my nans uhf and vhf in attic

conceited

Hi lads,

Inside my nans loft is 2 aerials, uhf and vhf.
I can get rte1, 2 ,tv3 and tg4 perfect on her portable tv but on her lcd tv there crap (except tg4) any ideas why that is?

And another thing if i wanted to pick up itv bbc and the rest how do i do it?
Do i need to get a booster or something?

The way i have the aerials connected is like this.
I have 1 wire from the uhf going into the vhf and from the vhf going straight to the telly.
Am i allowed combine both wires or do i need some gadget to split signals etc.

Also I am from cork and was wondering can i get this dttv or freeview or anything new .

lucernarian

That's a queer setup allright! Whether it works or not would be down to all sorts of factors, not least the channel tuned in, the distance between the two aerials and a host of other things.

You need a VHF/UHF combiner. More importantly, if you're in Cork city or nearby, I suggest you ditch the VHF aerial and point your aerial at collins barracks or spur hill transmitter. Whereabouts are you?



If you want the UK channels, the easiest way is to hook up a satellite dish and a small decoder box. You get dozens of channels for free, though not the Sky branded channels like sky 1, sky sports etc. Check out the satellite forum.

You might be able to get south coast TV, but I don't know how that works out.

conceited

It is working but why is the lcd picture crap?
Passage West(Marino Pt.) Cork area.
Also what polarisation do i need and waht type of aerials yellow toip blue tips i'm lost lads.
She won't put up a dish either.
I can get bbc itv on an aerial from my place which is alot higher than her place(she lives down low )

conceited

Ok i've been reading since 5pm today and learned alot of stuff.

This is the closet relay to her house about 2 miles away.

............................rte rte2 tg4 erp aerial
MARINO POINT Cork 29 33 23 40W UHF (groupA) vetical

As i understand it i need to get a uhf group A aerial and have it vertical ie all the lines going like this |||||||||---> ?
high gain low gain whats that mean?

The reason they use vertical is to get down into valleys and things like that?

lucernarian

The only problem with pointing an aerial towards the marino point relay is that there will be no TV3 service from it. If TV3 is being picked up well on some sort of telly, then it's best to get an aerial for Spur Hill. That's a Group C/D or green tipped aerial, with the elements aligned horizontally.

You'll get better reception of the state owned channels with a group A aerial though, to your local TV relay. The choice is yours.

Antenna

conceited wrote: »

This is the closet relay to her house about 2 miles away.

............................rte rte2 tg4 erp aerial
MARINO POINT Cork 29 33 23 40W UHF (groupA) vetical

you don't say exactly where you are..
If you cannot see that mast (hill above Marino Point), forget it. Its mainly to serve Passage West (on the other side of the water)

Spur Hill is probably blocked by the hills above Passage West. Mullaghanish (Group A) is your only good source of TV3.

conceited wrote: »

The reason they use vertical is to get down into valleys and things like that?

no its to lessen the possibility of interference from other transmitters using the same channels but with horizontal polarisation.

conceited

At the moment i have it pointed to a place called marlogue it's a wood by east ferry.Or it could be some repeater on top of the water tower in cobh,I dunno.
But I am getting rte rt2 and tg4 with the uhf aerial in that direction.
I don't think she has direct line of sight.Shes down in the tae road about a 2 miles from the ferry.
If you know the area, it's surrounded by hills and is down quite low.

If she has no direct line of sight to any repeater what can i do?(booster?)

Antenna

conceited wrote: »

I don't think she has direct line of sight.Shes down in the tae road about a 2 miles from the ferry.

I think best stick with the current aerials for there, as Mullaghanish probably has best reception as the hills block Crosshaven, Spur Hill, and probably Marino Pt, but as mentioned above get a proper VHF/UHF diplexer, as you are losing signal just joining cables together.

Make sure that the new LCD TV is properly tuned in, it may be tuned to another weaker transmitter. It might be faulty too, if another TV is gives good reception there.

South Coast may be possible, from main carrigaline transmitter on Channels 40,42,45,48 , yellow colour code(Group or wideband aerial. Probably need a masthead amplifier and installed outside. You would need another diplexer to combine it with the aerial for TV3/TG4 Red(Group A).

look at neighbours' houses there? What aerials do they have?

byte

The UHF aerial you have is Wideband, covering all the UHF scale (though peaks on Group .

Have you made any progress on your signals from Marino Pt? I wasn't aware that you might be in close proximity to other transmitters (i was under the assumption that the Marino relay was specific to the area your nan's in).

Ignoring the VHF aerial, you could try receiving Mullaghnish as mentioned above, you'll need to flip that aerial back to Horizontal again. If TV3 comes in relatively well, all is good. Then you can go about setting the VHF aerial (elements go from top to bottom vertical) then use either a UHF/VHF combiner or (assuming VHF comes in strong) a UHF masthead amp with VHF mix-thru (triax 25W-1W for example)

barnicles

Frequencies for mulliganish
RTE 1 175.25
RTE 2 199.5
Tv3 519
TG4 551

conceited

Antenna I got that deplexor it makes a big difference.I also bough new connections and wire, signal is alot clearer.

Byte if you know the area i have it pointed at the big water tower in cobh so it is either that or marlogue woods.I tried marino but the signal wasn't great .

She has rte1, rte2, and tg4 perfect and tv3 is not too bad.(tv3 +tg4 is on the vhf)

I'm going to give Mullaghnish a shot monday just to see as i'm curious.
I've learned so much the last 3 days i can't stop looking at peoples roofs haha.
It's very interesting stuff to be honest.

Barnicles thanks for the frequencies your a great help .

I have a few questions again if yee don't mind.
From looking at an aerial on the roof can you tell if it's group a b c or d and what type etc?
I think i can tell alot of this already maybe im wrong.
Also if i had a group A aerial and the signal was very weak would a longer aerial with more directors and a big deflector be the best?(channels from 21 to 32 say)

byte

I'm in Donegal so rather unfamiliar with your area! Glad you got things working though

Some grouped aerials can be figured by the colour of the plastic bits at either end of the boom. eg. if it has red ends, it's Group A, yellow for Gr. B, and green for Gr. C/D. Black I think for wideband aerials. Probably hard to see from the ground though!

The aerial you have is a wideband grid.

And yeah, you can get bigger aerials if current signal isn't great, depends how poor it is to begin with though. Like, if signal is extremely poor, then bigger aerials aren't going to be of much help.