Digital Aerial

Inactive

Fitting an aerial yourself is not too difficult on a bungalow.

Cost of aerial and mounting kit about £50/£70 for a decent aerial + kit.

kwikbreaks

espresso wrote: »

Wide band aerials are only required for a few transmitters!

Mine needs one for sure - it uses channels in the low 20s right thtough to over 60 for the highest.

penrhyn

The Sky Freesat channel list is here http://www.sam-radford.me.uk/ftv.htm

kwikbreaks

Freesat is the route I'll be taking when I move later in the year to an area with no Freeview. Where I am now isn't supposed to be able to receive it but I had an aerial installed by somebody guaranteeing reception.

moonrakerz

The OP may not actually need a new aerial. All the digital transmitters are operating on reduced power (mine is on 10% !), they will go to full power when the analogue is switched off.
If money is tight - just wait.

mardatha

Sorry, as usual I didnt explain properly
We are in the Borders, we switched over to digital already. We currently watch Freesat, but the husband is whining that he doesn't get the channels he likes, and he wants to price the change to Freeview. Can't do it ourselves as we are crumblies. :rolleyes:

kwikbreaks

mardatha wrote: »

Sorry, as usual I didnt explain properly
We are in the Borders, we switched over to digital already. We currently watch Freesat, but the husband is whining that he doesn't get the channels he likes, and he wants to price the change to Freeview. Can't do it ourselves as we are crumblies. :rolleyes:

Most TV aerial erectors will be only to happy to quote you. Set top boxes are dirt cheap but reckon on over £100 to have an aerial put up for you - possibly more. There are more actual channels on Freesat I think - we only get about 30 different ones on Freeview.

spud17

Wide band aerials are only required for a few transmitters!

Agree, my kitchen tv is running on 500mm (yes mm) of old copper speaker cable connected to a coax plug.
Perfect digital reception with a £9.99 refurb box. :beer:
The tv/video combi was being skipped by someone because the tv receiving part had packed up, but the video part worked.
In true mse style, I 'rescued' it, plugged in digi box via scart, and 'hey presto'.

Inactive

kwikbreaks wrote: »

There are more actual channels on Freesat I think - we only get about 30 different ones on Freeview.

Indeed there are, but " more " does not equate to better, I far prefer the channel line up on Freeview than the dross on Freesat.

PROLIANT

What ever happened to the coat hanger bent in to shape and jammed in the back of the telly?

Joking apart, go to your local electrical trade counter and buy a high-gain UHF Yagi antenna, make sure you polarise the antenna correctly for your location i.e. some locations require you to have the antenna in horizontal polarization which is where the antenna is mounted flat -- and other locations require the antenna mounted in vertical polarization which means with the elements pointing up |||||.

Do not use any sort of mast-head or indoor amplifier and make sure that you use good quality 75Ohm CoAx cable, there are plenty of instructions on the Internet on how to fit the Belling-Lee RF Connector to the end of your cable (That is if you do not have a wall socket and feed the down-lead straight in to the Box/TV).

Use the OfCom web site to find out what is best for you.

Good luck