tv aerial masts

[Stephen]

Hello,

I am some distance from the tv transmitter, so I may need a masthead amp. I can get into the loft to install an aerial but I'm not brave enough to go on the outside and put an aerial at height.

Considering that my signal may already be weak, is it worth trying to DIY an aerial in the loft, or should I just pay someone to fit an external one?

If going along the diy route, should I buy an aluminium or steel pole? I don't suppose it makes much difference to a short section inside a loft? What are the pros and cons of the different metals outdoors?

Thanks, Stephen.

[Tricky Dicky]

Try this site a lot of information but easy to digest.

Richard

[michael adams]

Why not simply try an aerial in the loft first with a masthead amp ? It shouldn't take more than an hour to decide on the best position inside the loft fix up the aerial at the required angle - maybe make further adjustments and see how it goes.

Then if that doesn't work is the time to start worrying about the pole etc. From memory my internal aerial came ready supplied with a short pole. Sufficient to position it at least.

michael adams

...

[Harry Bloomfield]

Stephen laid this down on his screen :

A good signal straight from the antenna, is better than one which has needed amplification. So if you are in a weak area, aim for a higher gain antenna.

Height is only needed to find a line of sight over obstructions. A antenna in the loft will be much worse than one outside, especially when the roof is wet.

An alloy pole is the standard for TV antennas, because steel rusts. I got the installer to just drop the coax end into the loft via the roof tiles. It then plugs into a socket which takes the feed down through the house, into a distribution unit. Then from that I took cables to every room. With the cables safely inside, they last much longer and I hate to see cables draped down houses, lose and flapping in the breeze. The antenna has had to be replaced once since then, but having the input socket in the loft, makes for a quicker and cheaper replacement.

[Bill Wright]

1. Try a loft aerial. First read this He's a very clever chap him as wrote that. The article answers your mast question as well as giving other vital information.
2. If necessary add a masthead amplifier.
3. If still no good put the aerial outside.
4. If still no good get Freesat.

Bill

[Terry Casey]

Have you looked at the surrounding properties?

Do they all have masthead amps fitted?

If you can see several without external aerials it might indicate that a loft aerial might be ok.

As has already been said, it won't take long to pop up to loft with an aerial to see if it will work.

Java Jive's calculator can be handy:

If you go to the maps at the bottom after completing your query, you can move the marker to your house and see exactly which way your aerial should be pointing.

If your loft aerial seems to work ok, bear in mind that rain can affect the signal level received. If you can find a 6dB pad and insert it into the feed to the TV's input, it will give you a reasonable indication of how much margin your installation has (or not, as the case may be!)

[The Natural Philosopher]

That is why TV signals disappear completely when there is rainstorm you cant see through between you and te transmitter. I mean if a one mm film of water can stop radio waves think how much woerse 20 miles of air full of rain can..

Wottaprat.

For reference 20 miles from transmitter right on the fringe of reception decent log periodic in the loft pointing through the tiles gave good quality digital reception.

Come rain or shine.

[Martin Brown]

How far is far? In Manchester after the digital switchover plenty of sets have tuners that will lock onto Welsh transmissions in a sidelobe of antennas pointed at Winter Hill. It wouldn't be too bad but some stupid sets put first found rather than strongest channels into the main slots by default. Amusing to watch default tuning turn them all Welsh. (unplugging the aerial while it scans the low range sorts it)

These days unless you are really keen on Dave I would go for Freesat rather than faff about with TDTV - especially if the local signal is dodgy. No point in putting a satellite dish high on the roof - being 10m closer to a geostationary satellite makes no difference at all. Does need a clear line of sight though - no trees or buildings in the way.

[dennis]

Consider freesat.

[spuorgelgoog]

I think the channel numbering is much more sensible on Freesat too, and you can get the regional variations of BBC and ITV as well.

However:

- there are far fewer TVs with built-in Freesat compared to Freeview (DTTV) so you are more likely to need an extra box

- it's much easier to split an aerial signal to feed multiple receivers than a satellite signal which is usually limited to 4 outputs from a dish (8 on an octo LNB, or a multiswitch if more is required)

Owain

[Andrew]

Mine blew off 20 years ago so as a quick temporary fix I just just put it in the loft, pointing towards the xmitter but used garden twine to attach it to the trusses as high up as possible.

Works fine, even with three downleads feeding three separate STB's.

[Andrew]

Unless you have local interference, or 'gaps' (*) a log-periodic aeriel is not as good as a bog standard 18 element job. Just don't bother with a 'digital' aeriel because there is no such thing.

(*) Midhurst is group C/D but apparently will also at some point broadcast using a frequency that a group C/D aeriel won't pick up without an aeriel upgrade.

[Andrew]

'FM proposed switch-off for 2015'

Phew, not yet.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Fine if you only have one TV.

Most will have a few these days - and probably a PVR too.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Quite.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Time of the month, or your age?

There is a big difference between a complete film of water (or snow) and raindrops UHF can get around raindrops - though reception does certainly degrade. Our transmitter a similar distance away, 20 miles. When I first moved in here, I installed a loft antenna which proved to be just marginal until it rained - then no reception. Once on the chimney we had solid reception irrespective of weather - at least until the coax broke down out in the weather. Which was why I went to the trouble of finding a route down through the house.

I have a satellite system in the caravan with a rather too small dish for portability, the reception of that can be seriously degraded by thick rain bearing clouds.

How about an apology?

[Harry Bloomfield]

Martin Brown was thinking very hard :

That is correct, it always amuses me to see satellite dishes mounted on chimneys where it is completely unnecessary. My home dish is 8 foot off the ground, my caravan's portable dish goes on the ground.

[Martin Brown]

Default dish LNB has (at least) four outputs these days and satellite decoders are cheap - admittedly very few TVs are Freesat ready.

[Adrian Caspersz]

I'm near to just considering just broadband ...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd say running four outputs from the dish is going to be a lot less convenient than running four outputs from a UHF DA - which can be situated pretty well where you want. Indeed you may not even need a DA - a splitter can be OK if you have plenty signal.

But it would be a real problem here - I have a rotator on the dish. ;-)