No, it shows a group K would be ideal (a K is in effect a Group A tweaked to go up to Ch 48 rather than the typical cut off around Ch 40). A group K will significantly outperform a wideband:
uk.tech.digital-tv (which would have been a better place for this thread) that he had updated his site with the latest Ofcom information.
This would appear to be one of the updates! When I checked earlier, it said K pre DSO and W post DSO.
It now says K for post DSO as well so, assuming it is not an error, I would agree with fitting a Group K aerial.
We are still awaiting confirmation from the OP of which group his aerial is ...
Yup, saw that...
That would seem to concur with:
I did post this link to a couple of pictures of the aerial
Mike
The only way to determine that would be to measure the lengths of all the elements - hardly practical from a picture. I thought you were going to try getting a better view so that you could see the colour of the bung in the end of the boom?
Ask the installer what he used - it will be interesting to see if he understands the concept of grouped aerials. From the loops of cable visible in your picture, it is obvious that he is not the most competent of installers ...
Looks a pretty scruffy installation. Did they simply hack off an existing aerial and fix the new one to what remained?
Brickwork can act as a reflector to RF, so ideally the aerial would be well clear of it or anything else. My guess is they may also have used cheap co-ax, given the standard of the workmanship.
A short pole to raise the aerial above the chimney pots and decent co-ax (satellite stuff) would be my first thoughts. The actual lashing is poor - the wires should take the shortest route round the stack and be parallel to one another.
I have just been out with the binoculars and it looks like the plugs are black.
Mike
The Aerial is about a foot away from the chimney stack, and the rigger did re-use the existing lashing and pole. He pointed out the strange angle of one lashing wire but said that as it was solid he saw no need to go to the extra expense of replacing it all. He replaced the co-ax as far as the box in the loft, see the new first picture at
Mike
I'd personally not have done that. If the pole clamps were so rusty they couldn't be undone I'd have replaced the mounting and pole so the aerial was well clear of anything which could reflect the signal. Especially so in a known low signal area. The rest of the co-ax could well be introducing losses. And just because the new co-ax is black doesn't guarantee it is decent stuff.
IIRC you said this is a new installation, so the colours should still be quite clear, and I would expect you to be able to detect the difference between grey (Group K) and black (Wideband) so that is fairly conclusive.
The various colours for each group can be seen here:
In article , MuddyMike scribeth thus
It looks like it nearer A group than anything else, don't reckon its a C or that end of the band but as Steve sez very awkward to tell accurately...
Although the 8 way distie amp is a good quality make, it does look dated and it might actually be worth replacing this with a more up to date version with F-connecotrs instead of Belling Lee and I would also replace all of the cable between the taylor amp and the tv sockets in the house. I would expect the wall plates will also be worth replacing with modern screened ones.
Our resident expert Bill Wright will be along one day to pass his wisdom......
Stephen
I can't remember whether Bill is resident here, or only notices cross-posts to uk.tech.digital-tv, there have been a spate of TV threads lately that would mostly have been better served there to start with really ...
I don't know that group, must check them out.
Mike
Strange - I made exactly the same comment and recommendation in an earlier post!
As for the cables in your photograph, you can't judge the cable from the cover, to misquote the old adage.
Take a look at this (from the afore mentioned Bill Wright):
In article , MuddyMike scribeth thus
Yes Bill who is away IIRC at the moment, does post there but he will tell you to make the most of what's coming off the aerial itself before you bother with any extra amplification etc. I'd get the input signal right i.e. correct aerial mounted up in the clear decent grade of cable etc before bothering about the dist amp;!..
As has been said before, the greatest improvements can be obtained by starting at the top: the correct aerial, as high as possible and connected with good quality cable without kinks or loops, etc.
If the remainder of the installation is old, then Steve's comments are valid, but I'd start with the cable first.
Consider trying this: buy some suitable cable - PF100 of similar (see other posts re: cable types/quality) - and replace the feed to your primary outlet except, for the moment, ignore the faceplate and connect it directly to the TV or SetTop Box.
If you leave the old cable, faceplate, etc. in situ, with both connected to the amplifier, you can now do a comparative test to establish the improvement obtained from the new cable.
Now, using a back-to-back coupler, connect the aerial cable directly to the new cable, thus bypassing the amplifier. If there is no further improvement, there will be nothing gained by replacing the amplifier.
You could perform the amplifier check first, of course, as it is much easier to do than running new cables ...
See other posts re: Bill Wright ...
The pics show an installation done in the easiest/cheapest way for the rigger. Not best practice especially in a low signal area. So I'd wonder what other corners have been cut. Of course RF being a black art, you can't guarantee how something will work by just the appearance.
However, the signal strength should have been measured at the actual TV outlet and at the downlead.
From the picture, the amp only has 2dB overall gain - the rest is to compensate for output splitter loss - so actual amp gain ~13db.
Agreed!
Sadly not 'til Sept '12 in this case. COM3 on that transmitter is currently on 1.5kW so at 28miles distant I doubt there's any realistic chance of decent reception of the bemoaned missing Dave etc until DSO.
I skipped the group K suggestion as here seem to be so few about these days and didn't think it would give enough lift anyway in this situation.
The analogue transmitter is currently on 500kW and will become 100/50kW at switchover so options should open up then.
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