New TV aerial choice?

[David Cawkwell]

I'm thinking of replacing our rather cheap TV aerial with a new aerial to improved channel 5 reception and hopefully allow us to pick up digital TV.

We have two aerials on the roof the top has 10 elements with a small back plate and the lower has 10 elements with a larger backplate. Reception of channel

5 on the lower one is pretty good but poor on the higher one.

I notice looking in Maplin that they have several aerials which should get much better reception than the aerials I currently have but most don't mention a group.

Also cpc have aerials which quote different groups A,B,C/D,W/B

Questions

1. Will picking a particular aerial group be better or should I simply pick an aerial W/B that will? pick up a wide bandwidth.
2. I notice a large difference in the number of elements some having up to

90 elements making the aerial 2 metres long. Is more elements better?

1. Any advice on make Triax,Antiference,Televes,funke,Maxview

Any advice please. There are simply too many aerials to choose from.

[Dave Stanton]

Those are standard groups, W/B is wideband, covers all the band but at a cost of lower gain usually.

Dave

[Tony Williams]

Other way round I think. Close to a transmitter (as we are) there are big problems with bounces and ghosting. So most people reduce the ghosts with a directional aerial, (which also tends to mean high gain), and then inline attenuators to reduce the signal.

[Mike P.]

Check out

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[Mike P.]

Also

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[Mike P.]

Further to the information you can get from the sites I posted I would check out the following aerial, it cured all of my problems, I also recommend using CT100 coaxial cable.

The following gives you information on the DAT45 aerial.

P.

[Terry D]

I bought a Maxview 18 element wide-band kit at B & Q for about £9. The kit included 10M of coaxial cable and a complete fitting kit for indoor or outdoor use. It's mounted in my loft & the reception is excellent.

Terry D.

[Tim Mitchell]

They aren't the best aerials though - they are very big, you can get something much more compact and mechanically better for a bit more money. I speak as one who installed one of the twangy things recently with the crap B&Q co ax and since wished he had spent a bit more and got something decent.

[PoP]

I'm in Bracknell and we are served by Crystal Palace - 30 miles due east. They reckon we don't have the Freeview channels available, however the set top box finds quite a few anyway.

PoP

[harrogate]

Equally use an antenna with a high front-back ratio - the commonest are the log-periodic array which also has the advantage of being wideband, or the short-backfire array a.k.a. the 'flying bedstead.'

[tony sayer]

In article , Tim Mitchell writes

Get a decent aerial such as a Triax or Antiference from

and then make sure you use a decent downlead such as CT100 the stuff they use for satellite connections and don't have any unnecessary connections in that lead and you will be well connected.

Using low grade aerials and the string that the DIY sheds sell as Low- loss will offset any advantage that a good hi-gain aerial makes.

Look upon it as a long term investment just remember how many hours you spend in front of the box!.

Of course if you're in spitting distance of a DTV transmitter you may well be able to get away with a lesser system. Local knowledge is useful here...

[Andy Hall]

Sorry, but IME, Maxview products are junk.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[PoP]

my worst bodge wasn't so bad after all ;)

PoP