Digital TV Aerials

I live in a poor reception area but am considering an attempt to go for the Freeview Digital TV.

My neighbour has one of the yellow coloured digital tv aerials which seems to work OK

What sort of "gain" figure do these yellow aerials produce?

.Can you get a similar aerial without it being the hideous yellow colour?

Any advice will be most welcome.

Reply to
Reteplav
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I've never seen a yellow one. Most are aluminium coloured for some reason.

When choosing the aerial, make sure it is wideband. Most are nowadays due to the onset of digital broadcasting. Then just get the highest gain one you can afford, if you are in a poor reception area. The biggest difference between designs will be the design and number of directors at the front. Cheap ones will have a small number of simple straight rods, whilst an expensive high gain aerial might have a large number of more efficient X shaped equivalents. You tend to get what you pay for, all other things (i.e. supplier) being equal.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

There's no such thing as a digital aerial. You just need one suitable for the frequencies you wish to receive.

Reply to
Dave Plowman

Pose the question in uk.tech.digital-tv for some detailed answers. The neighbour probably has a Televes. Nasty Spanish make!

-- snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com

Reply to
Peter Crosland

I don't think the color has much to do with teh gain :-)

The larger an aerial is, the better signal it will produce. Also the higher it is. Also the longer it is with the more elements, the better it will be (all other things being equal) at rejecting reflections from nearby trees, rooves etc etc. All of whaich helps to keep the digits happy.

In addition, digital brodcatss are not so tighly clustered as the old analog was in terms of frequencies, so a 'wideband' antenna is indicated.

Best to find a local specialist aerial rigger shop, and ask for he best that moiney can buy for your area. And hope it is of manageable size. They are not, actually expensive. Rigging them however is if you pay for it.

needless to say, the best way to rig is by plugging in a TV and fiddling for the best compromise on the stations you want. This is easier in a loft mounted situation than up on a breezy chimney pot handing onto teh TV with one hand and the ladder with teh other :-)

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

These sound like the Televes Pro range.

I have two of them and they do produce excellent results. The colour does tend to dull somewhat after a few months and not be as noticable as when new.

I had them installed as part of a distribution system and they were aligned using a signal strength meter and spectrum analyser for optimum positioning.

There are many other good antennas around such as Triax and some of the Antiference range. You certainly get what you pay for, so contract grade antennas and anything from DIY stores should be avoided.

For digital TV working by trial and error of looking at the picture while moving the antenna may well not produce the best results because unlike analogue where you can see by looking at the picture how strong and reflection free the signal is, with digital you can't - it either works or not. Expecially in poor reception conditions, signal level and reflections are important and you can easily have a situation where poor alignment of the antenna results in good results for some of the time and not others.

Therefore it's important that the alignment is done using equipment to show signal strength and also the digital error rates, because it is these that define how reliable the results are.

Realistically, under the circumstances, you will be best to have a good quality rather than cut price job done by a good installer.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Reply to
Andy Hall

As suggested could be a Televes, 'cept they are orange or black!

Yellow could be either:-

A yellow plug on the end of theboom indicating B-band

The whole aerial is one of those that Traix or Wolsey - or someone like that - that used to make having what in real life would be cadmium pasivated but is actually only coloured anodising.

Reply to
harrogate

I would say, better still make sure it matches the channel grouping of your transmitter. *Avoid* a wideband unless it necessary (i.e. the channel spacing is too wide for a grouped aerial). The wideband aerials will tend to be physically bigger for a given gain, and hence have higher wind loading, need more expensive mast and lashing requirements, and have a shorter lifespan. They will also often perform badly on the lower channel numbers - so if you are using Crystal Palace for example you would be much better of with a good group A aerial.

For more information have a look at the graph on page 3 here:-

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find out what type of aerial you need see here:-

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look at the lower table will show you all of the channel allocations for both analogue and DTT.

Reply to
John Rumm

The main difference is that analogue channels were grouped together, so you bought an aerial with good response in the specific channel band. Digital multiplexes tend to be much more widely spread, requiring a wideband aerial to get decent response over the entire channel spectrum. I suspect the term "digital" aerial is now being used instead of "wideband".

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

Aerials described as "Digital suitable" tend to have a fitted balun to improve the signal matching between aerial and co-ax cable. The cable must be good quality double screened such as CT100 (or PH100 from Screwfix) and there should ideally be no joints between the aerial and the decoder box. Avoid cheap "Low Loss" co-ax at £12 per 100 metres. It's an abomination!

The aerial should be of the correct group for the analogue and digital signals from your chosen transmitter and only use a wideband if recommended for the transmitter as they tend to have lower gain for their size than grouped aerials.

Avoid Maxview and other B&Q/Argos/Wickes junk and buy a quality aerial from a source such as

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who are very good. The Triax Unix range is very good, but remember that all high gain aerials are large and require good masting and brackets. Avoid loft installation and cheap boosters as these can introduce interference.

As has been suggested try the happy folk at uk.tech.digital-tv who are waiting for your call!

Reply to
Doctor D.

In article , Doctor D. writes

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are suppliers of Thelves and Triax FWIW...

Reply to
tony sayer

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