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Monday, August 01, 2011

Wilden Pool to Wolverley

Map picture

 

A fairly early start this morning, 6:55am, with a warm but dull start, even had my shorts on, but needed to pop a fleece on once we were underway (I can get Rheumatism in my shoulders if they get cold). We stopped at the Tesco moorings in Kidderminster to do a food shop, then carried on to the Sainsbury's moorings, where whilst Jo unpacked the shopping I popped into Maplin’s for a new TV aerial.

When I originally bought the existing aerial, I didn’t read the specifications, which clearly state that the amplifier power supply box must not be run at much over 12volts DC. At first we used to use an inline meter to find the strongest signal but for this to work I had to remove the amplifier from the aerial, but I left the power supply box in circuit to convert from the digital aerial lead to the standard lead to the TV. Of course I also did not notice that when it was all switched on the red led on the power supply box meant it wasn’t working, again from not having read the instructions properly, so of course what has happened is that the first time we ran the generator and charger which puts out 14.4volts this cooked the p0wer supply. Now we no longer use the meter, because I get a compass bearing by using this handy site, we set the aerial by this compass bearing. To use this site all you need to find is the Ordnance Survey Reference for where you are, which you can get from some online map sites. It gives the transmitters which should be within your range, the compass bearing, the distance from the transmitter, and whether it is horizontal or vertical polarity. A meter doesn’t tell you that. It also tells you which digital channels the transmitter uses.

To overcome this problem of the overvoltage I also bought a 12volt regulator, which I shall fit inside the new power unit box, there is plenty of room in there. We will now have a fully functional amplified aerial which should make reception a lot better, and a spare aerial just in case!

 

Wolverley

 

All shopping safely stowed we set off again for Wolverley, where we were surprised to find no one moored above the lock, so we had a difficult decision to make, which part of the visitor moorings to moor on? Such a hard life!

Keith.

2 comments:

Geoff and Mags said...

Hi Keith
That website for DTT is very handy, thanks!

Keith Lodge said...

It sure is handy Geoff, makes life a lot easier. There is a sister site with the analogue transmitters, but as they are disapearing we tend to use the digital more.