<![CDATA[I fixed my television this weekend.]]>I fixed my television this weekend. Turned out I'd made a rookie mistake.

A few months ago, my TV capture device stopped reliably delivering me programme information. I got about 1/3 of it. I don't watch enough broadcast TV to prioritise looking into it, so I kept putting it off.

This weekend I found it was because the aerial cable had simply come unplugged.

Of course the rookie mistake was to rule out "not plugged in" as a cause of failure, simply because it was still 1/3 working. With anything else that would make sense ‒ if it were not plugged in, it wouldn't work at all. But TV aerials don't work that way!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/003a5309-ccb8-4b6d-9d1c-a3ea040989e3/i-fixed-my-television-this-weekend.RSS for NodeFri, 01 May 2026 10:21:25 GMTSun, 05 Apr 2026 15:21:15 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to I fixed my television this weekend. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:32:48 GMT]]>@simontatham I once found that my TV worked better when the aerial wasn't plugged in at all. That surprised me rather. Admittedly I bought a much-too-long cable, but still a surprise.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/hattom/statuses/116352822043173634https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/hattom/statuses/116352822043173634Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:32:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I fixed my television this weekend. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:31:37 GMT]]>@simontatham i remember as a kid being surprised by how i was able to find the RF signal from my NES clone system even when the RF cable was not connected to it

it was noisy and monochrome, but it still worked

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cat/users/rnd/statuses/116352817397398508https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cat/users/rnd/statuses/116352817397398508Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:31:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I fixed my television this weekend. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:25:42 GMT]]>@dougmerritt exactly!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/simontatham/statuses/116352794123705830https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/simontatham/statuses/116352794123705830Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:25:42 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I fixed my television this weekend. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:23:23 GMT]]>@simontatham Repeat after me - RF is Black Magic. Your assumptions WILL be violated, regularly, and without lube. (This is coming from the guy who thought he could get a cell modem to fail to connect by detaching the antenna, while apparently sitting on an AT&T ley line).

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/mhkohne/statuses/116352784992374064https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/mhkohne/statuses/116352784992374064Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:23:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I fixed my television this weekend. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:23:15 GMT]]>@simontatham
I take it you mean that the aerial cable all by itself picked up 1/3 adequately, detached from the aerial?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/dougmerritt/statuses/116352784491244206https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/dougmerritt/statuses/116352784491244206Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:23:15 GMT