Mains interference: Digital TV problems

Dave Ryman · 2006-06-10T13:38:33+00:00

Hi, New to this group. We have the now common set-top box for digital terrestrial TV and radio. We get a lot of intereference: Picture break-up and loud clicks in the sound. Sometimes making a programme unwatchable. We have managed to reduce this: The aerial has been upgraded, and there's a filter on the mains socket supplying the AV equipment. However, we get serious problems when we have a fan running, the washing machine is on, or we run the hot tap (It's one of those that turns on a heater to heat the water as you use it). I'm not sure whether the appliances concerned are generating radio waves, or are spiking the mains supply. From the research I've done, the next step to getting a clean signal is upgrading the aerial cable, filtering the appliances in question, or providing a dedicated (shielded) ring main for the AV equipment. The first and last options are going to be a bit tricky, since the aerial cable is routed in walls and all sorts, and I'm not convinced that a decicated ring main will be cost-effective. Is it possible to put chokes or filters of some sort on the offending appliances? If so, advice on how to do it would be most welcome (240v 50Hz supply).

Jun 10, 2006 103 Replies

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Roy L. Fuchs 20 years ago

On Wed, 21 Jun 2006 02:03:25 -0400, "TimPerry" Gave us:

Your goddamned link should be E-SPAMorama!

It spammed me with pop ups!

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TimPerry 20 years ago

it was not intentional Roy, i use a proxy server to block pop-ups and banners (proxomitron) so i had no idea it would do that.

the site does have a visual drawing of the balun arangements i was discussing.

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Roy L. Fuchs 20 years ago

On Wed, 21 Jun 2006 20:08:49 -0400, "TimPerry" Gave us:

I know it's hard to tell, but I was just being facetious... :-]

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Roy L. Fuchs 20 years ago

On Sun, 18 Jun 2006 19:03:34 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@apaflo.com (Floyd L. Davidson) Gave us:

It's flawed logic.

Man has made certain precise toys...

Volt meter to measure volts... Imagine that...

dB meter to measure dB... Imagine that... :-]

Power in... power out... Total number of downstream ports...

Power at each port... An accounting for internal drops...

a little math... VIOLA! Insertion loss!

Doesn't get much simpler, eh!

Instead of thinking about breaking a line to "insert" a device, think of it as being added at the end of a line. One MUST start with the power available at that line end as the reference.

I can't see why he is missing it.

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