Aerial Advice

mjsmyth

I have an aerial in the Attic that gives good quality pics on RTE1&2, TV3 and TG4. The picture is strong and steady except in the most dreadful weather when TV3 acts up a bit.

Anyway, I would also like this to do FM, but everytime I connect it to a wallplate that has a TV and FM outputs, the signal is crap for TV. Any ideas?

Also, I have a small little AM aerial that gives dreadful reception (read none). The cable is so short that it only reaches 1m away from the receiver. I would also like to put this in the attic. Can this just be lengthened by just adding this cable or does it need to be a specific type? Failing that, does anyone know where I can get a dedicated AM aerial? I have looked on peats.com and maplin.co.uk with no luck.

The reason for the AM aerial is that I got a lot of premiership and scottish games this year on 42e - Business Channel & TV8 when they did not encode, which was quite regular, but the audio was obviously turkish. I tried streaming from the net, but BBC block non UK IP's for a lot of games. I did go down the proxy server route, but speed quality was dreadful.

anyway, any tips or help would be most welcome.

MJ

Ulsterman 1690

This should really go in "Terrestrial"

You need a seperate aerial for FM (and another for AM if you want) for most people a Vertical (single element) dipole is the best solution

Very little on AM (during daylight hours anyway) in the Republic only one national station (which is also on FM) and (in some areas) the odd pirate however with a good aerial some stations from the UK (and further afield) can be "pulled in" although quality can be variable

byte

Moved to Terrestrial forum.

mjsmyth

Thanks, it is mainly 5 live I want to get. I can kinda get it, but it fades quicker then, well something that fades very quick!!

mj

tapfit2004

if you have 2 dishes (ie 1 for 42e and 1 pointing at 28e) you can combine the picture from 42e and the audio from 5live on 28e. the picture will still be behind the sound but its not too bad.

Ulsterman 1690

For AM 10-50 feet of wire (The longer the better but TOO long can overload the radio making reception worse instead of better) preferably with most of it outside and well above the ground should do the trick.

Although most people these days will prefer to go the satellite route (you dont need to subscribe to $ky for the radio channels) as its more reliable, offers better sound and 200+ radio channels (including five live)

mjsmyth

Yeah, the satellite route, I had thought about it.... Then I would need to go get another receiver and another dish and route more cable back from the dish position. Thats highly unlikely at the moment.

I think I will buy some wire, hook up the antenna and see what I get. If it works, then great. If it doesn't, then I explore the other option

Thanks guys.

mj