am losing some Freeview channels for a while during the day then they are back for the evening an night time. Namely they are ITV, Channel 4, C4+1, Channel 5, More 4, E4 and some others. I've got an aerial in the attic which is split 3 ways and the problem is occuring on the 3 tvs at the same times.

However, just to complicate matters, at one of the tvs I've got a DVD recorder with built in Freeview and the channels work through it even when it doesn't work through the Freeview boxes at the other tvs. Anyway I was just wondering would an aerial distribution unit help or perhaps if I slightly adjust the aerial could that make a difference?

[Buenchico]

The height of the radio-reflective layer of the Earth's ionosphere changes according to the time of day. (It's higher at night). Additionally radiation directly from the sun (which can block reception of radio & TV signals) is only present during the day. Those factors affect the reception of TV signals by your aerial. (A lot of other things can also affect the strength of signals arriving at your aerial. They include weather conditions, atmospheric pressure, the 11-year sunspot cycle and individual solar flares). If your aerial isn't really up to the job (which it clearly isn't) it will only provide good enough signals at certain times.

Further, different brands of TVs, Freeview boxes and DVD recorders have different 'sensitivities' (i.e. the ability to 'pull in' weak signals). Your DVD recorder has got better sensitivity than your other devices, so it can cope better with weak signals.

You might need to replace your aerial. (If so, replace the cabling as well. Modern cables, designed specifically for UHF TV signals, have lower signal losses than older cables). However a cheap signal booster between the aerial and the splitter unit might fix the problem.

Chris

[flobadob]

Wow, did not realise all that malarky played a part in reception. The aerial I bought was a high gain one from Argos and cost about £35 so don't think that is an issue. However if the problem persists I might try a booster and see if that helps. I see one for £16, again in Argos, I might try that one out. Thanks for the detailed info.