TV aerial recommendations

netman

I'm looking for a way to improve my reception, and if possible get DVB-T reception from UK but it's not that important. I have no idea what kind of aerial I have but I've attached a photo so hopefully someone with more knowledge can identify it

I have pretty decent reception on most channels. UTV and RTE sometimes get a bit fuzzy, and it comes and goes in waves.. Could be perfect reception for a few minutes, then goes a bit fuzzy, then back to being great. No idea if that's caused by the antenna or the installation.

The antenna is mounted on the side of the house and it's pointing north-northwest but cannot be adjusted as it's flush against the wall. That's probably bad, right?

Could I replace this with a better antenna to improve my reception, or is it not worth pursuing?

I was hoping that something like this would offer better reception and give me a shot of getting UK freeview as well: http://cgi.ebay.ie/TRIAX-UNIX-52-DIGITAL-WIDEBAND-FREEVIEW-AERIAL_W0QQitemZ330055662263QQihZ014QQcategoryZ101365QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

watty

That one is fine against a wall. as long as the TX site is at right angles to the wall.

ANYTHING will give better reception than the one you have, BUT irish Tv and UK needs two different aerials and channel or group combiner filters.

what you are receiving is probabily Group C/D VERTICAL from Claremont Carn and UK from Divis is Group A/B horizontal. Depending on your height and location Brougher Mountain to North West or Wales to East are other UK possibles.

You can buy a complete FTA Sat system for BBC/ITV less than a professionally installed mast + high gain quad for terrestiral. UK aerial would need to be about 10ft above top of roof, minimum.

"Northern Correspondant" and "Ulster 1690" are the experts on aerials for UK around this forum.

netman

Thanks for the quick reply.

I was hoping I'd be able to improve things with a cheap fix and a DIY job.
A professionally installed mast is not going to be cheap, and the house has no chimney (just a metal yoke poking out) so I doubt any mast higher than the roof is a possibility.

FTA systems I could think about, but I'd need to get someone to install it and that's not cheap either.

So, is there anything I could do on the cheap to improve my reception?
I mean I get RTE 1&2, NET3, UTV, BBC 1&2 over this little aerial.
I thought maybe a better aerial would do the job, and just replace this one.
And are there any irish stores that sell this type of equipment, or should I go down the eBay route?

watty

You can't get Irish TV and UK Tv on the same aerial.

netman

Well, I only have one aerial at the moment.. Does that mean the irish transmitter is also sending BBC/UTV signals, or is it a UK transmitter sending RTE1/2/NET3?

Ulsterman 1690

The aerial that Netmam is using is a "Bowtie grid" aka "Colourking" aka "Antighost" aka "Fireguard" -Installation may be ok if signal s good and direction correct but I wonder would the Guttering and (metal ?) ventilation grid have any effect ??? (Would rain be the reason for your variable reception ?)

The Unix would be a better aerial than the grid but its beamwidth is narrower so you may no longer be able to recieve both Irish and UK channels (although with a diplexer you could keep the grid as a second aerial)

Im guessing that youre getting Claremont (Louth) and Kilkeel (Down). Unfortunately Kilkeel doesnt do DTT (yet) If you really want DTT then Divis (West of Belfast) or might work assuming its availalable at your location (you definitely WONT get that on the same aerial as Claremont though)

You can't get Irish TV and UK Tv on the same aerial.

Ummm I know of a few (admitidely rare) instances where it is possible

The UK and Irish transmitters have to be in the same direction and polorisation. A wideband aerial would be needed and signal strength on all channels would need to be reasonably high
An example would be Claremont Carn (Irish) and Kilkeel (UK)
or possibly Brougher Mountain (UK) and Cairnhill (Irish)

probably a few more examples in the parts of "deflectorland" served by RTE relay transmitters

watty

Yes. There are always exceptions.

Most High gain "Wideband" aerials from looking at gain plots appear to be slightly broadened C/D aerials with decidedly poorer gain in Group A and also at Ch66 & Ch68 used in some places.

If you really need the gain and different transmitters, then up to 3 aerials and a Polytron factory ordered channels combiner with 3 inputs and one out put is a worth while investment.

I hope to compare 3 cheap 18 element GROUP aerials (A, B & C/D, all horizontal) (with peaks where needed) from Blake via the Polytron combiner with UNIX100 and Katrein Olympia which I have both.

I actually have two combiners, one for all the Claremont cairn, Divis and Blackmountain "Five" analogue and one for all the Digital Muxes from Divis and CC. So I have to masthead amp & split each aerial signal in two and feed the combiners. It is designed for FOUR aerials, the fourth will be vertical for CC.

lawhec

Getting UK DTT in or near Dublin from the north would be very tricky, but not totally impossible, because the frequencies in use for some services would be the same as those used for RTÉ1 and 2 from Three Rock Mountain.

As U1690 says, the aerial looks like its aimed for Clermont Carn & Kilkeel, assuming you are in N.Co. Dublin (around Skerries?) I believe that for "grid" aerials the phasing of the 4 diploes makes it very directional when vertically polarised, as opposed to when it is horizontal when it has quite a large beamwidth.

Brougher Mountain (UK) and Cairnhill (Irish)

I've never seen a setup capable where one UHF wideband aerial does both, up here Carin Hill would need a serious aerial and a masthead amp, whereas any amplification of frequencies from Brougher would be overload. That's not to say I've seen aerials for both point in nearly the same direction, within 10 degrees of one another. The best known case I can think of for two sites - one aerial is L/Derry and Holywell Hill, outdoor aerials won't do the trick due to the difference in polarity between the two sites, but some poeple using indoor aerials, even a metal coathanger bent into a square, have said their results are often good enough. In some cases, Limavady and Moville could probably be got on the one (Group E) aerial too.