I found a "Masthead Amplifier"in the loft

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• chrisjr Posts: 33,282

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  11/09/13 - 01:04 #2

  If it is a masthead amplifier then it will more than likely have been powered by a PSU plugged into one of the outlets in one of the rooms. The PSU feeds DC volts up the cable to the amp. Some amps can be powered from any outlet and some only on one specific outlet.
  
  A random example of the breed...
  
  http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/displayProduct.jsp?sku=AP01086
  
  It might also be worth while checking out the connectors on the amp and checking as much of the cable run as you can for signs of damage. And if possible give the aerial a once over.

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• Nigel Goodwin Posts: 58,465

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  11/09/13 - 01:18 #3

  Patchthedog wrote: »

  Our house has a terrestrial(for analogue TV)arial,we often had poor reception so many years ago we went to Sat+dish,in the loft there is a box that has 4 coaxial cables leading from it,I guess there is one to the arial,3 to room outputs(I can see one in 3 different rooms).There appears to be no power supply,should there be?I want to try to use one of the outputs for freeview but there is no signal from any of the sockets on the walls

  
  Assuming it's a powered splitter (not a masthead amp) then it could be powered from a Sky box, assuming you have one?.
  
  An entire industry was created by the Sky 'magic eye' system, with line power splitters that pass magic eye signals through them, and get power from a Sky box.

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• fozzi Posts: 1,385

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  11/09/13 - 16:15 #4

  Some tvs have the option to send dc power up to the aerial. Have a look in your tv menus and see if there is this option. It is worth a shot.

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• grahamlthompson Posts: 18,486

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  11/09/13 - 16:40 #5

  It's very possible that whoever had the property first disconnected and took away the little box behind the TV, not realising that without the box on the other end of the coax it's useless
  
  Fortunately masthead amp power supplies are pretty universal, if the OP doesn't have one in a TV/Settop box any one should sort the problem.
  
  The OP could disconnect the aerial input to the amp and connect it to one of the outputs. If that works it's entirely possible that post dso it could be replaced with a passive splitter.

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• N.Dean Posts: 1,691

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  11/09/13 - 17:56 #6

  grahamlthompson wrote: »

  It's very possible that whoever had the property first disconnected and took away the little box behind the TV, not realising that without the box on the other end of the coax it's useless ....

  
  This is quite common. The person moving out thinks they are removing their amplifier. In fact, they are removing a power supply ( which is probably no use to them ), while leaving an amplfier, which is no use to the people moving in.

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• Nigel Goodwin Posts: 58,465

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  11/09/13 - 18:30 #7

  N.Dean wrote: »

  This is quite common. The person moving out thinks they are removing their amplifier. In fact, they are removing a power supply ( which is probably no use to them ), while leaving an amplfier, which is no use to the people moving in.

  
  Yes, it's something we see all the time, and historically they tended to be wired in the same mains plug as the TV so weren't 'simple' to separate.
  
  It's a very common phone call - "Hello, I've just moved in and can't get my TV to work"

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• ProDave Posts: 11,398

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  12/09/13 - 20:46 #8

  So you got Sky because you had poor terrestrial reception.
  
  But all you really needed was the power supply box for the amplifier.
  
  Never mind. I hope you don't feel too cheated.

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• albertd Posts: 14,355

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  14/09/13 - 14:15 #9

  Patchthedog:
  
  Have you managed to resolve this? It would be nice to know.

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