Setting up an aerial

As my TV is rapidly filling up with digital channels (won't go into too much detail of naked Women Wrestling - which appeared on the new free Men & Motors channel)

I want to set up my aerial so that I am getting maximum signal strength ... I can't lug the TV up to where the aerial is, so apart from just adjusting and go take a look, is there any meter or similar that can be used to set up the aerial so that I get it at optimum setting ?

I assume that TV installers must have some gizmo that does this ?

Second question then, if they do exist and presuming they are expensive can they be home made ??

Rick

Reply to
Rick Hughes
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Same way i did my sky+

1 mate (free or a couple of stella's) 2x walkie talkies (£15 maplins er-al)
Reply to
>{daZza

In article ,

Its supposed to be done on a signal analyser, but not that many "aerial riggers" have them. A lot, and too many at that, just copy where next doors aerial is pointing, and leave it like that!.

As the above poster sez, a couple of PMR446 radios and the tuning indicator on your TV will be better than guesswork.

Though I'd advise leaving the Stele's until afterwards;))....

Reply to
tony sayer

Is Men & Motors on freeview??

Reply to
Andrew Barnes

In message , Andrew Barnes wrote

Yes, as from 2 May 2005 but as Freeview only has a limited number of slots it may be replaced with something else within the year.

Reply to
Alan

"Andrew Barnes" wrote in news:d5e2br$r1b$1 @newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk:

Yup - Ch 38

mike

Reply to
mike ring

... or your mate might fall off the roof :-)

Reply to
John Stumbles

Signal strength isn't the only criterion. Although a sig strength meter will show you the strongest signal, you have to take into account things like ghosting (especially if you're using analogue).

As others have suggested, somebody "down below" watching the "real-life" telly (and comparing the different channels) is much better than using any signal-strength meter displaying reception in dBuV - as it happens, it's recommended that good signal strength is between 60 and 70 dBuV (1-3 mV), but most modern(ish) TVs will happily work down to 54 dBuV.

The important thing, remember, is multi-path (ghosting) which can't easily be measured on a meter!

If you do measure a digital signal, remember that when the analogue signals are turned off in 20?? the digi transmissions can and almost certainly will be turned up.

Reply to
Frank Erskine

First off, can you see the transmitter? I can see my terrestrial tv transmitter,it's about 10 miles away, so it could be aligned by eye. Second, make sure you have the polarisation of the aerial correct, vertical or horizontal.

Andy.

Reply to
andrewpreece

I went to

formatting link
to find the direction of the transmitter then set the aerial using a compass. This isn't a great place for reception, and the aerial's in the attic, but it worked fine first time.

Reply to
Rob Morley

Woolworths were doing a 5 inch b/w telly for £9:99 recently. Worth getting one and taking it up the ladder with you to assess the ghosting.

Reply to
Mark Carver

Works a treat, doesn't help with local problems like TETRA and pager harmonics though. Several MUX are unwatchable, the BBC main ones are OK, but those carrying home and leisure and the other DIY stuff are crap!

Niel, Fareham.

Reply to
Badger

Depending on what STB you have the following may be possible:-

Take your STB and a small, cheap portable telly to where the aerial is. Go to the STB screen that shows signal strength (SetPal ones have this, others may have) and set up your aerial.

The portable TV can be used elsewhere or as a backup, we bought a small TFT TV for use in the bedroom and that's dead easy to carry up in to the loft.

Reply to
usenet

Could the variable reception on different MUXES be due to having an 'out of band' antenna? There are 5 or so bands, and an existing TV aerial may be optimised for the band used locally for analogue TV. Some digital MUXES may be on other bands - requiring the use of a wideband aerial.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Mckenzie

Since its digital, the picture quality is either rock solid, or utter crap.

Its actually possibly easier to use an analog telly to get best reception first, as weak signals (Ch5 here is way down on power) are ideal for optimising reception, and then substitute the freeview.

Then plug freeview in and check its all OK.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Not as simple in my case (or so it seems to me)

I have rock solid signal on all channels and quality shows as 10 .... on except on channels 11 & 12 which were perfect, but now unwatchable, picture & sounds breaking up completely .... Analogue picture seems fine on 1,2,3,4 & 5

Which is asod as the History channel is one of the better Freeview offerings.

Rick

Reply to
rick_hughes

In message , The Natural Philosopher wrote

Possibly only true if both analogue and digital are in the same frequency group.

Some digital boxes have a fairly comprehensive channel reporting mechanism for helping setting-up. If you can beg, borrow or steal one of the older Setrpal based boxes you will find that they display, on a single screen, all the MUXs, transmitter information, signal strengths, channel numbers and signal to noise figures. If you are receiving from more than one transmitter it will show that information on the same screen.

Reply to
Alan

What transmitter do you use, and where roughly do you live ?

Reply to
Mark Carver

Rick's near Swansea IIRC. If he's looking at Kilvey Hill then he's looking at a really low powered transmitter which seems to have problems all over Swansea. If Rick's somehow managing to see Wenvoe (Cardiff) then it's a very long way away, though quite honestly from some parts of the area it's a much better bet. AFAIK these are the only two transmitters in the area which have digital on them.

Details of aerial set up might be useful too.

Hwyl!

M.

Reply to
Martin Angove

This is occasionally the case, but the interesting thing in what Niel says (my brother is Neil, Niel seems a bit unusual!) is that the BBC channels are ok whereas *some* of the others aren't. Two things may be factors here, quite apart from whether or not the aerial is in the right "group"; firstly the BBC Mux 1 sometimes has higher power than other multiplexes. This is something political, but it can make a difference to an otherwise marginal signal. If BBC1, 2 are fine but CBeebies (IIRC) isn't then this might be the case as CBeebies (and several other things) are on Mux B which is an ex-OnDigital one and may be at a lower power.

If on the other hand *all* the BBC stuff is generally ok, but it is things like ITV, C4, C5 and the shopping channels which break up then that difference can often be explained by the different transmitting schemes used. The BBC/Freeview multiplexes (1, B, C, D) use an encoding scheme called 16QAM which encodes 4 bits of digital data into each "symbol period" on each carrier whereas ITV and SDN (multiplexes 2 and A) use 64QAM which encodes 6 bits. 64QAM has the advantage of a larger "payload" - i.e. it can carry more data and therefore more broadcasts - but it is less robust than 16QAM. Back when Freeview was starting out, various people did tests and the difference between 16QAM and 64QAM was better than doubling the transmitter power in most cases! Obviously this, too, only really makes a difference for what is anyway a marginal signal.

So the first place I'd look would be the aerial installation, to see if this could be improved.

For advice on that I'd suggest a quick Google Groups search in uk.tech.digital-tv. PLEASE don't just go and ask the question as people there get tired of parroting off the same answers. If the search doesn't help, then specific questions with plenty of detail usually get answered most quickly.

Hwyl!

M.

Reply to
Martin Angove

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