TV aerial

[peterd51]

Hi,

the wind's gusting up a bit and as I'm up in the back-bedroom, and it's blowing towards my window, I can hear it.

So there's just been a big gust that twanged the satellite dish on it's pole just outside my window and then Bobbie called upstairs to say that the terestrial channels have gone off.

It's belting down with rain and it's a bit too dark to go look but I guess we've just lost our aerial. It's only been up there for 29 years too! Hardly used...

As I recall it cost around £29 pounds to have it installed, a pound a year!

Still, it's an excuse to have a new hi-gain digital aerial installed. We may even get a decent picture on Channel 5 then.

Regards
Peter

 

[madkayaker]

sure you can't weld it back up there

 

[Robotstar5]

Just remember there is no such thing as a "digital" aerial, just find out what band / polarity your local transmitter uses (eg IV / horizontal) and get the aerial to suit, also use an installer either recommended or a member of the CAI
HTH

 

[madkayaker]

just get one from screwfix and send the boy up give it a wiggle around till you get a good signal

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

actually after that one big blast the wind's died right down.

I can do it myself but by the time I've bought the aerial at 'retail' it's about half the cost of having it done professionally. I lost my account with CPC some years ago.

Signal strength isn't really a problem here, we're using Belmont and it's a high power transmitter about 25 miles away. The big problem is the steel works in one of the side 'lobes', causes ghosting, and Emley Moor pretty much in line behind the aerial...blocks out a number of channels in the 40 - 52 range so I can't put satellite receivers, DVDs, Videos, etc, on those channels.

So a high-gain uni-directional aerial set up with a meter would be best, and I don't have a meter.

If it is down then I may be able to claim off the house insurance, depends on the 'excess' I guess.

Regards
Peter

 

[Wozzaaah]

we may even get a decent picture on channel 5 then.

 

[simon718]

what the hell woz

 

[madkayaker]

flying pig!

 

[Luke]

So a high-gain uni-directional aerial set up with a meter would be best, and I don't have a meter.

We moved house a couple of months ago. I tuned the new aerial using the signal meter on the channel info on the freeview box. Perhaps a bit coarse, but worked ok, especially comparing the signal for multiple channels.

 

[Wozzaaah]

what the hell woz

flying pig!

As in, pigs might fly before you get a decent picture on CH5 .
Some places still can't get it even after all these years, let alone a decent picture!

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

yes, you can do the Sky dish the same way, it just takes a few seconds for it to reset the meter after each 'tweak'. Though it's much quicker to watch a picture on a channel and move the dish left and right, up and down to find the centre of the beam.

For fine tuning you can reduce the signal strength by masking the centre of the LNB with a 5p coin stuck on with tape or blu-tack. With this method the LNB now moves an inch or so to lose the signal rather than three inches.

I checked in Maplins before ringing the installers. For the aerial and a pole, and a bracket and lashing kit it'd cost me £64, and that's without the cable as I have some RG6 kicking around here somewhere.

Someone will be here in about 30 minutes to quote a price to install a new aerial. Start at £85 apparently but that'll be for a basic aerial. I reckon a hundred pounds all in for something a bit better.

Regards
Peter

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

£285!

Yeah, right...

off to Maplins I reckon.

I see they also sell signal strength meters for £19.95...

Regards
Peter

 

[Wozzaaah]

Peter, I'm sure either Lidl or Aldi had signal strength meters in there a few days ago!

 

[TechnicAl]

A friend of mine had a new ariel installed whilst he was out (a friend of a friend)
When he tried his TV the picture was poor
So he decided to go up on the roof and adjust it himself, his missus was downstairs providing the running commentary on the picture quality.
After quite some time without significant improvement he decided that enough was enough and he would get a pro in to sort it out.

A short time later his next door neighbour (semi-detached) came round and enquired if his TV picture quality had deteriorated since yesterday.

Yes, he had "adjusted" the wrong aerial.

 

[madkayaker]

easy done

 

[Omniata]

 

[madkayaker]

when we moved into our brand new house the aerial was in loft great way of announcing when someone had a text message the TV would go fuzzy. So the aerial man moved it onto chimney and the Muppet used an in line connector that filled with water and went crabby so in the wind the signal was lost

 

[Robotstar5]

We've always been lucky enough to live in good signal strength areas. We only changed aerials when we could not get the then new channel 4 in colour on the old band III aluminium loop in the loft!
Been able to receive digital with a loft mounted aerial.
Another way to fine tune a sky dish is to drape a cloth over 1/4 - 1/3 to reduce it's effectivness.

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

thanks Woz, I'll have a look in there tomorrow.

As it was nice and sunny earlier, with next to no wind I decided to have a look up top.

We have a two storey flat roof at the back of the house so it's relatively safe to go up the pitched roof from there. I reckon if I stay at the back and slip down I'll end up on the flat roof, scuffed and bruised but nothing broken!

The pole had broken just above the chimney bracket but the bracket and lashing kit looked OK. So I loosened the clamps, removed the 12" or so of rusty pole and re-inserted the top of the pole with the aerial and clamped up.

I lined it up in parallel with next doors aerial (semi detached) and when I checked the TV I reckon it's actually improved Channel 5 slightly!

I didn't hang about up there as it was too cold on the fingers!

Off to Maplins this afternoon...they reckon the £29.95, 43 element, wide-band aerial is plenty good enough for our area as they sell loads and never have any complaints. All I needed then was a new six foot pole, total cost £38.98.

I'd already checked and found a third of a drum of RG6, and I know I have 'F' connectors, self amalg tape and PVC tape in my box.

I'll probably wait until the weather warms up a bit before I install it though.

Regards
Peter

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

Been able to receive digital with a loft mounted aerial. Another way to fine tune a sky dish is to drape a cloth over 1/4 - 1/3 to reduce it's effectivness.

You must be pretty close to the transmitter. Every six feet up you go, you get double the signal strength. Also the roof tiles will drop one or two dB and a 3dB loss means half the signal that you had before.

Basically, compared with the same aerial on a six foot pole attached to the top of the chimney you're actually getting about 1/4 of the signal strength.

The cloth on the dish would work, but it does mean that the dish would be very sightly out. If you place the cloth in the top part of the dish then peak the signal, you'll actually be setting the dish slightly high.

It wouldn't be noticible in average weather but if it rained heavily, or snowed, then you'd lose your picture before your neighbour lost theirs.

As I said to Bobbie yesterday when she complained about the lost picture, "you'll just have to watch a DVD then!". :-)

Regards
Peter