groupe a antenna.. where to get ?

[srp]

Hi,

I've been reading up on TV antennas, I have finally decided to have a go at installing one in my house ( have been using Sky only for years now..) Anyway it seems that I ideally wanted a group A antenna. B&Q and maplins only seemed to sell wideband ( black) ones. I actually bought a black one from B&Q last night but it does not work too well in the loft, so I'm going to try it on the outside wall this afternoon. From what I can tell a red antenna would be more optimised for the channels I need.So my question is, where is the best place to get a Group A ( Red ) antenna from?

Simon

[srp]

maybe 'twas wrong group. but here are 2 places:

'll shut up now !

Simon

[John Rumm]

[Bob Mannix]

Could you be more specific? I looked but could only see what appeared to be wide-band ones.

[Bob Eager]

(at

Could you be more specific? I looked but could only see what appeared to be

Loads of them there. Type 'aerials' into the search box, then follow the 'audio visual' category. For example, part number AP00764.

That's a televes group A at 21 quid or so plus VAT. I got a Televes wideband one (need it in my area) a few months ago and it works well despite being in a 'no Freeview' area!

[Bob Mannix]

Many thanks, don't know what I was up to when I looked! That looks just the job.

Bob

[Bob Mannix]

Thanks for that end bit as well. I had "assumed" a better group aerial would improve terrestrial and freeview reception. I note from your comments and further investigation that this is often not the case, as the Freeview signals are in a different band and that, for these ares (eg Oxford) a wideband aerial is indicated. I presume (assuming this is the case) that a wideband aerial such as the one you purchased is "better" than one that you might get in B&Q?

Cheers,

[Andy Hall]

Yes.

Televes products are pretty good - I have two of their antennas and results and reliability have been fine. There is proper matching to the cable, decent mechanics and seals and so on.

You can get them from TLC as well as CPC.

B&Q and most other sheds seem to sell Maxview, and that is about at contract junk level.

Since most of the effort with TV antennas is installing them and aligning, then it makes sense to get a good one and to use it with good quality CT100 cable rather than cheap TV co-ax. This is especially important if you are using a site with transmissions across the band, such as Oxford (as you mention).

[Bob Mannix]

Thanks

[Bob Eager]

B&Q were only selling fairly crappy ones (I did look) labelled 'medium gain'. The Televes one is a high gain (I got the DAT45 but there is also a DAT75 which is a bit unwieldy).

I was nearly caught out because (I'm in East Kent) my information told me that I was on the Bluebell Hill transmitter (I think the muxes range right the way across the bands). In the event, I found the Dover transmitter was a LOT better, after a second lot of map measuring and trig.!

See:

be warned that predictions are very approximate (in my case based on the 'wrong' transmitter. The BBC website is good, too.

[Bob Mannix]

Ah, good, I had just decided to get the DAT45.

Cheers,