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Connecting 2 aerials on roof to aerial amplifier box (aerials pointing at 2 different transmitters)

darkovo
Posts: 218 Forumite


Hi, before I try this I wanted to see if anyone has experience...
This is for freeview.
House is located in the middle of Belmont and Emley Moor transmitters, approx 30 miles from either one.
1 aerial is pointing at Emley Moor and signal is good, but local BBC 1 News is wrong (on SD channel number 001), it only picks up Leeds news, want it to pick-up East Yorkshire & Lincolnshire news ie Look North for Hull.
I added another aerial on roof, but the direction it points is directly at a very large Oak tree and full of leaves at the moment! The signal Strength is 100% but quality is about 50%. Then depending on the weather the quality goes lower and HD channels go blocky, although SD channels seem OK.
HD channels and SD channels on the older aerial is great, no issues, signal strength and quality are both near to maximum.
My idea is to link up both aerials to the same amplifier signal box, both would have to go into the 'In' connection on this box, via a Y-splitter connection, which I'd need to purchase.
Is this ever going to work? Will it just confuse the TV, overload it etc?
When the TV retunes, I don't know if the channels it tunes in will be from the prefered transmitter for BBC 1, or whether I'd be able to go into the menus and manually assign the correct BBC 1 to channel 001 etc?
The other option is freesat dish, but I already looked into this and the bloomin oak tree is also right in the path of where the dish wants to be pointed!
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Comments
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I doubt two different aerial feeds into one would work, amplified or otherwise. An amplifier can only increase whats already there, its unlikely to improve the poor signal reception quality.Can you get local news via internet tv?
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It sounds unnecessarily complicated to me but what do I know.
First you should be able to tune to the transmitter of choice via your tv or digi recorder. Long time since I did it but have done it a few times.
I've even tuned one tv set in one room to west and the other in the other room to wales to get different films.
That was on one aerial, two aerial leads.
The tuning of the tvs was different.
I now have west on my digi recorder and Wales on my tv. Just tuning.I can rise and shine - just not at the same time!
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I don't see why this wouldn't work. My aerial receives some channels from different transmitters and my TV doesn't get confused.https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-coaxial-y-splitter/p/0342382Split your aerial feed to two TVs with this coax plug to 2 coax sockets adaptor. This Y shaped adaptor can be used to split or combine FM radio signals. Alternatively, combine two TV aerials into one lead or use the aerial splitter to split one lead to two outlets. NB - a signal booster may be required to get the best reception when splitting a single aerial signal.
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I would give these guys a call and ask them the question; they are experts: https://www.aerialsandtv.com/The comments I post are my personal opinion. While I try to check everything is correct before posting, I can and do make mistakes, so always try to check official information sources before relying on my posts.1
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tacpot12 said:I would give these guys a call and ask them the question; they are experts: https://www.aerialsandtv.com/
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Yes, you'll need proper advice on this! Which I don't have. It would be fascinating to find out, tho'.I think that your idea might struggle. Very often (although this is going back a few years when I was setting up a neighb's new TV for Freeview) adjacent transmitters will transmit on a different polarity (or whatever they call it) so that they don't interfere with each other. Essentially, you need to choose one or the other.If you look up the details of each of these transmitters, see if they state how the aerial should be aligned for each, vertically or horizontally.But, perhaps they can be 'mixed'?Report back :-)1
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Using two transmitters is fine, many if not most houses near me do. One for the 'local' to get the right regional variations and another to get the full range of Freeview channels. I set mine up last year using a simple 1 to 2 splitter backwards to combine the feeds from two aerials. You then need to manually tune your TV(s) to the channel groups you want to use from each transmitter. As already stated transmitters that are near each other use different bands to avoid interference. Having thought further with the two transmitters I use one broadcasts horizontally and one vertically, if you were trying to use two the same you may have problems.2
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Also OP if you have not done so already I would test out each aerial by connecting a TV, is the picture quality good or not. From memory I have channels of 92strength and 60 quality that show perfectly so you don't necessarily need 100/100. This task is easier with a lightweight TV you can have nearby when setting up, or a long bit of coaxial cable and a helper shout back from the TV. Also make sure you use good quality cable and connections as a lot can be lost through these apparently.2
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Bendy_House said:I think that your idea might struggle. Very often (although this is going back a few years when I was setting up a neighb's new TV for Freeview) adjacent transmitters will transmit on a different polarity (or whatever they call it) so that they don't interfere with each other. Essentially, you need to choose one or the other.
In the days of analogue TV there had to be sufficient separation between UHF channels (the 21 to 69 numbers) to make sure they didn't interfere with each other and cause picture problems.
That meant that the channels used on adjacent main transmitters had to be carefully chosen to avoid issues in areas where there were signal overlaps. (combined with the problem of having weaker signals in the 'fringe' of a transmitter area.)
Having only channels 21 to 69 to play with (minus some reserved for things like VCRs) made it difficult to allocate channels to avoid overlaps and interference - with the additional complication of the channels being 'grouped' so aerials could be optimised to receive signals from a particular transmitter. That was why fitting Channel5 (TV) into the system was so complicated.
Within the jigsaw of main transmitters there was also the problem of filling in holes, hence some places being served by a repeater transmitter. Obviously the frequencies used on a repeater transmitter had to be chosen carefully to avoid interference with all the surrounding main transmitters. One of the techniques used to help with that was switching from the commonly used horizontal polarity to vertical polarity instead. So generally, vertical polarity meant the aerial was being used on a repeater transmitter rather than a main one.
However, the polarity only relates to how the elements on the aerials are orientated, once the signal is picked up by the aerial what travels along the wire to the TV is the same regardless of the transmission polarity.
So the problem had with combining aerials in analogue days was primarily the risk of the UHF frequencies (channels 21-69) from two different transmitters interfering with each other when combined into a single wire or tuner.
The good news though is that the digital system is 'smart' and most receivers can take multiple aerial inputs and work out from all the signals (MUXs) which are the best ones to use. The signal being digital also means interference between the UHF channels doesn't impact on picture quality in the way it did with analogue TV.
The only PITA is that where there are multiple versions of the same MUX being received, the digital box may choose one from a region other than the one you want and you don't always get the option to change that. Sometimes the channels from the second version of the MUX will be stored on a separate set of (Freeview) channel numbers.
TL;DR - the OP's plan should work fine, but there may be additional hassle involved in being able to find 'Look North for Hull' on the Freeview TV guide.
If it were me I would spend a bit more money on a decent signal combiner and go for one using 'F' plugs to make the connections.
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You'd need a filtered combiner for the two transmitters to avoid unwanted signal interactions.
https://www.aerialsandtv.com/knowledge/splitters-amps-and-diplexers
The only one Justin @ ATV aerials sells is split at ch 38 and might work (with some limitations).
Belmont uses: 22,25,28, 30,23,26 and 55
Emley uses: 47,44,41, 33,36,48 and 55
So it would only suit if Belmont reception was superb on the main 6 multiplexes and you wanted the PSB news from Emley as an 'extra'. Otherwise the filter would lose the COMmercial muxes on ch 33 and 36 from Emley and you'd have to lump whatever reception you'd get from Belmont's equivalent on 30 and 23.
DO NOT use an unfiltered combiner (splitter in reverse): the effects will be unpredictable and could well mess up reception of both transmitters in a very variable way due to interactions between the two aerials' signals - especially if reflections/attenuations due to tree foliage is involved.
TBF the simplest most reliable way is to either:
watch on catchup (esp. BBC iPlayer) although that will delayed a bit vs live TV;
install a dish and use a satellite receiver when you can select what regional news you get.
NB ALL DVB-T2 TV receivers should/must allow the choice of the region if two sets of mostly-usable signals are received after auto-tuning. (Part of the Freeview HD and Freeview Play spec).
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