Digital indoor aerial

[jgharston]

A collegue from my Council days contacted me yesterday. She's got an elderly client, analogue TV about to be turned off, Free Digibox men came around to give him a set-top box.

Oh no, mate. You need a new TV mate. Can't plug this in mate, waving a SCART plug at him.

No, he just needs a UHF aerial lead, just like my TV, I showed her. Here, have a spare lead, I can pop around and plug it in for him.

Working now, but he's got a crappy little indoor aerial and the digital pictures and sound break up. He hasn't got an outdoor aerial. What indoor aerial would people recommend. He's got line of sight to Crosspool transmitter about 3 miles away which his analogue channels are currently tuned in to.

Ta.

JGH

[Adrian C]

Rare box now, it has a modulator. Which one was it?

Following DSO is there a chance signal strength may increase in his area?

[Owain]

The boxes used by the Help Scheme are listed here:

[Owain]

The digital help scheme includes aerial replacement where necessary. Whether that includes provision where there is no existing aerial I don't know but it would be worth asking.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The power output of the FreeView transmitters increases when analogue is finally switched off in your area. So that indoor aerial may be alright then.

[John Rumm]

Keep in mind that the vast majority of set top boxes do not have a UHF output capability (even if they have pass through). So its fortunate that the one they supplied had it. Might be worth tuning the TV into the appropriate channel on all the lower numbered presets - that should save any confusion about using the right channel on the TV.

Tell us what aerial he currently has, and what signal level he is currently getting on each mux, and we would have a fighting chance of answering that!

The Sheffield transmitter has a shaped output - so reception from the W and NW of it is harder.

currently group A for analogue and so will perform badly on a set top aerial since most of these are widebands, and they are typically pretty poor at the lower end. You may get away with this on analogue since its sticking out 5kW. Until August, its putting out the digital muxes on quite hight channel numbers and some a low powers.

Post switchover it looks like a group E aerial would be best.

[jgharston]

I had a look at the outside of his block of flats and there's notably an absence of aerial, so he would need a new one, not a replacement one. I'll give them a phone call.

It's the Goodmans one.

JGH

[jgharston]

Ok, he's in Upperthorpe, with something similar to one of these:

pointing straight through the window towards Crosspool. No intervening buildings or trees, etc.

TV is an old Hitatchi with manual roller tuners. Analogue channels

1 to 5 all currently perfectly satisfactory, other than the TV's colour balance is a bit off. He's not interested in replacing the TV as he wouldn't use it long enough to get the benefit of the investment. IYKWIM.

JGH

[jgharston]

Ok, he's in Upperthorpe, with something similar to one of these:

pointing straight through the window towards Crosspool. No intervening buildings or trees, etc.

TV is an old Hitatchi with manual roller tuners. Analogue channels

1 to 5 all currently perfectly satisfactory, other than the TV's colour balance is a bit off. He's not interested in replacing the TV as he wouldn't use it long enough to get the benefit of the investment. IYKWIM.

JGH

[The Natural Philosopher]

Almost no indoor aerial works with digital.

You need some sor of directional thing as high as you can get it.

Try a camping antenna.

[Ian Jackson]

Nonsense. An indoor aerial leaves a lot to be desired, but if you can get satisfactory analogue, you'll probably get digital OK.

It certainly helps - but, in this situation, is it necessary?

As the aerial is pointing out of the window, and can actually see the transmitter, I'm surprised the digital is no good. If five analogue signs were perfectly OK, the digital signals should be OK. Even if they are in a different of the UHF spectrum, that aerial at

a log periodic, so it is (supposed to be) wideband. I'm surprised it doesn't work. Has moving it around a little been tried?

[John Rumm]

That's a log periodic - they are wideband with a fairly flat response. Probably ok for the transitional period and post DSO, if it can pull in enough signal.

Well that's not on the clipped output side of the Tx.

Best bet is to wait until August and see if the extra power solves the problem. If not then he will need a better aerial (or the same one located in a better place).

[Andy Champ]

You could always sign up to the local Freecycle/Freegle group. People give away perfectly good CRT TVs all the time on ours.

Andy

[Davey]

Same here, every day there is usually at least one, often more. He could upgrade, for free! Look out for one with a SCART socket, obviously.

[DerbyBoy]

Nonsense. An indoor aerial leaves a lot to be desired, but if you can get satisfactory analogue, you'll probably get digital OK.

It certainly helps - but, in this situation, is it necessary?

As the aerial is pointing out of the window, and can actually see the transmitter, I'm surprised the digital is no good. If five analogue signs were perfectly OK, the digital signals should be OK. Even if they are in a different of the UHF spectrum, that aerial at

a log periodic, so it is (supposed to be) wideband. I'm surprised it doesn't work. Has moving it around a little been tried?

[Owain]

oo.gl/052pb pointing straight through the window

You can get an amplified indoor aerial, or a booster, for under a tenner in Argos. That may be enough to make the difference. Both have the 30 day guarantee so you can take it back if not.

Owain

[Graham.]

Sounds like the installer needs to RTFM. The manual mind, not the Easy Read guide

"No - I can't plug a SCART lead in. Follow these steps".

Is the only hint in the guide that the Goodmans box has a modulator. Nowhere does it tell you to tune your TV into it, let alone how to change the RF channel on the box if it is occupied locally.

[The Natural Philosopher]

pointing straight through the window

not really. if the S/N ration is rubbish yo will simply amplify the noise.

[Ian Jackson]

The OP does say, "Analogue channels 1 to 5 all currently perfectly satisfactory". Surely that tells us something important?

[jgharston]

Err... that's irrelevant. You either get a nice sharp picture of lots of square blocks breaking up, or a fuzzy picture of lots of square blocks breaking up. How well the *TV* is tuned in to the decoder makes no difference to how well the *decoder* is receiving the signal.

JGH