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Scotty996

A few months ago my neighbour had a rebroadcasting system installed, 20 channels for a one off payment of 300 euros. He then installed a 1.9 satellite and gave me the rebroadcating system. It worked fine for a while then we went on holiday. When we returned home we found that the strength of our electricity supply had fallen and for most of the day we have lost about 10 channels BBC1, Calle 13 etc. When we can get them they are often pixelated. The channels that we still have are fine until we use more electricity by boiling a kettle or switching on a heater, then we lose all channels. Is there anything that I can do to overcome this problem.

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The Sat and PC Guy

most things electrical (especially tv and feceiers) require a power supply of 220 to 240 volts....
anything more or anything less than this can cause problems - from loss of certain channels on a receiver to blowing things up.
i know of one couple who loose bbc and itv on a sky receiver when they turn on the air con..i measured the voltage with the ac on and it was only 200v!!!!!!

so,
could it be the receiver is going - damaged power supply?
get your power supply sorted out by an electrician?
get a UPS with built in battery - if will use the stored power inthe battery when the power drops below a certain level?

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Scotty996

Thank you for such a prompt reply. Unfortunately it is not just my house that has lost power, all of my neighbours are in the same position.

Excuse my ignorance but what is a UPS, where can I buy one and how much are they? Thanks once again

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Lee

A UPS is a battery back up system. I personally advise anyone using a desktop pc to get one.

What they do is plug between the electrical appliance and the socket, similar to how a multi plug extension lead works.

But they have two advantages. One being surge protection being built into a lot of them. This stops power spikes blow the hell out of the circuitry and secondly they have the batter back up. You loose power and the battery kicks in, giving you time with a computer to shut it down or with a tv receiver, plenty of time to reset the power.

I believe the computer shop in Dolores sell them. The one on the Dolores, Catral road. If not the big electrical shop in Elche, which is in the same shopping area as Carrefour has a very good selection of them near the computers. With Carrefour on your right in the carpark, great big shop directly in front of you.

The only deciding factor then is how much you want to spend. In theory, the more you spend, the bigger the battery and the longer it will last.


Quick add on to this

Just looked on the media Market website, typical Spain, they list them but show no prices.

Media Markt®

After a few minutes of flash screens and god knows what, you get to a screen of many items. Top right, you see a search box, enter UPS into that and in the five or six pages of results there are a few listed.

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The Sat and PC Guy

come places (i think carrefour) do these...

ok its the main us site, but the pic and numbers are the similar
Belkin : Battery Backup with Surge Protection (550VA)
i have two linked to each other for my pc set up....and one for the tv and sky+ boxes....and they have been worth while as the pweor levels in my apparments block have been fluctuating with everyone using the heating and aircon!!

but as lee says, the more you spend the bigger the battery and the longer it will provide power.

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Lee

The ones I use on the PC´s, have a usb monitoring lead as well. So if the power cuts off while your away and the UPS gets low on power, they are set to shut the PC´s down.

I learnt the hard way after loosing the contents of a hard drive.

The things to look out for is the plug fittings on the UPS. Some have just the kettle type/ pc lead type. Others that Jon has shown have the standard plug type fittings.

Your best bet for the biggest selection in the area is Media Mart in Elche.

.

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Scotty996

Thanks Jon and Lee, you have been very helpfull

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Scotty996

Just an update. I have gone a long way to solving the problem and it cost only 2.50 euros.
My wife pointed out that the problem had got worse since I tidied up the cables behind the TV. I had a look at the cables and the main scart cable appeared to be loose but would not push any further into the socket for the TV. I replaced the scart cable and I am now receiving all channels once again.

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