Status aerial stopped working

My Status aerial has stopped working. Does anyone know how to check the wiring? I put a multimeter on to check for continuity, and it indicates that the wires in the coax are touching. I thought they should be separate, but I could be wrong? I suspect I may have a bad connection and had hoped to be able to split the triangular plastic case on the roof part to check the cable at that end. I had a look but can't get it open. Has anyone had any experience with opening up the status 600? The amplifier is fine, btw.

Hi Andy.

As far as I am aware the centre wire and the coax screening should not touch each other.
As for info on your status equipment if you ring or e-mail the company they do their very best to help you sort out any problems.
The dealings I have had with them was first class. Thorougly recommend them for after sale service.

Cheers. Whisky.

Whisky, thanks for replying - do you have any contact info for the company? My aerial came with the van and there was no paperwork with it. I tried googling it but just came up with lots of places selling them!

I've tried quickly to find the relevant literature to confirm my assumption but can't.

I expect the aerial element within the housing is a folded dipole - a flattened loop of wire of specific dimensions. The co-ax downlead has the inner connected to one end of the dipole and the screen to another. The DC resistance is 0 ohms.

All other co-axial leads can be tested by disconnecting, checking continuity of inner and screen and checking they are insulated from each other.

If your system was working, the most likely cause of failure is a loose connector or failure of power supply to the amplifier (or finger trouble!).

If you can get the van to a site of known good reception the best way to fault find after checking connections and power is by bypassing the amplifier, connecting a domestic aerial, etc.

Peter

Thanks for the reply Peter. I have narrowed the problem down to the aerial itself, the TV set and the amp are fine. The aerial has worked for 4 years, but first it got a bit temperamental then it stopped working altogether. When I tested for continuity on the rising coax cable to the housing on the roof I got some odd readings that suggested the inner and the screen are touching somewhere. I feel something may have worked loose or twisted up there and I was hoping to be able to open the housing to look at the connections, but can't work out if you can open it up or not, and I don't want to force it. Also I have limited experience using a multimeter, so I wasn't positive about my conclusions! I thought there should not be any connection between the screen and the inner wire, but when I stick a probe on each part on the end of the cable I am getting continuity, which I don't think I should.

Andy

Andy R wrote:Whisky, thanks for replying - do you have any contact info for the company? My aerial came with the van and there was no paperwork with it. I tried googling it but just came up with lots of places selling them!

The company website is this one with all their contact details. As Whisky says they have first class after sales service...

http://www.visionplus.co.uk/info/about/

Thanks Paulmold, I will get onto them and see what I can find out.
Andy

Hi Andy.

Paul beat me to it. The company is in Nottingham itself. When I had a problem with a booster. I'd had it for a few years. They talked me through the normal faults that sometimes might occur and when that didn't sort it they just sent me a new better one free of charge. Also sent a return prepaid envelope to return my old one so their tech staff could see what was wrong. The politeness and customer service was first class.

Good luck with your problem.

Whisky.

Hi

Peter Brown wrote:
I expect the aerial element within the housing is a folded dipole - a flattened loop of wire of specific dimensions. The co-ax downlead has the inner connected to one end of the dipole and the screen to another. The DC resistance is 0 ohms.

I agree.

Andy R wrote:I thought there should not be any connection between the screen and the inner wire, but when I stick a probe on each part on the end of the cable I am getting continuity, which I don't think I should.

The problem is none of us actually know that’s inside the cover but I agree with Peter. It sounds odd I know but think of the aerial as a loop of wire between the inner and outer.

So the inner and outer are not actually touching but the resistance of the aerial is so small that you can’t read it on a normal meter. The other possibility is that there is a “balun” attached to the aerial (as sort of transformer) either way you will get a very low ohmic reading.

Off course there could still be a short in the cable but the only way to test it is to disconnect it from the aerial.

The thing that strikes me is that there is very little to go wrong with the aerial itself. After all it is only a glorified piece of wire. It’s probably easily fixable if you can find a way into the case.

Brod

It's just occurred to me that the first post in this thread refers to a Status 600 aerial. I've only come across the 330 (flying saucer) and the 550/560 types of Status aerial. What does the 600 look like?

When you said that you tested it for continuity & found 'touching wires', I take it that you DISCONNECTED both ends??

'Cos if you didn't you'd get a reading that could be interpreted as a short due to the aerials internal resistance, I very much doubt there is a short in the wiring, but it IS possible of course.

Paulmold - and everyone - my mistake, I meant Status 560 but for some reason put 600 - not sure why, sorry about that!

modelman wrote:

When you said that you tested it for continuity & found 'touching wires', I take it that you DISCONNECTED both ends??

'Cos if you didn't you'd get a reading that could be interpreted as a short due to the aerials internal resistance, I very much doubt there is a short in the wiring, but it IS possible of course.

I couldn't disconnect the roof end, so just put one probe to the inner wire and the other to the mesh. As I said I am not very experienced with multimeters but I thought I shouldn't see any connection between the two. Now I realise I am wrong! I am going to contact the company for some advice from them I think, as they are the ones who know what is in the housing. Thanks for the reply. Andy

Thanks Brod ;

I wasn't sure how to interpret the reading I was getting on the multimeter but that explains things a bit. I would like to check inside the aerial housing but it doesn't seem to be openable. I think I am going to take Whisky's advice and see if the company can help, as I don't want to make things worse by breaking anything!

Andy

Peter Brown wrote:I've tried quickly to find the relevant literature to confirm my assumption but can't.

I expect the aerial element within the housing is a folded dipole - a flattened loop of wire of specific dimensions. The co-ax downlead has the inner connected to one end of the dipole and the screen to another. The DC resistance is 0 ohms.

All other co-axial leads can be tested by disconnecting, checking continuity of inner and screen and checking they are insulated from each other.



Peter

Are you sure the resistance would be zero ohms?

Hi

dandywarhol wrote:Are you sure the resistance would be zero ohms?

Peter Brown wrote: The DC resistance is 0 ohms.

Sure! Well no because we don’t know exactly what type of aerial in the plastic case. I think the point is that many types of aerial will show very low DC resistance so you can’t assume that there is a short in the cable on that evidence alone. On balance it’s more likely that a zero reading is normal.

I don’t blame you for being sceptical. It seems to go against common sense but Peter has been very specific in saying that the “DC resistance is zero”, and that’s what the meter is measuring. When we’re talking about very high frequency AC (which is what RF is) things become very much more complicated. The RF signal will not see the aerial as zero ohms and it will be transmitted down the cable to the receiver ( Google “AC theory” but have some headache pills handy).

OK to be pedantic , the DC resistance won’t be zero bit it will be so low that it will not be measurable by anything other than the the most sensitive ( and most expensive) of meters so the assumption that it is zero is a good one.
Brod

Hi

dandywarhol wrote:Are you sure the resistance would be zero ohms?

Peter Brown wrote: The DC resistance is 0 ohms.

Sure! Well no because we don’t know exactly what type of aerial in the plastic case. I think the point is that many types of aerial will show very low DC resistance so you can’t assume that there is a short in the cable on that evidence alone. On balance it’s more likely that a zero reading is normal.

I don’t blame you for being sceptical. It seems to go against common sense but Peter has been very specific in saying that the “DC resistance is zero”, and that’s what the meter is measuring. When we’re talking about very high frequency AC (which is what RF is) things become very much more complicated. The RF signal will not see the aerial as zero ohms and it will be transmitted down the cable to the receiver ( Google “AC theory” but have some headache pills handy).

OK to be pedantic , the DC resistance won’t be zero but it will be so low that it will not be measurable by anything other than the the most sensitive ( and most expensive) of meters so the assumption that it is zero is a good one.
Brod

Andy R wrote:. I would like to check inside the aerial housing but it doesn't seem to be openable. I think I am going to take Whisky's advice and see if the company can help, as I don't want to make things worse by breaking anything!

Andy

This isn't a 560 aerial, it's the inside of a 'flying saucer' one but I doubt if it's much different - there's not a lot to them....

http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/auto-trail/50499-status-aerial-whats-inside.html

Paulmold wrote:

Andy R wrote:. I would like to check inside the aerial housing but it doesn't seem to be openable. I think I am going to take Whisky's advice and see if the company can help, as I don't want to make things worse by breaking anything!

Andy

This isn't a 560 aerial, it's the inside of a 'flying saucer' one but I doubt if it's much different - there's not a lot to them....

http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/auto-trail/50499-status-aerial-whats-inside.html

Thanks for that - they wouldn't let me look at the pics as I wasn't logged in and I'm not a member, but the posts were enlightening. I think my Chinamen must have escaped too! I am considering putting a household aerial on the pole of the status if all else fails, and if I do I will prise the casing open, photograph the innards and post them on here so everyone can see what's in it. I will get on to the company first in case they have any ideas, as I don't want to wreck it if it is fixable. Cheers, Andy

Hi

Andy R wrote:Thanks for that - they wouldn't let me look at the pics as I wasn't logged in and I'm not a member, but the posts were enlightening.

Same here but I just “joined up”. Amazing how little you get for your money isn’t it? Basically it’s a few bits of wire as expected but I can’t quite make out what the black bits next to the cable are.

Looks as if it could be chip and a few other components so there may be an internal amplifier. If so that could explain what’s gone wrong.

Andy - if you do get a new aerial I’d be interested to see a picture of the insides of the old one and to know if you can make out any numbers on the components. Thing is they’re likely to be standard components that cost a few pence and somebody with a similar problem in the future may be minded to try and replace them.

Brod.

Putting a standard TV yagi aerial on a pole will give you a much better picture than the things they put on a van roof and the pole is easily anchored to your ladder.

If you try it from home where your aerial can virtually "see" the Winter Hill Transmitter this will work without the need to go through the preamp.

If all is well you can rig the cable to come through the preamp to your new aerial for less friendly reception areas and of course you will benefit from having a "directional aerial" all be it you are using your arm as a rotator

brodco wrote:Hi

Andy R wrote:Thanks for that - they wouldn't let me look at the pics as I wasn't logged in and I'm not a member, but the posts were enlightening.

Same here but I just “joined up”. Amazing how little you get for your money isn’t it? Basically it’s a few bits of wire as expected but I can’t quite make out what the black bits next to the cable are.

Looks as if it could be chip and a few other components so there may be an internal amplifier. If so that could explain what’s gone wrong.

Andy - if you do get a new aerial I’d be interested to see a picture of the insides of the old one and to know if you can make out any numbers on the components. Thing is they’re likely to be standard components that cost a few pence and somebody with a similar problem in the future may be minded to try and replace them.

Brod.

I joined the site and was able to have a look, but I am none the wiser really - my idea was that with all the twisting that you do with the 560, the main aerial cable may have become twisted or broken at the top. I am waiting for the company to answer my Email before breaking it open, but if I do I will definitely post pics and note any component numbers.

Andy

I've braved the cold.

The resistance between the inner and outer of the connector to my Status 530 is circa 0.3 to 0.4 ohms and it is in perfect working order.

An earlier post suggests you are in a very strong signal area, have you a small tv you can take into the van and connect direct to the aerial?

Peter

Try again.

A link to the site so hopefully I've grabbed the pics. There are some plastic covered screw holes underneath. At your own risk remove covers and screws and prise apart - it is sealed all the way round and will need to be re-sealed.

Thanks to whoever posted them in the first place.

Peter

Thank you everyone for your replies. After fixating on the aerial itself, I had a nights sleep, went and bought a new length of coax and put it straight from the TV to the aerial, by-passing the van's system that runs over the ceiling, and guess what -IT WORKED! Now I have to trace the fault in the van's system, but to gain access to the aerial socket, the blind needs to come off as it obstructs access to one of the screws. The coax in the van looks very thin anyway, I feel it may need replacing. There's always something to do on these vans, eh?

Andy