SE23 Forum

So I've finally moved to Forest Hill after many months of trying (wahey). My shiny new TV arrived yesterday - at which point I discovered the downside to my lovely (rented) flat on Devonshire Road, where the living room overlooks the train line. Most times a train goes by, I lose my TV signal...

It's got built-in Freeview, so although I discovered upon moving in that the flat is 'plumbed' for Sky I'd really rather not subscribe to that unless that's the only way. Does anyone else get this problem, and if so are there other fixes, e.g. an internal booster or something you can recommend? As I say, I'm renting so can't start crawling over the roof to install additional external aerials etc.

Would love to know how others have dealt with this - if it has to be a Sky subscription, so be it, but *sigh*. (Not least because in an attempt to be efficient I'd sorted my phone and broadband with other suppliers before moving in - if only I'd known I'd have just got everything from Sky. Never mind, eh?)

I have no idea how good it is so this is not a recommendation as such, but there is FreeSat which I believe is the satellite based equivalent to Freeview. Maybe worth a look...

If you have no joy with local knowledge then you could try posting your problem to the following site -

The link will take you to the correct page for the Crystal Palace transmitter and if you scroll down to the bottom of the page then you can enter your details and explain your problem.

Remember to tell them that your renting and hence limited in what you can do yourself.

You may have to wait a couple of days for an answer - these guys are dealing with TV reception problems from all over the country.

The link is:-

http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=TQ339712

Had exactly the same problem as MightyMouse - used to live in the same location. Our resolution was to put an aerial on the roof - a booster did not help.

Freesat did not exist then but if faced with the same situation now would probably go down that route.

Thanks, everyone - I wasn't even aware of Freesat but some investigation, and a quick trip out this morning, and it seems to have solved the problem wonderfully - and cheaply! So many thanks for everyone's help.

If the flat/house is already "plumbed-in" for Sky you could pick up a second hand Sky box for under £25 plug it in, link it to the Sky feed and get the benefit of all the free channels broadcast by Sky.

As for the digital signal for your Freeview TV - if you can install an aerial that is higher than the trains and thereby the trains do not block the virtual line-of-sight with the transmitter - that may solve your problem too.

No can do re the aerial - not my house and I suspect the reason Sky's installed is to fix the problem, so not convinced the landlord will want to fiddle with the existing aerial.

I'm good with the Freesat thing - I don't watch much TV (I haven't had one for the last 9 months and coped more or less admirably - all hail the iPlayer!) so it has all the channels that I need (and millions more). I used to have the full Sky works once upon a time and found it just sucked me in (first the basic, then the extras, then the movies, then the Sky+ box)... and I can do without both the time-sink and the extra cost, right now .

Appreciate the advice though, thanks.