Aerial Feed for Bedroom

Prairie_Rose

Hello,

I wonder if I can ask for some advice please. We currently have a rooftop aerial (about 16 years old but working perfectly) with one feed going down the front of the house to the lounge and another coming down the back of the house to the kitchen. We need another feed for a TV in our upstairs front bedroom and would like some advice on the easiest way to do this. We have just redecorated the bedroom and are about to lay some flooring so any cabling can run under this. I think the Digital changeover is due to happen where we live around April time. Firstly, how do I know if our aerial is good enough to run a third feed from? If so, is the only way to do this to get up on the roof to run a new feed? If so, can someone give me an idea of how much it might cost to get someone in to do this?

Any advice gratefully received.

Many thanks,

Prairie Rose

Colin_London

Hi,

Firstly, as you say switchover is happening around April time I guess you are in the London region? If so, as long as your aerial is still in good condition, it shouldn't have to be changed. That said, 16-years is a good age for an aerial so if you are getting someone in anyway maybe you might want to take the opportunity to replace it for maintenance reasons only.

How to get the additional feed depends on your current splitting arrangement. Is it via a powered amplifier splitter (i.e. is there a power supply feeding an amplifier located on the aerial pole) or is via a passive splitter?

In the former case it might just be a case of using an existing spare port on the mast amplifier, so you just need the aerial guy to run another cable to the bedroom around the wall, drill a hole through the wall at the position you want it, and fit a new wall socket. Probably about £75 + the callout fee. He may have to swap the amplifier as well.

In the latter case there may not currently be enough signal to split it again without amplification. So he may have to put an amplifier in or fit a bigger aerial as well.
However, if you waited until after April the transmitter powers are going up by 10dB, which should be sufficient to split the signal again without any new amplification but maintain your current reception.

So the best option, if you can wait, may be to wait until after switchover in April to see what the most cost-effective solution is at that time.

almillar

Prairie Rose - you should have sorted the wiring before redecorating, sorry for that useful advice!
Anyway, signal - do you get all the channels on both TVs at the minute? Any dodgy signal in bad weather? What do the freeview boxes tell you about signal quality at the moment? If you've a 'very good' signal, you can get a 3rd feed out of it. If not, simply add a booster, cheap enough. Do you have power available in your roofspace for one?
You don't need to goto the roof, and it all depends on the layout of your house, as does the cost. Split whatever cable is handiest to the bedroom and go from there.

SailorSam

Splitting your current ariel again may give you weak signal especially if all the sets were on at the same time. I got an extra ariel and fittings from Wilkies and fitted it inside the loft and reception is as good as if it was on the roof.

Kurtis_Blue

SailorSam wrote: »

Splitting your current ariel again may give you weak signal especially if all the sets were on at the same time. I got an extra ariel and fittings from Wilkies and fitted it inside the loft and reception is as good as if it was on the roof.

Wether all,some or none of the other the TVs are actually turned on or not will make no difference at all.

Prairie_Rose

Hi all,

many thanks for your replies and sorry for the delay in coming back to you. Yes, I live in North London and I think we must have a passive splitter as I am not aware of a power supply going up to the roof. We get a good picture on all channels on both the lounge and kitchen TVs regardless of the weather. I don't know how to check the signal to the Freeview box we have but we don't have any problems with it so assume it must be good.

We have had a couple of suggestions put to us (which I think are more or less what might have been suggested above):

1. Re route the feed from the roof that currently runs to the lounge through to the bedroom, add a splitter and also a booster (is that the same as an amplifier? sorry am not very technical!) and then run a second feed from that down the lounge.

or

2 Leave the current set up as it is and put an additional ariel in the loft with a feed through the ceiling to the bedroom.

What do you think? And yes, we should have thought about all this before we redecorated but didn't...... but it doesn't matter too much as any cabling will be hidden behind the huge wardrobes that are going in so not a huge problem.

Many thanks for all your help.

Prairie Rose
X

Kurtis_Blue

You donot need another aerial if the lounge and kitchen work fine with freeview, do it once do it properly, get some one to go to the current distribution point and install an external 3/4 way passive splitter or four way masthead amplifier.

Depending on how far into London you are would be £65 ++

Moneymaker

You might like to read up about amplifiers, splitters etc. to get a bit of understanding.
http://www.google.com/search?&q=Where+does+a+masthead+amplifier+go%3F