TV Signal Strength Meters

Mistral001

I want to replace my chimney mounted aerial which is faulty, with a wall mounted one. I see several houses in my area which have aerials attached to their walls, so I want to give one a try rather than having climb up a 30ft ladder to fix the existing aerial.

I have sent away for a high-gain aerial to mount on the wall or even to put in the loft - whichever gives the best reception. I reckon that I would need a signal strength meter for this job and see that you can buy a meter for about £10 on ebay.

My question is: are these cheap signal strength meters any good? They seem to be too cheap! I know the ones the professionals use are several £100's. Anyone had any experience of the cheap meters?

ChiefGrasscutter

No personal experience but I'm told the cheapies are not worth even the £10 'cos
1. they only work in huge increments of signal strength between each stage so not enough levels of discrimination between a medium,good,excellent signal etc.
2. They are not frequency dependent so are just showing 'some measure' of overall signal strength of all the transmissions received by the aerial from all directions.

I was told - like you that the only ones worth it are the £300+ ones that the pro's use.

closed

may as well point the aerial in the general direction of the others, and do a scan and check the signal strength on the tv first, then adjust if some multiplexes are missing

mcfisco

I suppose you could use a multimeter set to DC voltage and peak it at the highest reading.
Typically, you'll be looking at 1-2 mV

That gives you no indication whatsoever as to quality though

bluesnake

mcfisco wrote: »

I suppose you could use a multimeter set to DC voltage and peak it at the highest reading.
Typically, you'll be looking at 1-2 mV

That gives you no indication whatsoever as to quality though

A DC wave? A pulsed dc wave?? and 1-2mv too ??? These rapidly moving pulses can be read by a multimeter too ???? - looks like bad advice and all wrong to me.:eek:

Are you sure RF is not more an ac wave, rather than dc. The reading will be in the very low microvolt range, about -95 db of 1 watt at 1 meter. Definitely will not be read on 99.9% of multimeters.

kwikbreaks

bluesnake wrote: »

Definitely will not be read on 99.9% of multimeters.

Make that closer to 100%.

keith1950

I want to replace my chimney mounted aerial which is faulty, with a wall mounted one. I see several houses in my area which have aerials attached to their walls, so I want to give one a try rather than having climb up a 30ft ladder to fix the existing aerial.

Hi, I don't have much experience over the last few years however when all signals were analogue there was a general rule of thumb that each 6ft you reduce the height of the aerial you reduce the signal by 50%.

Signal strength footprints were usually quoted at a height of 40ft above ground level so by reducing the height of the aerial from 40ft to, say, 22ft you would be reducing the signal from 100%- 12.5%.

This is not to say you will not get a decent signal , it all depends on the signal strength in your area.

Basically the higher you can mount the aerial the better.

Forget about cheap signal strength meters.

Mistral001

Thanks everybody. Looks like those cheap signal strength meters are not going to be much use to me.

Mistral001

keith1950 wrote: »

Hi, I don't have much experience over the last few years however when all signals were analogue there was a general rule of thumb that each 6ft you reduce the height of the aerial you reduce the signal by 50%.

Signal strength footprints were usually quoted at a height of 40ft above ground level so by reducing the height of the aerial from 40ft to, say, 22ft you would be reducing the signal from 100%- 12.5%.

That is interesting. I will be reducing the height certainly. I will also be bringing it down below the level of neighbouring roofs. That could affect the signal. However an aerial that is accessible to me seems like a good idea and hopefully will save be a bit of money. If it does not work, it looks like I will have to hire a very long ladder.

johnmc

Two thoughts.

Mount the areial on a pole and attach brackets to the wall. More cost and risk of damage to the fabric of the building.

Loft mount the aerial. Get higher than the wall and less interference from bounced signals, but reduced signal due to dampening through the roof. If you suspend the aerial from the rafters with string (NOT wire) you can aim it better.

Either way use low loss, satellite quality, co-ax.

HTH.

ChiefGrasscutter

...and I hope there is no metal foil backed insulation stuff tacked between the rafters in the loft if that is where the OP is going to put it!
(Not much signal at all will get through at the frequencies the TV uses)