Replacing an aerial

nikirushka

My old aerial has fallen off my roof, and is hanging by its cable. So I guess it's time I got round to replacing it

I need to get one that gets freeview channels as that one's never been able to, but I've seen mentions that I might not need to get a new roof one to pick them up. Also, I currently have a tivo box with Virgin and a paid TV subscription, but I want to cancel that.

I am on a tight budget! What are my options?

Annie1960

When Freeview first came out, I had a loft aerial that would not pick up the signal. I had a roof aerial fitted and it worked fine, although I needed a booster as I had a couple of TVs running from it. I can't recall how much it cost, but it was a one-off cost with free TV for years afterwards.

How many TVs do you have running from your aerial? Maybe you just need a booster?

In your position, I would get a local aerial company around to test your system and see if you need a new aerial, or just to re-attach the existing one and add a booster.

If you are down in a valley or near trees your signal may be weakened, and a booster could help.

I'm sure other folk will be along soon with other suggestions.

WobblyDog

You might want to spend some time browsing the large amount of information on a website such as http://aerialsandtv.com/

If you can work out which transmitter your aerial ought to be pointed at, you may find that you can buy an aerial designed for a specific "group" which will give a stronger signal than a wideband one designed to work with all transmitters.

By Freeview, I assume you mean channels like Quest, which tend to be broadcast at lower powers than BBC1. Were you able to receive BBC1 and ITV1 through the aerial before it fell down? As the aerial has fallen down, it's possible that it still works, and was only failing to receive the weaker Freeview channels because it wasn't pointing in the right direction.

You could also walk up and down the road peering at your neighbours' aerials. How big are they and in what direction are they pointing? What channels can they receive through their aerials?

A.Penny.Saved

Check the digital TV predictor on the following site. Ignore the exe, there is no exe, it's safe. It shows the recommended aerial for your location. Use your ordnance survey location if you can because it will give a more precise location than the postcode. It recommends a Log periodic aerial for me which is what I fitted before the analogue switch off. Log periodic aerials are very streamlined with a very low wind load. They are not very expensive either. It also shows the polarization (H or V) needed to receive a signal.
http://www.wolfbane.net/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?
The following site can show any obstructions between the transmitter and your location, this does not include buildings and trees, only land such as hills. I have a large hill between the transmitter and my location which partly affects the signal. It does not go inside the Fresnel zone but gets very close to it.
http://www.megalithia.com/elect/terrain.html

I do not think that the 10m aerial height is realistic unless it is mounted on a chimney stack. Mine is only about 7 m high mounted to the back of my home on the wall on a pole. There are restrictions on mounting an aerial, it is not supposed to go higher than the highest point of the house. Many older aerials are fitted above the chimney stack.

I fitted my aerial, actually two, a large aerial before analogue switch off and then replaced it with a log periodic. Inside the loft gives poor reception BTW. You could fit a loftbox and pipe the TV signal around the house. Mine does Freeview, satellite, FM and DAB.

charlottem00

We purchased an almighty big aerial a few years back so as to watch Freeview HD - and, with it a masthead amplifier, to gather as much as possible! (we have a flat on the ground floor and several trees in the garden towards where the local antennas were facing) It all seemed to work well, but rather unsightly, and expensive too
HOWEVER . . . During a particularly windy day several months back the whole thing was torn down and wrecked. Luckily a visiting friend showed me a great video online which explains how to make, in a really simple way, how to make your own antenna from a few metal coat hangers! Took us an hour to cobble one of those together, and much to our surprise it brought the tele back to life with a strong and steady picture, and our new creation was doing this from inside our gf flat!

BUT YET MORE AMAZING. . . When we reran the channel scan on our Freeview recorder, the NUMBER OF TV CHANNELS JUMPED FROM 112 CHANNELS TO A WOPPING 144 TV CHANNELS! And now the signal is plenty strong enough for us to watch all of the HD channels without any of the glitches we had suffered from before. Would Recommend anyone who wants a better signal or more channels give this a go before wasting money on anything else!!!

Just search YouTube for ' coat hanger antenna '

Best of luck
Regards
Charlotte

adonis

I hate chimney aerials they never seem that secure to me. so I got a new one and in the loft I got a great signal.

Just buy a decent one and try it (if you have a loft)

And make sure the connections are good.

Rodders53

LOCATION is key.

Where are you and what are your reception predictions?

NB Use the UK spectrum planners' tool (tick the 'detailed view' box)
http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/postcodechecker/ to find your most likely transmitter. In 'consumer view' it will tell you what channels are available... some places receive a more restricted set of TV stations than other places due to the transmitter(s) being received. You may not like the limitations?

Wolfbane (while useful in many respects) doesn't always get it right. It also is frequently pessimistic in the aerial suggestions (recommending amplified high gain when that is seriously OTT).

Good reception in lofts is possible in some places (like where I live currently) - even room aerials (aka set top aerials) can work in favourable places.

I second the recommendation from post #3 to read ATV aerials pages and you can do much worse than follow his recommended aerials. But precise choice does depend on your location.

Roof aerials are the one exception to d-i-y for most people.

nikirushka

Tried to reply yesterday and my PC fritzed. I just want to be able to get the usual free channels as those are what I'm watching - BBC, ITV, C4 etc plus Pick and a couple of others. I've only ever been able to pick up half a dozen BBC channels with the now-broken aerial.

I'm on the top of a small hill in S!!!!horpe, North Lincs - my area is the flat plateau at the top of this hill. So theoretically, reception should be good. My neighbours are all Sky/Virgin so no help there!

Whatever I do I'm going to have to get someone in to remove the old aerial with it hanging down, so I've got the opportunity there to have a new roof one (plus I can't actually get into my loft!).