Beginner Question

Tester46

I'm new to this and I have searched for answers, but can't find them so here goes... (sorry if this has been answered before)

I have just moved to a house in a rural location in West Cork (near Clonakilty). We want to put in an aerial to get RTE1/RTE2/TV3/TG4. I have an One-For-All powered set top aerial like this, but I don't get any signal whatsoever with it, no matter how I twist and turn it.

My house has a coaxial TV point upstairs in a bedroom and one downstairs in the living room. There is also a wire for a roof aerial that runs from the chimney. All the cables from the coaxial points and the chimney end in the attic.

What equipment do I need to buy to install an attic aerial and connect it so that I can watch TV? Would I really be complicating matters if I got a satellite dish to get the free-to-air channels too? How do I connect them all so that I can simply plug the TV into the wall in the living room?

I don't understand all the TV & aerial lingo, so keep it simple please! Thanks!!!

Bob_Harris

Before you buy anything, try plug the aerial you currently have up in the attic, it might yield some results.

Tester46

Bob_Harris wrote: »

Before you buy anything, try plug the aerial you currently have up in the attic, it might yield some results.

Thanks, how do I do that? In the attic I have three loose cable ends. The first is from the bedroom TV coaxial point. The second is from the living room TV coaxial point. The third is from the loose cable that the electrician put on the chimney in case we wanted to put up a satellite dish or aerial!

All advice is very gratefully received. I have tried 5 installers from the golden pages and their are either not answering (for over a week now) or they don't service my area.

The Cush

Tester46 wrote: »

Thanks, how do I do that? In the attic I have three loose cable ends. The first is from the bedroom TV coaxial point. The second is from the living room TV coaxial point. The third is from the loose cable that the electrician put on the chimney in case we wanted to put up a satellite dish or aerial!

Fit a co-ax plug to the living room cable. Join the aerial plug to the newly fitted cable plug using a female barrel connector (to join two male TV plugs) . All available locally from your local supermarket, diy or tv shop.

Bob_Harris

For both a satellite and terrestrial set-up in the sitting room you could do the following:

Set up an aerial, in your attic or mounted outside, for your local transmitter (best cater for digital as it will be here in roughly a year). Use good coax cable.

Set up the sat dish (single LNB) using the existing coax cable that is going outside.

In the attic where all of the coax cables terminate, use a Tv and Sat combiner to combine the aerial signal and the satellite dish signal into a single feed. Using F-connectors screw the coax coming from the dish into the power pass leg (labelled 950-2250MHz), and the aerial into the other leg. Then screw the coaxing coming up from the sitting room into the single end of the combiner.

Down in the sitting room, use another of the above combiners, or a faceplate to separate the signals again.

Tester46

Bob_Harris wrote: »

For both a satellite and terrestrial set-up in the sitting room you could do the following:

Set up an aerial, in your attic or mounted outside, for your local transmitter (best cater for digital as it will be here in roughly a year). Use good coax cable.

Set up the sat dish (single LNB) using the existing coax cable that is going outside.

In the attic where all of the coax cables terminate, use a Tv and Sat combiner to combine the aerial signal and the satellite dish signal into a single feed. Using F-connectors screw the coax coming from the dish into the power pass leg (labelled 950-2250MHz), and the aerial into the other leg. Then screw the coaxing coming up from the sitting room into the single end of the combiner.

Down in the sitting room, use another of the above combiners, or a faceplate to separate the signals again.

Thanks Bob Harris and Cush - those are great instructions!

Tester46

One other question - from reading this forum, it seems that different areas of the country need different types of aerials. I can try the small One-For-All aerial I have, but if I need to get a new aerial for the attic, what type should I get bearing in mind I'm near Clonakilty in West Cork?

Thanks!

The Cush

Tester46 wrote: »

One other question - from reading this forum, it seems that different areas of the country need different types of aerials. I can try the small One-For-All aerial I have, but if I need to get a new aerial for the attic, what type should I get bearing in mind I'm near Clonakilty in West Cork?

Thanks!

Clonakilty has its own analogue relay - no TV3 though. UHF Channels 39, 42, 49 with UHF Group B aerial.

The Digital TV test transmissions from Mullaghanish may also be possible, maybe someone from the area could post the relevant information.

Check out the all-for-one aerial you have at the moment in the attic using the connectors I suggested above before you invest further.

Tester46

The Cush wrote: »

Clonakilty has its own analogue relay - no TV3 though. UHF Channels 39, 42, 49 with UHF Group B aerial.

The Digital TV test transmissions from Mullaghanish may also be possible, maybe someone from the area could post the relevant information.

Check out the all-for-one aerial you have at the moment in the attic using the connectors I suggested above before you invest further.

Thanks Cush for all the good advice. Do you know what do I need to get TV3 - is it the same aerial or another aerial pointed in a different direction?

In your method for fitting the co-ax plug, it needs to be soldered. I don't have a soldering iron (!) - is there another way to connect the co-ax plug to the cable without soldering?

Thanks!

The Cush

I've never soldered a co-ax plug, it will work without the solder.

TV3 will not pay to be transmitted from the relays so your options are Sky, MMDS (UPC/South Coast?) or maybe the DTT test transmissions from Mullaghanish.

Your best chance for tv3 would be if you can pull in a weak signal from a roof aerial for mullaghanish.
If you get that,you'll get digital from there which will deliver perfect pictures.
It's only a test at the moment so it won't have all the channels all of the time but most of the time.
Try it anyway.

Tester46

Nice one.

Not too pushed about TV3 because it's cr** anyway, but it's still 25% of the available channels!

I will try the easy attic aerial first and then graduate onto a proper roof aerial to try to get the DTT signals.

Thanks!

Bog Butter

Seen as this thread is beginner orientated I thought i'd ask my question here. If I was buying a tv now on the high street can I buy one which is fully suitable for the forthcomming Irish Digital Terestial Television (DTT) service? If so maybe someone could recommend one. Much appreciated, thanks.

The Cush

malman wrote: »

Seen as this thread is beginner orientated I thought i'd ask my question here. If I was buying a tv now on the high street can I buy one which is fully suitable for the forthcomming Irish Digital Terestial Television (DTT) service? If so maybe someone could recommend one. Much appreciated, thanks.

Suggest you check out this thread TV's with MPEG4 DTT decoder