Will a Booster improve freeview signal?

Joe_Bloggs

@fuzzgun19
What was the wolfbane aerial recomendation ? Mine says I can use a set top aerial but I can't get good results because there are five houses in the way.
One of these posts I'll get round to the line of sight between transmitter and aerial.
J_B.

fuzzgun19

Joe_Bloggs wrote:

@fuzzgun19
What was the wolfbane aerial recomendation ? Mine says I can use a set top aerial but I can't get good results because there are five houses in the way.
One of these posts I'll get round to the line of sight between transmitter and aerial.
J_B.

It said 'high gain' at the end, but I didnt understand the rest.

Joe_Bloggs

Copy and paste the text. These tables contain personal information so Edit out any postcode information with xxxxxs and map references and bearings too . PM me with it and i'll go through it. I'd hoped sra would have given the table a try. According to wolfbane there are very few regions left where you cannot get digital terrestrial. There may be very local factors that mess up the big picture.
J_B

Joe_Bloggs

@fuzzgun19
Here are results of the jury.
You can identify which transmitter you are using with the analogue channel numbers in use. The plug colour is supposed to be a bit of plastic on the front of the aerial to identify its type. The numbers refer to UHF channels.

Analoge transmitter
Bilsdale West Moor(Aerial Group A, UHF 21-37 red plug )
BBC1 BBC2 ITV C4 C5
33 26 29 23 35
Or Pontop Pike (Group CD, UHF channels 48-68 green plug)
58 64 61 54 None.

If you get C5 you are probably looking at Bilsdale.
Lets look how the digital channels share the air waves
Digital Bilsdale West Moor
Digital multiplexes
MPX1 MPX2 A B C D (Group K 21-48 grey plug)
34 21 31 24 27 42(and only 1k6 watts)

So if you have a group A Aerial you may be missing out on digital multiplex D (Mostly music and radio). Perhaps a wideband aerial with a masthead amp would be the best bet.
However you are missing multiplex 1 (BBC1,2,3,News 24)
See http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/dtt_channels.html for the list.
Do you have a video recorder, dvd player, set top box etc that is using channel 34 to output its signal to the UHF aerial cable. In many cases you can move this channel or turn it of, if you can use scart connections instead. Analogue BBC1 is on Channel 33 where The digital multiplex '1' is on Channel 34.
There should be no problem but there is. Instead of a booster you might try a distribution amplifier. This gives each receiving device a good copy of the original signal rather than a degraded effort that has been through a potentially noisy device with its own ability to add channels.
J_B.

fuzzgun19

Joe_Bloggs wrote:

There should be no problem but there is. Instead of a booster you might try a distribution amplifier. This gives each receiving device a good copy of the original signal rather than a degraded effort that has been through a potentially noisy device with its own ability to add channels.
J_B.

Where can I buy a 'distribution amplifier'? Do they sell them in argos?

Joe_Bloggs

@fuzzgun19
I was in argos yesterday and there was a huge queue and no cataloges left. The answer is they used to. What I said before was a guess. How is your C5 reception ? Do you get analogue TV on the channels I mentioned ? In What order do you connect your aerial to the devices that you have ? You might be able to get away with changing the order.
The powers that be have oversimplified the digital TV situation especially with the advertising of it. The existing analogue situation is making digital reception worse than it should be. Pull the plug on analogue!
J_B.

fuzzgun19

I do get analogue channels 1-5 with ok reception. When I move the aerial I've got around the room i get sometimes no channels and sometimes about 30(including some radio) Some of the channels have pixels which come and go and freezing.
I plugged in the freeview box, then plugged in the aerial(i dont have any other devices).
Do you think I should just get the outdoor aerial I mentioned earlier? or try to find an 'amplifier'?

Edinburghlass_2

fuzzgun, if you want to try a booster I can send you the one I have if you like. PM me if you want it posted out.

Joe_Bloggs

Perhaps your freeview box is broadcasting on channel 34 or something around you is. I can turn this feature off on mine. Better have a working scart connection or you will not be able to see its output. If you can get analogue BBC1 on UHF 33 and fail to get Digital multiplex 1 on UHF 34 then perhaps an outdoor aerial is required. The analogue signal alone is 500KW the digital multiplex signals you can get are mostly 6KW. The weird thing is that MPX 1(34) squished in between BBC1 (33)and C5(35) should be one of the the easiest to get if you can get the others.
J_B.

Roger_Rampant

You can have Freeview reception for your postcode explained in simple English here