We`ve had to have our aerial re-done twice in the last couple of years -=20 and of course, the "warranty" these places offer never seems to be enough= =20 to get them back when the picture goes... Either that, or you were never=20 given a receipt / can`t find it etc.
I was thinking about changing tactics and fitting a loft aerial that I=20 can fit / adjust myself, but i`m not sure whether I might need to=20 consider a higher spec aerial than might normally be required if it was=20 mounted outside.
Would the "top of the range" screwfix (ref 14374) @ =A325 be overkill for= =20 the Liverpool area ? (as far as I know, we have a decent signal here)
Any comments appreciated :-}
--=20 Please add "[newsgroup]" in the subject of any personal replies via email
old email address "btiruseless" abandoned due to worm-generated spam *
--- My new email address has "ngspamtrap" & @btinternet.com in it ;-) ---
Some roof materials block the signal. I tried a VHR aerial in my loft and off a 5 element got worse signal than bits or wire in the house.
I woudl wonder what happens to an aerial in two years. I would expect a new aerial and cable to last 5 years unless serious wind/weather. Bag them under sale of good compalin loudly that goods not fit for purpose if breakdown in that time.
I wasn`t sure how well they worked, hence the question about getting a higher spec model - looking at the orientation of other aerials along the terrace, it would almost be pointing at the brick divider between ours and next doors` too, so i`m not sure how it would work out...
If I pick up a reel of co-ax I suppose I could always mount it at the back of the house - probably wouldn`t look any worse than the redundant satellite dish i`ve got sat there :-}
Got no receipt from the last guy... its proving it... i`ve just had a quick look and its fallen off the chimney completely
Any loft antennas, even in strong signal areas are likely to give poor results. In poor signal areas, the roof attenuates the signal a great deal, and in stronger areas the effect of reflected signals will cause ghosting and general fuzziness on analogue transmissions and high error rates leading to possible loss of picture on digital TV.
That is not to say that people don't have successful results, but by and large the results are disappointing.
You would be far better off finding an installer who will fit a good quality antenna like Antiference, Triax, Televes and not a contract grade unknown, and who will use satellite grade CT100 cable rather than cheap TV coax, and proper mountings. He should also have the correct equipment to align the antenna for optimum results - which does not necessarily mean strongest signal. Tell the installer that you want a good quality installation with good quality materials and ask them what they propose to supply.
Apart from in extreme conditions, this should last for 15 years or so.
Expect something like this to cost £120 to £150; not £50. If you just go for the cheapest price you will get the cheapest job and it won't last, as you have found.
Any idea if the likes of this would be better at avoiding these pitfalls?
formatting link
You would be far better off finding an installer who will fit a good > quality antenna
Yeah... know what you mean
The nearest i`ve ever known an installer around here do as far as alignment is concerned is to point the thing in the same general direction as everyone elses :-}
Colin Wilson wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net:
There's no real substitute for suck it and see.
If you can get some information from neighbours it would help a lot; someone may have tried and failed, or succeeded.
If you can get away with a loft aerial it's an excellent choice, cheaper, no deterioration, easily fit it yourself, but radio wave transmission is a blackish art, and only with the right signal strength meter.
You say it would look through a brick wall - that might not be3 so bad, but is it looking through another 5, 10 in the row.
At my last house, a terrace with Crystal Palace, or is it the other place now? about 20 miles away we got excellent results with a pretty ornery loft aerial
I have a decent loft aerial mounted as high as possible - I am some 15 miles Line of sight from a not particularly strong transmitter (Sudbury) and get excellent recption off it, and the best bit is the connections and aerial are easily accesiible and not corrdng away in the weather.
Get teh bets and largest aerial you can firt. Mine is about 1.5m long, and just fitrs a few feet below the ridge. Sadly the signal is at right angles to teh ridge line, or I would have gone longer...it cots nme 11 quid from Tony Sayers favorite Cambridge shop.
The number of elements make a difference though from what I can make out... the mid-range one has 18 and the top of the range has 43 - i`m not sure about physical dimensions though
My outside aerial was pointing to Winterhill, but when it fell off, I mounted a loft aerial pointing to the Storeton repeater. The orientation must be vertical. I get a perfect analogue picture, channel 5 is superb, digital is fine too.
Take a good look at the picture in the link you posted. They claim 43 ele's but I count 10 directors (each apparently counted 4 times!) the dipole and reflector.
That's not strictly Kosher!
The ele's might well be compound elements, but being co-located I can't see them being "just as good as" a "Bona- Fide" 43 element beam if such a thing existed, (beyond a certain limit diminishing returns sets in anyway). Better IMO to use 2 x proper 18 ele. beams and a phasing cable.
But, I'm not an expert, (I'm an old radio amateur), so take a look here :
formatting link
I've had a good experience with loft aerials I'm in an an elevated position in Leeds LS27 and at one time I was getting good results from Bilsdale West Moor 40 miles away directly North over flat countryside, but an aerial for Emley Moor 10 miles away needed to be higher up since I was looking straight into the hill behind me.
I'm in Leeds LS16 one of the highest bits of Leeds, we have a direct line of sight to Emley Moor- maybe 15-20 miles as the crow flies?
When we moved in the aerial was a settop aerial blanched in the loft on a box. The picture was ok really, but not brilliant. I replaced it with larger but fairly cheap aerial mounted on the internal wall in the loft- nothing but a few roof timbers ad the felt and tiles in the way.
I was thinking about changing tactics and fitting a loft aerial that I can fit / adjust myself, but i`m not sure whether I might need to consider a higher spec aerial than might normally be required if it was mounted outside.
Take a look at the TLC aerials, they have one high gain version, just make sure you buy the correct band .... check the IBA site to find out what your transmitter is - and whether you need to set for horizontal or vertical polarisation.
grade antennas are built in this way (with the X configuration of directors) but other areas like the cable connection arrangement, which is important, and the general construction are poor.
That's why I suggested going for a known good branded product.
If you look on-line for products like Triax Unix, Antiference DX, Televes, you will find them in the £25-35 range.
Proper spec, CT100 cable costs from around £25-30 for a 100m reel - the cheap £10 satellite cable is not as good. You might be able to buy cable by the metre of course.
Other materials like mounts and brackets will cost about another £5, so you can do the job in material costs for about £60.
The situation that you have mentioned, going through walls and being at 30 miles from the transmitter gives me two negative points about a loft installation.
You could try it, and then if you have problems ask an installer to put the antenna that you have bought on the roof. In this scenario, it will have cost more because he won't have made a margin on the materials but would charge for the time.
I just took a quick look at yell.co.uk with a search on Aerial Services and Liverpool and there are the usual range of businesses with names like Low Cost, ABC and so on - basically to get your attention or appear near the top of a list.
If you want to find a good installer, one thing to look for is if they reference that they also do communal, SMATV and commercial work. Although not a guarantee, this is usually a pointer to an organisation with some level of competence and the right test equipment.
Unfortunately the proliferation of Sky dish installations has attracted a lot of cowboys into the business, who do many per day to a mediochre standard.
In part, it also depends on what you are prepared to accept in terms of quality of picture.
Colin Wilson wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net:
That means whether it stands up or lies flat, and where it points.
Hint - check the neighbours.
Also if you're buying from a reasonable dealer, he'll be able to tell you.
There are web sites that will, or you could ring bbc information information, but I've got a suspicion thats gone down the tubes like the rest of the Beeb.
I can't find a site, but this being the ng that it is, I very much doubt if we'll wallow in ignorant bliss for long.
We had Telewest cable in several years ago, and to test the line was in, one bloke dropped to all fours and put his tongle across the phone line. I was shocked - I asked him where his multimeter was, and he said they weren`t supplied with any.
Would have been great if they`d nicked the electricity service cable in the process and got 240V down there instead !
This wasn`t a "local" cable installer problem, as a friend 15 miles away under another Telewest contract area saw the same "test" carried out on his installation too.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.