aerials - again :-(

[John Rumm]

In some cases that may be considered getting on a bit ;-) Depends on how well it was protected from water ingress.

[Colin Wilson]

I doubt its a case of too much signal where C4 or C5 are concerned :-}

[John Rumm]

Probably not the problem in your case.... but that is why it can be worth lowering the signal level into the TV as a test in some cases.

(You also need to watch for too much signal going into the input of a cheap amplifier - they will then usually start cross modulating and produce all sorts of nasty mess on the output where there ought to be a signal!)

This site is really for digital TV - but it will give you distances to your transmitter. The aerial recomendation it makes assumes that you want DTV as well - so you can ignore that.... although if you know somone you can scrounge a digital set top box from to try that may solve all your problems!

[PJO]

Do yourself a favour and buy (yes, I know it hurts!) some nice new double screened coax and re-wire direct from twig to TV. If the pic is still crap then it's the twig. If the pic is OK then it was... the cable! Bear in mind that a decent 30m roll of cable will only cost around £12.

It's called elimination and it's really the only sensible start. You have a new twig in what you consider a good location and old coax. Maybe a little common sense won't go amiss and it's only what has been suggested throughout this thread.

[tony sayer]

In article , Colin Wilson writes

Looks like a Ma*view one. Wouldn't give it house room here, IMHO of course!....

[tony sayer]

Yes, but you'd have to be very close to a main TX for that to be a problem....

[R W]

Yeah I agree, I don't think I'd have used a screwfix aerial either. Since when were screwfix expert aerial manufacturers.

I got a Wideband 100 Element Triax Unix 100 from a local wholesaler for under 30 quid including the VAT. It's a monster aerial and pulls in massive amounts of signal. If I'd wanted the 52 element version it would only have been about 22 quid.

18 elements from screwfix sounds cheap and nasty.....

[R W]

It's perfectly live for me.

You (or your crap software) isn't putting the end-of-sentence full stop into the URL, I assume...

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

And mine! I won't have any of their kit in the shop with the exception of 2 items:

Tripod for temporary dish mount. - Expensive but unique.

Screened single co-ax outlet. - Not much about of this ilk.

The only way (as you know) to ensure that the screened cable works as it should is to use a balun in the aerial. Now I was appalled when Antiference decided on a propoganda campaign suggesting that their TC range aerials didn't need baluns, rather than modifying them to spec! The XG range do have baluns however.

In my experience, you can't do much better than a Triax Supergain 18 or Unix

52 with Pope H109F cable. These products are the mainstay of most of our installations.

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

Be very careful. Where aerials are required, bigger is not neccessarily better. You can run into beamwidth problems unless you have a perfect line of sight path to the transmitter. It is also fairly easy to overload the input of a receiver, something you wouldn't be able to assess without a meter. This gives rise to symptoms similar to weak signals.

[Phil Addison]

[snip]

a few posts back. :-)

-- Phil Addison The uk.d-i-y FAQ is at

NOSPAM from address to reply

[R W]

Correct, but I don't have any problems like that. The only concern I do have about this aerial is the wind loading on my chimney!

[R W]

It's perfectly live for me.

You (or your crap software) must be putting the end-of-sentence full stop into the URL, I assume...

[Stewart Freitag]

In message , "Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)" writes

Don't TVs come with AGC anymore. I've always tried to drive mine into AGC.

[Andy Hall]

You can still overdrive them.......

.andy

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[tony sayer]

In article , Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics) writes

What exactly do you mean by that statement Andy?.

Far easier to overload a poor dist amp or VCR....

[Dave Plowman]

Much better to fit an inline attenuator - chopping up an aerial can affect other things than just gain.

[John Rumm]

Oops - sorry not paying attention! Still you may as well have the full set. ;-)

[N]

I have fitted a hanfull of Unix 52's and a couple of Unix 100's over time

3-5 years some of them have fallen apart i.e. bits of the elements blown away by the wind. I have now gone back to Antiference Extragain which I used to use and have proven sturdier, all I have fitted, some 12-15 years ago, are still completely intact. I also seem to get a slightly better signal with an XG8A than a Unix52A despite their respective literature suggesting otherwise. Have you had no problems with the Triax models falling apart?

I have also considered Televes but have not used any yet, what do you think of these i.e. their DAT 45 & 75, not their Unix clones?

[Andy Hall]

I have a Pro 45 and a Pro 75, which if they are not the same as the DAT models are the predecessor. Looking at the data sheet, the assembly is the same. Both have been rock solid. They are mounted quite high, so fairly exposed to the wind. .andy

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