Just moved house, poor TV reception in living room. Can I move aerial signal booster?

[kissinger]

The house we've just moved into has TV aerials in the room at the front of the house and the room at the back. We want to use the back room as a living room, but we can't get any TV signal. The room at the front of the house however has great reception, because it's got a Wolsey WSM100/1 signal booster! Can I move that signal booster to the back room to improve the reception there? And if so, how does it work?

 

[JP_]

Try it - if you mean the booster is plugged into the TV.
Maybe the rear connection was damaged at some point and not been used?

 

[winston1]

TV aerials are supposed to be on the roof not in the room. If you use an aerial in a room it may work near a transmitter on the side of the house facing the transmitter but not on the side of the house away from the transmitter.

Boosters on indoor aerials are a waste of time, money, and electricity. They are designed to go at the top of a long run of cable to overcome the cable loss.
I'd wager a months salary that your booster won't work in the back room. You cannot boost what is not there.

Don't mess about, get an aerial fitted on the roof or possibly in the loft.

 

[kissinger]

Sorry I mistyped. I meant that there are coax cables going to a roof aerial on both rooms, but the signal booster is in the ‘wrong’ room.

 

[Lucid]

The house we've just moved into has TV aerials in the room at the front of the house and the room at the back. We want to use the back room as a living room, but we can't get any TV signal. The room at the front of the house however has great reception, because it's got a Wolsey WSM100/1 signal booster! Can I move that signal booster to the back room to improve the reception there? And if so, how does it work?

Google doesn't recognise "Wolsey WSM100" or even just "Wolsey WSM", so unless you can post an image of its product label then I'm going to take a guess that what you've got is a Wolsey WPS100/1. Here's an image of one. Does yours look something like this?

If it does, then this isn't a booster but a power supply for a booster that's up on the roof or in the loft if that's where your aerial lives. Don't worry, lots of people mistake these things for setback signal 'boosters'. What it's actually doing is sending a low voltage power signal up the aerial cable so that the amp near the aerial doesn't need to be plugged in to the mains.

The reason then why you've got good signal at the front of the house is because of the masthead amp which is powered by what you think of as a booster. The thing up near the aerial looks something like this when the cover is raised

When the weather-proof cover is down it just looks like a box about 5" wide x 6" tall (13cm x 15cm) with some aerial cables connected to it. The one you see in the image above has an input for a TV aerial and four outputs. They do some with 6 outputs as well, so models vary but they all work with the same power supply.

The important bit of information here is that there are multiple outputs. That means if it was installed to serve all the TV points in your home then the room at the back of the house should also be connected. That means it should get just as good a signal as the front of the house. The fact that you have no reception there suggest that either it's not connected, or there's a problem with the wiring/aerial plug/aerial socket that's stopping the signal getting through.

*** In simpler terms, moving the "booster" won't fix your reception issues. ***

The way digital TV signals work, old style boosters are pretty-much useless in most cases anyway. As @winston1 says, you can't boost what's not there.


How to troubleshoot your installation

• Depending on whether you have a bit of aerial coax coming thorough the wall with a coax plug attached, or you have a wall socket:-

• (coax lead) check the fitting of the attached plug. They can work loose or have been poorly fitted. Open up the plug and make sure none of the little wire filaments for the shielding are touching the centre core. Make sure too that there's at least 1/2" (1cm) of bare core protruding clear of the braid and the claw that's holding it. Reassemble the plug and then test
• (wall socket) remove the wall plate and check the wiring is still intact. Be sure that there are no little filaments of the braided shield touching any metal parts for the core or its screw-down holder. Have a look to see if the core wire is still intact and hasn't snapped or the screw holding it hasn't worked loose. Reassemble and test

• Where there's still no signal, see if you can trace the coax going up to the aerial. This is obviously easier if the cable comes in from outside. Are you able to verify it connects to the masthead amplifier box?

• (new builds) I've been to new builds where all the cables have been run in-wall up to the loft, but where a previous owner has only had certain cables attached to the aerial or splitter. Others lie buried under the insulation which may have been boarded over, It can take a bit of investigation to find
• (older properties) Depending on the age of the property older cables may have been damaged or come out of their sockets if not properly connected. Other times a previous home owner might have had some TV points connected but not others for whatever reason. Until someone has a proper look at it then everything with a remote diagnoses is simply going through through the most common causes

You may hit lucky and find it's just a loose plug or wire. Always eliminate the simple stuff first. If you've done the basics then you know that calling out a local aerial installer is going to be the right move next.

 

[winston1]

When you are checking the back room please ensure the power supply in the front room is still connected and switched on.

 

[Lucid]

@kissinger , have you tried any of the advice offered? If so, what was the outcome?

 

[kissinger]

Thanks guys. I fixed it in the end. It was because the signal booster was unplugged. TV back working again!