Digital TV - DIY articles

The draft DIY digital TV intro article is here:

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free to add to it directly (or post stuff here...)

Doing that one prompted a bit of a revamp or the TV aerial one - I have added some tips on DIYing these - but you may be able to think of more:

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bit that was in there - but seemed out of place was on VHF aerials. That is now waiting for some embellishment to turn it into a proper article. (I am not sure how realistic its claims are anyway - never having tried using a TV aerial for radio). Any thoughts?:

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(Could probably do with some sections on dimple dipoles, yagi, and the (in)famous halo etc).

There is one on aerial plugs:

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on cable:

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finally one one amps:

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(note, due to spammers some of these articles are only editable if you create yourself an account on the DIY wiki first)

Reply to
John Rumm
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Yes it's coming along nicely now. One typo and one factual

1 "*Personally* Video Recorders" 2 name the additional channels that a FTV card will decode

Also explain that an ex-Sky subscription card is in effect a FTV card.

I think there is a need to explain more fully the differences between the two Freesats, I think you need to separate it from the SKY heading.

Reply to
Graham.

ta - fixed

Added link to wikipedia article on this (moving target, so may as well let some one else keep up! ;-)

What, add "Freesat from sky" as a separate heading you mean?

Reply to
John Rumm

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is a very impressive document. Good sound practical advice. I hope you don't mind a few suggestions.

De-typoed: Small set-top aerials vary in performance from poor to useless in most areas. In strong signal locations one may be ok for a portable TV. The advantages are minimal cost, no installation, and portability.

De-typoed: In practice roof mounting gives a much stronger and better quality signal than a loft aerial. A loft aerial will be quite satisfactory in many cases, but not always. Rooftop is of course less convenient and more expensive. Outdoor aerials, poles and cables have limited life, so the expense is repeated over time.

Error: Baluns Nearly all TV aerials are described by the manufacturer as 75 ohm aerials, yet nearly all are really designed as 300 ohm aerials, with construction details reducing this to some degree, but not to 75 ohm. Connecting a 300 ohm aerial to 75? cable causes loss of gain, tendency to reflections, and some degree of degradation of signal quality. Better aerials have a small balun inside that transforms the 300 ohm signal to a genuine 75 ohm feed. All CAI approved aerials have this.

In fact even cheap aerials are designed to match to 75ohm feeder. (More or less). A folded dipole with no parasitic elements would match to 300 ohm. Once you start adding elements the characteristic impedence drops. The balun (in this case) usually converts 75 ohm balanced to 75 ohm unbalanced. However some manufacturers use the balun design to tweak the matching, so the dipole terminals might not be quite 75 ohm. The old baluns for VHF FM actually did convert 75 to 300 or vice versa, as well as converting balanced to unbalanced.

De-typoed: a.. Don't choose a position where it will have your eye out every time you climb through the loft hatch! De-typoed: a.. If more than one location is available, do a survey at each position to see which is best. The easiest chimney to get to might not offer the best results! De-typoed: Height is important - raising an aerial as little as a metre De-typoed: If multipath (i.e. ghosting) is a problem, try a more directional aerial, and try different bearings. It may be preferable

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember John Rumm saying something like:

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Graham." saying something like:

Istr, if a card has been blocked by Sky for non-payment, it will not work at all.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

It certainly should. Then I could find out what on eath they are...

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

I thought they were sexual positions myself - almost made being a radio amatuer an attractive proposition :o)

Reply to
Bob Mannix

In article , Bill Wright scribeth thus

Around 20 odd years?.. Seems unnecessary to make that point IMHO.

Might put some off an otherwise proper way to do it..

Waaaay over the top for Joe public to take in .. better that

"the aerial needs to contain a balun which makes it work more efficiently...

Reply to
tony sayer

In article , Grimly Curmudgeon scribeth thus

Yes but although the VHF aerial adds to the cost, like a TV aerial its a very good -investment- (a dirty word in the UK;!), to improve the performance of the equipment connected to it......

Reply to
tony sayer

For a start..

The halo is a bit of scrap ally;!...

Reply to
tony sayer

On Wed, 4 Mar 2009 09:05:15 +0000 someone who may be tony sayer wrote this:-

Indeed.

probably has more than enough information for most people, including photographs.

It also has the results of tests on how much television aerials pick up radio signals.

Reply to
David Hansen

As Bill has explained, this entry is wrong. Simplifying it but still leaving the misleading information is hardly correct?

A balun may be desirable but it isn't essential ...

Terry

Reply to
Terry Casey

The standard erection round here seems to be a Teves for UHF - completely OTT given the strong line of sight signal, and a halo for FM which does nothing for the inherent multipath from the surrounding buildings and hills. We need a Bill Wright round here. ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Well who is this aimed at?. Anyone with the tech know how is hardly likely to be reading it.. More like its the man on the Clapham bendybus who needs a bit of guidance;)..

Very desirable IMHO .. I'm sure NP will be along to disagree;!...

Reply to
tony sayer

in the same sort of way that an outdoor aerial is desirable. Yes, it may work, but it may not.

Reply to
charles

Reading it again more carefully I now think the heading structure is good. Maybe I have to invoke that dreadful "disambiguation" word.

"Freesat from Sky" is a product that comprises a digibox, a card and a dish (with installation if required) all for a one off payment of £146.81

You can DIY with a second-hand digibox and an existing dish, or erect one yourself. You can buy a Freesat card from Sky for £20 or obtain one from an ex-subscriber. You would then have the equivalent of the "Freesat from Sky" product.

There is some stuff that's appeared in the Wiki today that I don't like. Bill's balun paragraph is very informative but not appropriate here. Advocating CAI approval is enough and, for example removes the need to explain the anomaly of no balun in a L.P.

Why do we need to mention the DAT45 by name? If we must do so, then it belongs under the Wideband heading.

Some thoughts about the extreme installation section Most pro installers have never done any stacking or baying At most, a link to a specialist site in the webliography.

Aerial amplifiers are not just for extreme installations

Explain the advantages of putting the amplifier before long cable runs (DIYers rarely appreciate this important point) and the way they can be conveniently line-powered

Am I correct in thinking the remit we have set ourselves excludes distribution, and that left for a separate wiki? I think that would be best.

Reply to
Graham.

On Wed, 4 Mar 2009 13:13:14 -0000 someone who may be "Graham." wrote this:-

It would be. An article on distribution will be long by the time it has gone through things like satellite and terrestrial signals down one cable to the socket.

Reply to
David Hansen

On Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:14:13 +0000 (GMT) someone who may be "Dave Plowman (News)" wrote this:-

That has been the fashion for some time.

A more thought out installation in a strong signal area probably consists of a small log periodic for television and a vertically polarised dipole for FM and DAB.

Where one or more of the signals is weak a larger log periodic and/or folded dipole FM and folded dipole DAB aerial are probably the best. The FM/DAB aerials vertically polarised.

In low signal areas high gain aerials need to be thought through properly. That is particularly so for FM and DAB aerials where the wanted signals may come from a number of transmitters.

Reply to
David Hansen

Are there no CAI approved log periodic antennas?

And anyway, some of the log period antennas are "better" quality than many cheap and nasty Yagi-Uda antennas.

Reply to
J G Miller

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