Antenna Recomendations

pa990

I have very poor Tv reception, using a UHF roof topo aerial (spur hill)

i'm between spur hill and mulligcanish (appologive for spelling)

which is the best roof top aerial to get for
a) Spur Hill
Mullacanish

lawhec

Difficult to say as we don't know what type of aerial (or what state it and the downlead is in) you have but in general...

For Spur Hill, a UHF Group C/D aerial (green colour), horizontally polarised. One aerial will bring in all four terrestial services.

For Mullaghanish, A VHF Band III aerial, vertically polarised is required for RTÉ 1 & 2, while a UHF Group A aerial (red colour) horizontally polarised is needed for TV3 & TG4. These two aerials would then be combined into a diplexer into the one downlead.

Where possible use CT100 type aerial downlead from the aerial to the TV, this has a double shield of copper braid on a solid copper film.

conax

pa990 wrote:

which is the best roof top aerial to get for
a) Spur Hill
Mullacanish

Long term you are probably better off sticking with spur hill if you can. Take a look at your neighbours, and see, generally, if they are using 1 or 2 aerials.
I take it you are west of the transmitter, can you see it at all from around your location.
I would suggest staying away from the cheaper "tiped" aerials and opt for a better grouped Yagi or at least a wide band "Colour King" aerial. in addition a masthead amplifier may be in order.
As already suggested check your cable and connections and the aerial itself or if the signal is split to other TV sets this may be a problem area.
Is this a new installation or was the picture always bad?

pa990

All the neighbours seem to be pointing towards spur hill,

But the area is an almost complete blackspot, we even had RTE out a few years back, cos the TG4 reception was praxtically nil, and still is. They said that it was just a black spot, and that the leave on trees down the road are blocking the signal.

I was just hoping that there may be some type of high gain antenna i could use, (neighbours also have poor reception on all 4 channels), and i'm using ct100, and pic has always been bad

lucernarian

Is there a relay in the area? I think there's one in Aherla but that's probably too far away for you. Did RTÉ think that trees were affecting everyone in the area?? They could have been more helpful than to point out the obvious "black spot".

conax

right you can either go for Sky satellite subscription service with multiroom for other TV,s, or you can go max on your aerial.
Put up a 18' mast, group CD masthead amplifier and a 52 element group CD Yagi aerial (stay away from the 100 element aerials).

lucernarian

Do the 100 element aerials not do their job well? Are they flimsy?

conax

they do when they are new, but they sag over time (birds,wind, their own weight etc) reducing their efficiency ,and are prone to wind dammage

Antenna

pa990 wrote:

leave on trees down the road are blocking the signal.

I was just hoping that there may be some type of high gain antenna i could use, (neighbours also have poor reception on all 4 channels), and i'm using ct100, and pic has always been bad

What type of aerial do you have at present and do you use a masthead amplifier?

you could also try relocating the aerial somewhere else on your property, perhaps the gable end of the house rather than chimney, and experiment with having the aerial different heights, if trees are the problem

pa990

its on the chimley at the gabel end.. it really cant get any higher..

it is a smallish UHF yagi, with an amp

the entire area seems to be a blackspot .. i might look at a 52 or 100 element yagi

lucernarian

I know the neighbours are using Spur Hill, but would it be worth giving Mullaghanish a shot? A grid or wideband yagi would help in comparing the two. And there may be a relay in the area.

Did RTÉ advise what transmitter would give the best coverage?

pa990

The RTE guys told us to stick with Spur Hill, Theres no relay in the area. But now with Mullaghanish(?) due to have a height adjustment, i might have better coverage from that, when its completed.