Roof-mounted TV ariel - 'coded' for one transmitter?

Crabman

I've been mulling Freeview on top of our Sky box for use in other areas of the house (I'm not going for multiroom from sky) however our freeview box doesn't pick up any signal at the moment. From what I see on my neighbours roof, they've had their ariel rotated to point at the Malvern transmitter and they've also had a new, what looks like a high-gain ariel.

I can actually make a line of sight view with the malvern hills if I walk round the corner but according to one of the many installers I phoned this morning, our current ariel won't work if we just rotate it.

Apparently our ariel is 'coded' to the current transmitter and won't work if we simply rotate it - is this true? We've been quoted £130 for a high-gain areil. If that's a typical cost I may not bother and consider multiroom :think:

espresso

All digital channels broadcast from the Malvern transmitter fall into Group B, however the transmission is vertically polarised, which is most likely why rotating your existing aerial would towards Malvern would not work.

Crabman

Cheers :beer: I'll investigate the rotate and twist and buying a wideband and getting it up. Would do it myself but am a little wobbly on a ladder

lee634

As a person that has installed MANY a Antenna as my job(not TV Installer)

I would rather be a little wobbly on a ladder than pay someone £130 to be not so wobbly,

Crabman

lee634 wrote: »

As a person that has installed MANY a Antenna as my job(not TV Installer)

I would rather be a little wobbly on a ladder than pay someone £130 to be not so wobbly,

I'd rather not be wobbly as it's quite a way up and the only thing to break my fall are concrete tiles

:think: I'll ring around about the labour charges only, if I source the ariel myself

Moneymaker

lee634 wrote: »

As a person that has installed MANY a Antenna as my job(not TV Installer) I would rather be a little wobbly on a ladder than pay someone £130 to be not so wobbly,

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Hull

I'll ring around about the labour charges only, if I source the ariel mysel

Bear in mind it's an "aerial" (Ariel is a brand of washing powder) and Malvern requires a "Group B" aerial. You haven't given your postcode so I'm unable to calculate the gain required. But you need to know that before ordering.

Crabman

Moneymaker wrote: »

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Hull


Bear in mind it's an "aerial" (Ariel is a brand of washing powder) and Malvern requires a "Group B" aerial. You haven't given your postcode so I'm unable to calculate the gain required. But you need to know that before ordering.

Is there a site other than freeview where the gain is calculated? At least, I don't think it's on the freeview site

espresso

Stick your details in here.

superscaper

espresso wrote: »

Stick your details in here.

Very useful and duly bookmarked.

Crabman

Compact High Gain UHF TV Aerial £29.99

High Gain Wideband Analogue / Digital TV Aerial with Fixing Kit £24.99

Found these two at Maplin - any preference between the two, anyone? I'm going for the one with fixing kit, unless anyone says otherwise

albertross_2

More elements for your money.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/SEODynamicPages/module.asp?ModNo=22523

http://www.maxview.ltd.uk/acatalog/HIGH_GAIN_AERIALS.html