Dodgy drive?

[Chieftain]

Do you have a VHF antenna pointing at Mt Maunganui and a UHF antenna pointing at Kopukairua, joined with a VHF/UHF combiner?

<<VHF to Kopukairua and VHF to a translator two blocks away in a similar direction to Kopukairua but aerials are 1 vertical and 1 horizontal. Translator gets signal from Te Aroha and beams it back in under the shadow of the Mount.>>

TV3 (and C4) are actually VHF signals from Kopukairua, so if you have the antenna arrangement described above, it is no wonder you get poor TV3 reception.

If you are using a 'combination' VHF/UHF antenna pointing at Kopukairua, check that the combiner does not have specific UHF-in and VHF-in ports, otherwise it may filter off the VHF signal from Kopukairua.

Also, on the Lincrad site the translator, I've mentioned, is the one close to Kopukairua, shown as Mt Maunganui.

<< No combos available most roofs have three aerials including Sky/Prime and lots even have dishes, too.>>

Fairly dumb transmitting the stations from different hills. Roofs in Tauranga must look messy.
http://www.lincrad.co.nz/transmittersites.html

<<They blame the hill and of course when the translator went in there was only TV1 and 2 and no colour!>>

If you have previously had good reception, then the only other thing I can think of is any wireless AP right beside your TV, or a switch-mode power pack for something plugged in by the TV.

And as Islander said, check that the TiVo RF-out channel doesn't coincide with a Sky UHF channel or other.

Answers above in << above >>

Have solved the banding/interference problem. The centre pin in the aerial lead wasn't making good contact with its female receptacle. Nothing long nose pliers couldn't cure. I discovered that if I puled on the plug without pulling it out, the picture got better. Pulled the wall socket apart and then the lead plug and then twigged that when the two parts touched the picture improved and it was a clearance fit, so I nipped the split female terminal in a bit.
For reasons I can't combat, we have the aerials inside the roof cavity and all's fine except for TV3. I must check it out as it's worse than it used to be.

It also seems to me that Freeview HD Terrestrial would simplify things a lot, aerial-wise. It renders S1 Tivos redundant though, doesn't it?