Need advice on what aeriel to buy

Kashkai

I've recently installed a Freesat service but the missus wants her RTE and TV3 stations so I have to buy an aeriel to pick them up. I'd like it to be "future proof", i.e. it'll get the analogue signals now and DTT when its finally launched. My neighbours have square mesh aeriels pointing southwest but the ones I've seen on the web are more like these:

http://www.freesat.ie/index.php?cat=Terrestrial_Aerials&ActinicSID=3a23a332159088d4d9e585a9fc0b03a6 so any advice on what would be a good one to get. BTW, we currently use an indoor aeriel and RTE1 has great reception, RTE2 is adequate to good while the TV3 signal is poor.

I'd also appreciate advice on where I should put it up, i.e. on a pole to get maximum height or in the attic as some websites say I could. Would I also need some kind of amplifier for the signal or do I wait and see how good the signal is before I spend more of the hard earned?

Finally, I plan on connecting the new aeriel to the 3 RG6 cables that the sparks left in the attic that terminate at the TV points. I presume there's some kind of connector that would take the feed from the aeriel and allow me to connect the 3 RG6 cables.

Any advice/opinions appreciated in advance.

Joey the lips

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

I've recently installed a Freesat service but the missus wants her RTE and TV3 stations so I have to buy an aeriel to pick them up. I'd like it to be "future proof", i.e. it'll get the analogue signals now and DTT when its finally launched. My neighbours have square mesh aeriels pointing southwest but the ones I've seen on the web are more like these:

http://www.freesat.ie/index.php?cat=Terrestrial_Aerials&ActinicSID=3a23a332159088d4d9e585a9fc0b03a6 so any advice on what would be a good one to get. BTW, we currently use an indoor aeriel and RTE1 has great reception, RTE2 is adequate to good while the TV3 signal is poor.

I'd also appreciate advice on where I should put it up, i.e. on a pole to get maximum height or in the attic as some websites say I could. Would I also need some kind of amplifier for the signal or do I wait and see how good the signal is before I spend more of the hard earned?

Finally, I plan on connecting the new aeriel to the 3 RG6 cables that the sparks left in the attic that terminate at the TV points. I presume there's some kind of connector that would take the feed from the aeriel and allow me to connect the 3 RG6 cables.

Any advice/opinions appreciated in advance.

Hi PD

Would appreciate if you kept me up to date on this as its a route I am looking at going. Would also appreciate if you gave me costings. I hope that does not sound to forward

I am also a sky man but lost me job am trying to cut down on bill without haveing depressing TV.

Kashkai

Joey the lips wrote: »

Hi PD

Would appreciate if you kept me up to date on this as its a route I am looking at going. Would also appreciate if you gave me costings. I hope that does not sound to forward

I am also a sky man but lost me job am trying to cut down on bill without haveing depressing TV.

Hi Joey,

The freesat installation cost me approx €250 which included an 80cm dish, a Grundig Freesat receiver, 100 metres of tx100 cable, quad lnb, 8 f plugs and a satellite finder. I spent another €10 on coach plugs for the dish mount and a compass to get me the direction of the satellite. The installation I did myself. However, if you already have SKY, then you're good to go with the Freesat channels, i.e. the BBC's, ITV's, Channel 4's etc. You need the aerial for the "national" channels.

I bought a UHF/VHF aerial, pole mount and 4 way amplifier yesterday for €140 all in. I've just put in up and am in the process of fine tuning the signal. I'll wait until my eldest girl gets home from school so she can tell me how the reception is as its a pain in the ass going up and down a 20ft ladder to check the reception! Once this is completed, I'll have free tv for the price of a year's subscription to SKY so its worth the investment IMO.

One final thing, based on where I live, I thought that the Kippure transmitter would be the one I'd aim for but I appear to be getting a better signal from 3 rock in the Dublin mountains.

Joey the lips

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Hi Joey,

The freesat installation cost me approx €250 which included an 80cm dish, a Grundig Freesat receiver, 100 metres of tx100 cable, quad lnb, 8 f plugs and a satellite finder. I spent another €10 on coach plugs for the dish mount and a compass to get me the direction of the satellite. The installation I did myself. However, if you already have SKY, then you're good to go with the Freesat channels, i.e. the BBC's, ITV's, Channel 4's etc. You need the aerial for the "national" channels.

I bought a UHF/VHF aerial, pole mount and 4 way amplifier yesterday for €140 all in. I've just put in up and am in the process of fine tuning the signal. I'll wait until my eldest girl gets home from school so she can tell me how the reception is as its a pain in the ass going up and down a 20ft ladder to check the reception! Once this is completed, I'll have free tv for the price of a year's subscription to SKY so its worth the investment IMO.

One final thing, based on where I live, I thought that the Kippure transmitter would be the one I'd aim for but I appear to be getting a better signal from 3 rock in the Dublin mountains.

Good to go in the sense that all I do is attach the decoder to the sky dish?

How many channels do you get when you combine it all?

I live in Duleek in meath how do I find out where I aim my aeral

celticfc

I bought this Aerial recently for my attic and it works a treat.

The Maplin "Bricks & Mortar" Shops here have them @ 50 Euro.

musa

I think I am right in saying the aerial that works for me in the North,is group CD and a wide band amp,Fringe Electronics CD 1223.
You could check if you really require lots of fancy iron work ie deflectors,umteen elements etc.The aerial that gives me full signal strength in Annalong Co.Down,fell off my neighbours roof after 20 years and was on its way to the skip.

Kashkai

Joey the lips wrote: »

Good to go in the sense that all I do is attach the decoder to the sky dish?

How many channels do you get when you combine it all?

I live in Duleek in meath how do I find out where I aim my aeral

I use my old SKY box to get the Freesat channels in one room - works a treat. There are over 140 Freesat channels but tbh, most of them are not my cup of tea but each to their own. As for where to point your aerial, have a look at this website that gives all the transmitters in the country and where they broadcast to. I think you'd get a signal from the kippure transmitter as Duleek appears to be in a blindspot for the Clermont Carn transmitter which would be in north county Louth.

http://www.irish-tv.com/irishtrans.asp

syboit

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

I've recently installed a Freesat service but the missus wants her RTE and TV3 stations so I have to buy an aeriel to pick them up. I'd like it to be "future proof", i.e. it'll get the analogue signals now and DTT when its finally launched. My neighbours have square mesh aeriels pointing southwest but the ones I've seen on the web are more like these:


Finally, I plan on connecting the new aeriel to the 3 RG6 cables that the sparks left in the attic that terminate at the TV points. I presume there's some kind of connector that would take the feed from the aeriel and allow me to connect the 3 RG6 cables.

Any advice/opinions appreciated in advance.

Hi,

Those square mesh aerials are probably mmds aerials pointing to specific upc mast, not sure if they co-locate with the analog/future dtt sites.

For the connection in the attic, I've my aerial connection coming in and going to a booster box, and then I've coax going from it to the various rooms in the house, those older rf/coax connectors is what I've seen most of them take.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Coax-Plug-TV-Female-RF-OUT-Connectors-Freeview-Video-x1_W0QQitemZ290272947450QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_3?hash=item290272947450&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318

Kashkai

Just finalised the antennae fixing and the picture for RTE 1 & 2, TV3 etc on the TV is as good as the satellite feed (which is excellent btw). Very very happy with my new freesat/dtt aerial set up and no more SKY bills to pay. Now if only I could get National Geographic and the History channel as well then I'd be happy as a pig in sh1te.

pedantic pat

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

One final thing, based on where I live, I thought that the Kippure transmitter would be the one I'd aim for but I appear to be getting a better signal from 3 rock in the Dublin mountains.

Dave,

you sure you're picking up 3 rock - did you check channel numbers or are you basing this on the general direction of the aerial

if you are picking up 3 rock you could have purchased a relatively cheaper UHF aerial and not the VHF/UHF log perriodic

the neighbours 'aerials' pointing southwest are most likely MMDS aerials picking up a signal from dunmurray hill near kildare town

Joey the lips

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Just finalised the antennae fixing and the picture for RTE 1 & 2, TV3 etc on the TV is as good as the satellite feed (which is excellent btw). Very very happy with my new freesat/dtt aerial set up and no more SKY bills to pay. Now if only I could get National Geographic and the History channel as well then I'd be happy as a pig in sh1te.

This is my problem too dave but like you I am trying to cut down on bills.
The aerial you fitted in the house to get RTE and TV3 is it in your attic or outside. Can the wires on both the dish and the aerial be split in 2 so you can have a decoder in the kitchen and sittingroom off the same wire or must the wire on the decoder be unbroken

Kashkai

pedantic pat wrote: »

Dave,

you sure you're picking up 3 rock - did you check channel numbers or are you basing this on the general direction of the aerial

if you are picking up 3 rock you could have purchased a relatively cheaper UHF aerial and not the VHF/UHF log perriodic

the neighbours 'aerials' pointing southwest are most likely MMDS aerials picking up a signal from dunmurray hill near kildare town

Hi Pat,

I had it wrong in my earlier post. When I checked the compass bearing, I didn't allow for magnetic variation (made the same mistake with the satellite dish as well ). I am pointing at Kippure and the signal is brilliant.

Kashkai

Joey the lips wrote: »

This is my problem too dave but like you I am trying to cut down on bills.
The aerial you fitted in the house to get RTE and TV3 is it in your attic or outside. Can the wires on both the dish and the aerial be split in 2 so you can have a decoder in the kitchen and sittingroom off the same wire or must the wire on the decoder be unbroken

I erected my antennae on a pole attached to the outside of my house with a clear line of sight to the transmitter. I think you can only get away with placing the antennae in the attic if you can already get a strong signal from an indoor aerial otherwise you'll get ghosting of images from roof trusses, roof slates etc.

While I didn't do it, you can combine the feeds from a satellite dish with the antennae using one of these:

http://satellite.ie/acatalog/Satellite_UHF_VHF_Cable_Combiner.html

Then you can run one single cable to the tv and use another combiner to split the signals back into satellite and antennae feeds.

From what I've learned, its bad practice to split a feed from a satellite dish to serve two receivers. You should run separate cables to the different locations where you plan on putting satellite receivers. You'll need a twin lnb for two receivers and a quad for 4. As for splitting the aerial feed, I used a 4 way amplifier that takes the signal from the aerial and splits it into the 4 cables to the tv points. Any loss of signal is made up by the amplifier.

While I'm pretty good at DIY, I'd never attempted anything like this before. However installing the dish, cables, aerial etc was the easy part. Aligning the dish caused a few teeth gnashing hours but now thats its all up and running, I'm pretty pleased with myself. I'd recommend that anyone who's even half way competent at DIY should have a go at this as its not that hard once you get into it. Putting up the aerial was a piece of p!ss as you don't have to be anywhere near as precise as aligning a satellite dish. Just think of the money you'll be saving in the long run to spend on luxuries like food, petrol, electricity etc :rolleyes:

mumhaabu

Maybe you'd put a few photos of your rig up Dave to us how you did it. Photos speak a thousand words for us amateur diyers.

jaggiebunnet

yeah would be good for more info here for us non proficient folk - tho i might end up getting an installer to do the aeriel as the attic reception is not good and i am feart of heights . definitely need to get rid of sky come the summer, get a decent aeriel up and get a freesat pvr - sick paying all this money out.

Kashkai

Will get the camera out tomorrow so and take a few snaps of my set up. As I live in a bungalow, heights weren't a problem as I was able to site my dish and aerial on poles attached to the side of the house at a aheight of approx 16 feet.

Not bragging here, but my DIY installation is a hell of a lot better than the SKY installation I had done 4 years ago and have since removed completely. In that instance, he put up the dish in a hurry (60% signal strength and 30 - 40% signal quality at best and nothing when it was raining!!), ran the cable in the gutter and draped it down the gable wall (with no cable clips to keep it in place), drilled through the wall from the outside in, misjudged the level and drilled through the skirting board, and only had enough cable to place the tv tight in the corner with not spare cable to move the tv even a little.

pedantic pat

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Will get the camera out tomorrow so and take a few snaps of my set up. As I live in a bungalow, heights weren't a problem as I was able to site my dish and aerial on poles attached to the side of the house at a aheight of approx 16 feet.

Not bragging here, but my DIY installation is a hell of a lot better than the SKY installation I had done 4 years ago and have since removed completely. In that instance, he put up the dish in a hurry (60% signal strength and 30 - 40% signal quality at best and nothing when it was raining!!), ran the cable in the gutter and draped it down the gable wall (with no cable clips to keep it in place), drilled through the wall from the outside in, misjudged the level and drilled through the skirting board, and only had enough cable to place the tv tight in the corner with not spare cable to move the tv even a little.

Some of those sky installations would make Del Boy look good - a mate of mine got his installled in winter only to lose the picture during the summer when all the leaves appeared on the trees !

STB

What kind of TV are you using Dave ? A Sony KDL ?

I just noticed your comments about being future proof. Just once your happy that you are receiving DTT via a dvb-t tuner and not being fooled by the analogue (as mad as that sounds).

Kashkai

STB wrote: »

What kind of TV are you using Dave ? A Sony KDL ?

I just noticed your comments about being future proof. Just once your happy that you are receiving DTT via a dvb-t tuner and not being fooled by the analogue (as mad as that sounds).

Afraid my tv is a Samsung 46A656 model which is not MPEG 4 ready so I'll need a set top box or something like the Mvision combo box. Better still would be a new, bigger tv that is MPEG4 ready but I think I'll wait another year or so as I only have the Sammy about 8 months and while I have an analogue signal, I'm happy enough with this.