TV Aerial Wall Socket Faulty?

[Neo63]

hi guys. this might seem like a silly question. considering im self taught in alot of tech stuff. but TV aerials etc i know jack about. purely as iv never needed to bother with them till now.

i moved into my flat over a year ago now, and my tv wall socket has never worked for tv at all. i can get FM radio from it but thats it. its a bog standard socket, single female UHF connection. im just looking for tips and maybe see if what i have tried already proves its faulty if no one minds?

my first attempt to rule out the socket itself, i unscrewed the socket from wall, spliced a standard UHF cable at one end, and hard wired it to where the aerial feed connects to the socket, core to core etc. tried tuning my tv still nothing.

so put it all back together, using a different UHF cable, if i pushed it very hard into the socket and kept force on it, i got some channels, not many, the usual bbc rubbish. nothing else. i found this odd as nothing happened when i hard wired it?

getting desparate, as sky's idea of freeview is beyond a joke to me, i bought a high gain indoor freeview aerial. again, this didnt give any channels, even when used with extention leads and hung outside my window. i took the aerial to a friends house and it does work.

i then seen online you can use a multimeter to test if the connection is good. from what i read, once you adjust the meter, when you put the positive probe inside the core female, and the negative touching the outer female connection, the meter should not display any reading at all, according to a site i saw this post on the meter should read 0. but mine didnt? so im unsure if that theory is correct.

my tv is set to scan for digital only channels, so as far as im aware im doing everything right.

finally, my aerial is a communal one, so i cant get to the roof to check the antenna itself, the sky dish and antenna were replaced 7 months ago by a local company and i was told they would need to install a new box in my livingroom wall. but never did come back. i was in all day when the work was done my sky tv was on and it didnt cut off, so im unsure if they have even connected my new feed, if they had then my signal would have been disrupted while they connected it right?? (just a random thaught as iv no idea)

are there any other things i can try to finally eliminate the socket on my wall? or the aerial in the wall itself? or have i answered my own question?

thanks in advance and apologies again for asking something so simple.

 

[Midwest]

Can't quite follow what you saying about the tv socket. I'm no expect on tv aerials etc, but my replying will bump you back up to the top. Have you asked your neighbours, if they are receiving a freeview signal from the communal aerial? If they are, and you are not, then there is something wrong with the connection of your cable between socket and aerial. Can you not ask your landlord to check the cable? Not sure those internal aerials are going to give you a vey good signal, depending on your location etc.

 

[Octopus]

You need a tv aerial man with some decent kit and expertise IMHO

 

[MisterE]

But before I put my hand in my pocket, I'd be asking the landlord / freeholder to confirm the communal aerial is working.

 

[Neo63]

Can't quite follow what you saying about the tv socket. I'm no expect on tv aerials etc, but my replying will bump you back up to the top. Have you asked your neighbours, if they are receiving a freeview signal from the communal aerial? If they are, and you are not, then there is something wrong with the connection of your cable between socket and aerial. Can you not ask your landlord to check the cable? Not sure those internal aerials are going to give you a vey good signal, depending on your location etc.

hi, thanks for your reply, my neighbours have all had new sockets installed in there livingrooms. the company who did it said they would change mine but never did come back to finish the job, iv followed the aerial as far as i can outside and from what i can see mine is still conneted to the aerial antenna. all my neighbours get there tv fine. as i said i have done multimeter test exactly as stated online. which states, when the meter is set, if your aerial connection is good you should not get any reading on the display, it should read simply "0" however mine reads 9.82. im no stranger when it comes to electrics iv worked with and around them most of my life, but tv aerials iv never ever had to deal with, so naturally i have no experience with them. cable and sky boxes im fine with, but freeview and UHF aerials no.

iv rang my landlord several times about it but eah time they have failed to do anything about it. i will just call my landlord again and see if they will get there finger out.

thanks again for your reply.

 

[Neo63]

You need a tv aerial man with some decent kit and expertise IMHO

i think so too. my landlord is clearly not bothered as iv rang them 3 times about it and each time they have failed to get it sorted. where did the simple days go when you could use a simple bit of wire and a coat hanger haha.

 

[Englishman]

I'd play around with your TV and search for everything, sometimes the menus aren't that clear and the TV channels aren't always easy to find, also make sure the coax is plugged into the right port on the TV ( I put my mother in laws into port marked coax and it wasn't right and belonged in another). Also, you can get little cheap signal checkers things from maplin that you can plug into the wall socket, and that will give you an idea of the signal coming down the cable.

 

[Octopus]

i think so too. my landlord is clearly not bothered as iv rang them 3 times about it and each time they have failed to get it sorted. where did the simple days go when you could use a simple bit of wire and a coat hanger haha.

I would suggest you write to you landlord, and if he doesn't act, write to him again, advising him you will be arranging the investigation and repair, and the costs will be deducted from your next monthly payment (obviously you will need to give him a copy of the bill).

 

[ruston]

Is it a booster box or a bog standard TV outlet box? If it is the later try making up a male / female connector patch lead and bypass the outlet direct to the tv.

 

[UKMeterman]

Ok,
A few things.
1. In flats you often need isolated tv sockets for safety reasons.
2. When you say landlord, do you mean someone you pay rent to?
3. In a flat the common services are often maintained by the management / agent company that your landlord pays rent to. Try finding out who the management agent is and contact them direct.

 

[Neo63]

Is it a booster box or a bog standard TV outlet box? If it is the later try making up a male / female connector patch lead and bypass the outlet direct to the tv.

its standard outlet box with only one female connector on it. i have taken the box off the wall and connected a coax cable (hard wired) to the cable in the wall itself then connecting to the tv but it still doesnt pick up anything.

 

[Neo63]

I'd play around with your TV and search for everything, sometimes the menus aren't that clear and the TV channels aren't always easy to find, also make sure the coax is plugged into the right port on the TV ( I put my mother in laws into port marked coax and it wasn't right and belonged in another). Also, you can get little cheap signal checkers things from maplin that you can plug into the wall socket, and that will give you an idea of the signal coming down the cable.

i have a samsung 3d smart tv, the setup menu for channel search is fairly straight forward. digital or analogue or both. i always search for digital. and my tv only has one coax connector on it. with everything iv tried iv come to the conclusion its the aerial at fault. my flat use to be offie blocks too years ago i recently found this out, the walls are thicker than a standard house or flat, which will mean ill struggle to use even an indoor aerial. so iv gave up. its a pitty they dont do sky gold cards anymore. im really fed up of this now.

the communal box where everyones aerial is connected is just above my front door. so im now debating on if its worth opening it up and checking to see if mine is infact connected or not. but that said knowing my luck id need a "special" key to open it in the first place. iv been busy over the past few days so iv not managed to call my landlord again. but its on my todo list for tomorrow.

 

[Neo63]

Ok,
A few things.
1. In flats you often need isolated tv sockets for safety reasons.
2. When you say landlord, do you mean someone you pay rent to?
3. In a flat the common services are often maintained by the management / agent company that your landlord pays rent to. Try finding out who the management agent is and contact them direct.

mine is isolated. mine runs to a large box above my front door, where everyones goes to. which the aerial on the roof runs to. by landlord i mean housing association. a very useless one. all they want is money money money but ask them for help they dont want to know.