Saturday 13 July 2013

Romanian TV Satellite Installation in Sudbury Suffolk

Start the day with a Satellite installation in Sudbury Suffolk. This was not a Sky installer job but an installation for a Romanian TV. Installed and checked signal was OK. My customer subscribes to the Dolce TV package 
Dish aligned to Hellas Sat 2 at 39 East, just under Sky Dish.
on the Hellas Sat 2 at 39 East and he was able to confirm all his programmes were coming through strong. Apart from Romanian TV other jobs I have for this satellite are  Bulgerian TV and Serbian TV. Peculiarly, there are not many Greek channels on Hellas Sat. In fact I'm only aware of Riksat a Cypriot channel and Sport Plus in the Bulsat package, but no more. 

TV Distribution in Halstead Essex.

This was a recall to a job completed the other week. Customer had called stating that the Sky signal was OK through the distribution system that I had installed during a refurbishment, but the Freeview signal was breaking up.


It was a simple solution. After I had finshed the work and had  left my customer had to move the main TV and boxes in the lounge in order to have new carpets fitted. On reconnection the aerial feed and the return to the loft for signal distribution around the house had got swapped over. Simple 30 second job if you know what you are looking at! Two down and still only 10.30.

Sky Repair in White Colne Essex.

Next job was only ten minutes down the road. My customer had already suspected a tree problem as to why his satellite reception was poor, and he was right. His house was listed and so dish could not be mounted on the house and had to be ground mounted on a patio mount. There was no alternative site, so I had to raise the dish by a couple of feet to clear the top of the tree. My customer is aware that the problem may reoccur in a few years.

Next stop was home for an early lunch or if you prefer a late brunch, before moving on to Bury St Edmunds.

Sky Installation in Barrow near Bury St Edmunds Suffolk.

Actually this was an installation of a new Sky HD box that Sky had supplied my customer with.


My customer also wanted to clear out all of the ‘rubbish’ under his TV (unused VCR's etc.) . So out with it all and in with the shiny new Sky box. Pair my customers Sky card up with his new Sky HD box and program the Sky remote control to operate his Panasonic TV and all done, nearly. He wanted two old aerials removed from each end of his house. First one removed with no incident.
 Next one, ouch, so this is why they say you must wear a hard hat. It’s for when the rusty v bolt snaps and the pole comes down and smacks you in the head.  I can tell you it still hurts even if there is no sense there!


Tuesday 9 July 2013


Freesat repair in Chevington Suffolk:


First job today was in the grounds of Ickworth Park near Bury St Edmunds. The property is at the Chevington end of the grounds where there are masses of trees. This was a Freesat problem, but the trees were not the problem. I don’t think Freeview via a TV aerial would have been very good here as there are trees at nearly 360 degrees around the property. There is one direction where the trees are not quite so high and that is in the direction of 28.2 east of south, the location of the Sky and Freesat satellite.   
The customer had a Freesat+ system and a standard Freesat box. The problem was one feed was not working. On investigation I found a join that was water damaged with corroded connections. Simple solution was to replace cable and after doing so all was well.
I passed a few minutes chatting with customer whilst I finished my tea and then decided to leave via the Horringer exit of the estate.

Sky Box Repairs
This job was fairly quick so had a bit of time to kill.  Decided to return back to the office and repair a couple of Sky boxes that I had swapped out over the previous week.  After fixing these and having some lunch I moved on to my next call in Belchamp Walter for an aerial installation.

TV Aerial Installation in Belchamp Walter Suffolk:

 The customer had been using an amplified set top aerial with a little bit of success but not very reliable. Again there were trees in the vicinity, but nowhere nearly as dense as the job from this morning. As the property was 17th century the customer was keen to not have an external aerial. Up in the roof space, I confirmed the signal quality and strength were fine and agreed to install the aerial in the roof space. In fact I had to fit an attenuator to reduce the signal down by about 15dB.  After completing this I returned TV and checked all was looking good. Customer was cock a hoop with the final result.

Back home and restock van and check jobs booked for tomorrow. It is mainly aerial calls in and around Sudbury. Now to go and enjoy the sunshine that has finally arrived this year.


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