Digital Antenna - Outdoor?

Dummy

Hi,

I want to put up an antenna for Digital TV and have no knowledge of this and need advice.

1. Can the coax from the antenna be brought into the attic & fed into a splitter to distribute to other TVs?
2. Would an antenna for digital TV provide a signal for non-digital TVs in the house?
3. Can the antenna be placed inside the attic or does it have to be outside (I am very close to Montrose RTE and can see their tall antenna from roof of house)?
4. If it has to go outside, are these antennae very large and obtrusive?
5. Could such an antenna feed DAB radios in the house?


Regards,

D.

lucernarian

The first and most important point I'll make here is that an aerial is almost equally good (or bad) for digital or analogue TV. Simply put, "Digital" TV is just an analogue signal that's encoded to allow digital 0s and 1s be carried on it.

Analogue TV, Digital TV and DAB are all broadcast from Three Rock Mountain in the Dublin Mountains. You should get good reception if you live in the vicinity of Montrose, and can see the Dublin Mountains from an upstairs window or the roof.

In Ireland, the digital signal is often stronger than the analogue signal. So you could end up in a situation where you get slightly snowy analogue but perfect digital reception, especially in Dublin. I've once received good DTT while only managing TG4 in black and white snow!

To answer specifically:
1)Yes, but using a distribution amplifier instead of a simple splitter is best.

2 & 3)As per above, a good digital aerial is a good analogue aerial, and vice versa. But a good clean analogue signal might require the aerial be placed outside, while DTT in Dublin is somewhat more tolerant of location and the attic would be fine for DTT and probably good for analogue. No harm in trying in the attic first at least!

4) Where you are, if you use an outdoor aerial you could get away with a bog standard aerial like this triax aerial which is better built than some of the "contract" aerials out there

5)Well theoretically no, as DAB works at a different frequency to TV so the aerial wouldn't pick it up well. And some distribution amps filter out non-TV band frequencies. But if there is a strong signal, the TV will pick it up anyway! Where you are, there's no point having a DAB aerial. The telescopic rod aerial that many DAB radios have, or even a coathanger would work for DAB in south Dublin.

Dummy

Thank you - that sounds like good advice.

This distribution amplifier - could you give me a link of an example of one so that I know what I am looking for please?

I am going to try the attic first and see how that goes.


Thank you again for the sound advice.


D.

shinobi

Not sure where you're located but below is a link of transmitters & the polarity which best suits the aerial for that transmitter. A UHF wideband aerial is what is required for the DTT channels. I'm not too sure if Hi Gain is necessary.
http://www.irish-tv.com/irishtrans.asp

watty

Near Montrose should have no problem with Three Rock.

I was getting Three Rock DTT rock solid in Blanchardstown and Analogue was less than perfect.

With this

See http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=60897584&postcount=4
(The FAQ on aerials on this Forum)

Sam Russell

Dummy wrote: »

Thank you - that sounds like good advice.

This distribution amplifier - could you give me a link of an example of one so that I know what I am looking for please?

I am going to try the attic first and see how that goes.


Thank you again for the sound advice.


D.

I live quite close to you, and can receive DTT from a very simple aerial (rabbit ears or bent coathanger). If you are getting an aerial, get a wideband.

What are you using at the moment, UPC/NTL?

Dummy

Hi Sam,

We are using Sky at the moment. But I will be bringing Freesat in during the week and the new TV I got last week and an Freeview tuner built into it (and also a freesat tuner).

I have one of those Lidl DVB-T indoor antennae that I might try. It is till sitting in the box somewhere.


D

Dummy

Watty,

That is interesting that the antenna works fine for you.

I'm going to try that Lidl antenna that I mentioned to Sam.

I'll let u know how I get on.



D.

winston_1

[QUOTE=
1)Yes, but using a distribution amplifier instead of a simple splitter is best.

[/QUOTE] Not necessarily true. If you have a strong signal a distribution amplifier is a waste of money. Not to mention the ongoing power requirement, however small. In a good signal area try a passive splitter first.

lucernarian

Not necessarily true, but I was giving the advice that would most likely ensure success. It was more likely IMO that a distribution amp would help rather than hinder reception quality. It would be a waste of money to get a proper quality f-connector passive splitter only to find there was signal breakup. Whereas in the area concerned and especially if used in an attic, signal overload with just a distribution amp is unlikely.

Splitting a signal e.g. 4 ways, typical for a family home which uses terrestrial TV, would result in 7dB loss minimum. That would make a big difference to receiving DTT within an attic, and that's before the cable losses of typical domestic distribution which distribution amps were created to mitigate.

Dummy

Thank you all for the very good advice.

I'll let you know how I get on.


Regards,

D.