Recommend me a cost effective solution for RTE!

Fiskar

Need some advice on the following,

Location : Navan

House type: Bungalow

Issue: Freesat - No RTE.

Got rid of Sky as costing too much in may. Freesat and HD are very good, but I have no aerial to receive RTE. How much does it cost to have an aerial fitted, considering the purchase of an aerial and mounting kit?

With the digital service coming in soon, do I need a different aerial if I have a standard RTe aerial fitted?

Will I need a free view set top box for RTE digital in the future?

Am I best off going back to Sky for the interim on their July special offer, which will give me RTE, a new dish, a quad Lnb, a new skybox?

Many thanks

BTW, aerial reception for RTE would require a booster as reception is quite bad.

watty

If you receive TG4 via aerial, then your aerial is likely OK for digital, but since your RTE is poor you must need an aerial.

If your RTE reception is bad, a better aerial is FAR better than a "booster". A "booster" (mast amp or similar) is only to compensate for downlead losses or losses splitting the signal to multiple TVs.

see http://www.isaa.tv/ for Aerial installer.

Get quotes from several local installers and ask them to itemise what they will install. Ask local TV shops and check golden pages.

No point in Sky. They will only give you new dish, box etc at their discretion as you are previous customer. Then you are tied to paying for a year. That's more than most aerial installs.

FREETV

Fiskar wrote: »

Need some advice on the following,

Location : Navan

House type: Bungalow

Issue: Freesat - No RTE.

Got rid of Sky as costing too much in may. Freesat and HD are very good, but I have no aerial to receive RTE. How much does it cost to have an aerial fitted, considering the purchase of an aerial and mounting kit?

With the digital service coming in soon, do I need a different aerial if I have a standard RTe aerial fitted?

Will I need a free view set top box for RTE digital in the future?

Am I best off going back to Sky for the interim on their July special offer, which will give me RTE, a new dish, a quad Lnb, a new skybox?

Many thanks

BTW, aerial reception for RTE would require a booster as reception is quite bad.

Hi, the reception of RTE should be good in Navan and you could try Three Rock and Clermont Cairn for both Saorview when it launches on October 31 and analogue now. I received a 90% signal strenght and 100% quality reading for channel 54 from Three Rock in Trim at a height of only ten feet several months back with a cheap tinny 87 Element ultra gain Konig UE-31 UHF aerial and used the FTE Maximal M1000 masthead preamplifier and a Vision power supply unit. You should wait until November for an official Saorview settop box or buy an integrated digital tv with an MPEG4 high definition tuner. You can use a pole of twenty feet in lenght above the highest point of the roof of your bungalow for better reception. As Watty would tell you the first magic height figure for good terrestrial reception is usually forty five feet. I used a Sagem Picnic Box which is only SD for the test in Trim and the picture quality on RTE TWO or any of the other stations was superior to SKY's. The FTE Maximal masthead amp has three gain settings of 26, 33 and 40db and an ultra low noise figure for a masthead amp of only 0.8 db so is very high spec. Try to get a large high gain cd group or wideband aerial with lots of strong elements for longevity and use at least Webro WF1OO, Triax TX100 or Philex PF100 for your satellite and aerial cable. Honestly you could save yourself a small fortune if you installed the aerial with the help of a friend or family member and a longer pole could be used to even install an aerial at the gable end of a wall of your house. An attic installation may even be ok for you to receive DTT. I am currently receiving a signal strenght of between 77-78% and 98% signal quality from using the same equipment I mentioned earlier from the attic here in Swords. I reckon that I could have a full signal strenght for both values if I was allowed to install a gable end aerial installation or rooftop installation outside.

Oracle

Try one of these, amplified antennas, €15 in Argos: http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5344204/Trail/searchtext%3EANTENNA.htm

watty

those are rubbish

Only an mast needs an amp.

See http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=60897584&postcount=4


These are all gimmick or rubbish aerials
http://www.argos.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=30001&catalogId=1500002451&langId=-1&searchTerms=Indoor+Aerial

You can get as good as possible indoor aerial for €8 approx, (no amp). If not good enough put it in attic.

If still not good enough put an outdoor aerial in attic,

if still not good enough get it mounted out side.

An amplifier is only for splitting signal to several or many TVs or to counteract loss from outdoor mast to TV (cable loss). Otherwise you are only amplifiying noise and interference.

Fiskar

Thanks for all replies, will take a visit to that TV & Satellite shop in Dunshaughlin and see whats available.

Not looking for a huge aerial but perhaps that 87 element Kónig aerial would be better than the attached aerial recently mounted for a newbie behind my house?

The setup in the attached is the sort of set-up is what I hope to get, but will it receive digital channels or will that aerial that you see need to be replaced to receive digital?

John mac

yup that will do you. (the setup in the pic)

emaherx

Where abouts in Navan do you live?

I live out the Athboy Road and receive Analouge RTE/Saorview and recieve UK Analouge (Sometimes receive Freeview too) using an outdoor Aerial mounted in the Attic with mast head amp.

the reason I ask where you live is Navan is on very low ground compared to sorrounding area, so the closer to town centre the less likely that the aerial will work in the attic (although may be worth a try especially if your only interested in the Irish channels)

There is no such thing as a "Digital Aerial".
I have a large 80 element Aerial and masthead amp cost me a little over 100 Euro for the Aerial/amp/power supply. Mounted in attic myself (hung from rafters with string).

An Aerial for just RTE/Saorview reception could be quite a bit smaller/cheaper.

channelsurfer2

errrrr 20ft pole? surely that is not necessary unless you want bbc or something? watty what do you think?

Sam Russell

Fiskar wrote: »

Thanks for all replies, will take a visit to that TV & Satellite shop in Dunshaughlin and see whats available.

Not looking for a huge aerial but perhaps that 87 element Kónig aerial would be better than the attached aerial recently mounted for a newbie behind my house?

The setup in the attached is the sort of set-up is what I hope to get, but will it receive digital channels or will that aerial that you see need to be replaced to receive digital?

That aerial is vertically polarised and pointing north. Is it for Killkeel? 3Rock is wideband for analogue and DTT, and horizontal.

Fiskar

Thought I'd update and close out this thread.

Firstly I put an old rte 2 aerial (short 1 metre one shown in picture previously) into the attic. Tried tuning Dvb tuner but no joy.

Found the annalogue tuner(:rolleyes:) on the remote and got a fuzzy RTE. Put a booster on the line which improved the picture marginally.

Then on Friday "in what some inventors call a Flash of Genius" I tried the Dvb Mpeg 4 tuner on my G20 tv again. Hey presto, got Rte 1 and 2, TG4 and rte news anytime. Bit of tweaking with the location of aerial and now have crystal clear rte and tg 4 stations

Thanks for all help

championc

Anyone know where in Dublin I could get a FTE Maximal M1000 masthead preamplifier ?


C

FREETV

championc wrote: »

Anyone know where in Dublin I could get a FTE Maximal M1000 masthead preamplifier ?


C

Contact Andy Ryan at Zintek Systems. www.zintek.tv Andy @ ar@zintek.tv Telephone: 01 4008350 They are based at Eurohaul Centre, Greenhills Road, Tallaght. The website is under construction. Let me know by PM or post a reply back to inform me of how much they charge for the masthead amp please as my brother may by one in the future. Use a Vision power supply unit for it as they have less of an insertion loss than the FTE power supply units so more gain for your system.

championc

FREETV wrote: »

Contact Andy Ryan at Zintek Systems. www.zintek.tv Andy @ ar@zintek.tv Telephone: 01 4008350 They are based at Eurohaul Centre, Greenhills Road, Tallaght. The website is under construction. Let me know by PM or post a reply back to inform me of how much they charge for the masthead amp please as my brother may by one in the future. Use a Vision power supply unit for it as they have less of an insertion loss than the FTE power supply units so more gain for your system.

Got my amp today - €20.

I didn't bother with the PSU because I was planning to get a Vision one. However, a) I couldn't find who sells them and b) not sure if I really can get better to what I have.

I have a Fringe P1290 and specs say it has an insertion loss of <1 db. If the Vision unit is 0.8 db, is there really any point in getting another unit ?


C



C

championc

Post re-edited

FREETV

championc wrote: »

Got my amp today - €20.

I didn't bother with the PSU because I was planning to get a Vision one. However, a) I couldn't find who sells them and b) not sure if I really can get better to what I have.

I have a Fringe P1290 and specs say it has an insertion loss of <1 db. If the Vision unit is 0.8 db, is there really any point in getting another unit ?


C



C

So the FTE Maximal amp was only 20 from Zintek in Tallaght? That psu will do fine.