Recommend an aerial please

grousedogtom

OK i want to buy a UHF aerial tomorrow to mount on my chimney to receive dtt , i will be pointing to mount leinster so a group b aerial but which aerial is best as i am in a weak signal area ?

grousedogtom

grousedogtom wrote: »

OK i want to buy a UHF aerial tomorrow to mount on my chimney to receive dtt , i will be pointing to mount leinster so a group b aerial but which aerial is best as i am in a weak signal area ?

By weak signal area,where exactly are you?

grousedogtom

7 miles outside kilkenny shaded by a hill, analogue signal was always terrible but i am receiving dtt now from a wide band UHF grid type aerial on the chimney at present , picture is great except every so often the pic breaks up just taught a grouped aerial would work better???

The grids fine.
Just add a masthead amp powered by a power supply unit.
No more break ups then hopefully.

12 element

Deleted User wrote: »

The grids fine.
Just add a masthead amp powered by a power supply unit.
No more break ups then hopefully.

A masthead amp will not help if the signal quality is the problem. It will only help overcome any losses in cable/splitters etc. Could you tell us more about your set up grousedogtom?

watty

Maybe poorly screened cable. Use satellite cable that has total coverage braid and foil (not metalised plastic), both copper.

Don't kink, nip or put tight radius bends.

bigron2109

Was Picking up free view stations from Wales for the past 6 months, i live near rosslare harbour, but they have gone at the moment..Think the aerial we have in the house could be gone, but it still picks up the RTE, and TV3.

Could some one reccomend me a aerial for the bedroom to pick up this freeview stations again.

Would this get back my stations by any chance?/



This is the make of the tele. Neon 37inch Wide Screen LCD TV with DVB & DVD
Model no : C 3770F

watty

Indoor aerials are only for strong local Transmitters. Like Three Rock in South side City Dublin.

12 element

12 element wrote: »

A masthead amp will not help if the signal quality is the problem. It will only help overcome any losses in cable/splitters etc. Could you tell us more about your set up grousedogtom?

Hang on a second,if the signal level is low,then the masthead amp will improve that and hence quality.
I agree with the other suggestions aswell ie re cabling.

watty

No, if signal is low an amp will amplify the signal and noise. Unlikely to help quality.

Unless there is a very long coax.

Amplifiers ONLY go between Aerial and cable or splitters to compensate for too much losses in cable or splitters.

If you have good quality, you can prove this by putting an attenuator at the aerial socket and reduce Signal to 1/4 with almost no effect on quality.

The number one rule in signal processing - what is lost cannot be regained. Use an amp only to counteract the losses incurred by splitting or a long cable run.

Digifriendly

Think I'm right in saying that vast majority of aerials picking up RTE here in NI seem to have masthead amps (going by sight) so they do a good job here. Setback boosters are pretty useless unless there's a decent signal in the first place although for some digital reception close to 'the cliff' as they say they are the difference between breakup and clear picture.

watty

Because you lose signal between the aerial and the TV on the long run to the pole.

Set back booster is ALWAYS pointless.

No point to an amplified indoor aerial unless it's a long way to the TV (i.e. in attic with poor downlead cable)

Digifriendly

watty wrote: »

Because you lose signal between the aerial and the TV on the long run to the pole.

Set back booster is ALWAYS pointless.

No point to an amplified indoor aerial unless it's a long way to the TV (i.e. in attic with poor downlead cable)

Disagree slightly with ALWAYS. I have a Televes high gain booster (25db) connected to a Sony digital recorder and without it I would not pick up ROI DTT at all.

Tom Slick

Digifriendly wrote: »

Disagree slightly with ALWAYS. I have a Televes high gain booster (25db) connected to a Sony digital recorder and without it I would not pick up ROI DTT at all.

Presumably it's compensating for poor setup or components elsewhere in the system, or a faulty receiver.

Digifriendly

Tom Slick wrote: »

Presumably it's compensating for poor setup or components elsewhere in the system, or a faulty receiver.

Not as far as I know. It brings the ROI DTT signals over the 'cliff edge' as they say. There's definitely nothing wrong with the Sony analogue/digital receiver.

watty

something is wrong if one thing works and another doesn't
if signal is marginal a better aerial (or aerial location) is best as even long before "freezing" the artefacts increase.

podgeandrodge

Digifriendly wrote: »

Disagree slightly with ALWAYS. I have a Televes high gain booster (25db) connected to a Sony digital recorder and without it I would not pick up ROI DTT at all.

I'm quite clueless about the technical side of these things, but similar to what Digifriendly said above I have a 19" Samsung in my bedroom attached to an Argos Internal "amplified" aerial (amplifier is a dial - switch on and twist to increase power) - the aerial is 1 foot from the tv - if amplifier is turned off I get zero signal - if turned on full I get good signal.

Digifriendly

watty wrote: »

something is wrong if one thing works and another doesn't
if signal is marginal a better aerial (or aerial location) is best as even long before "freezing" the artefacts increase.

See the point you're making. Should explain that the aerial feed which for ROI channels is a Triax 52 element high gain with masthead amp combined with unamplified Televes Pro 27 for UK channels was split a no. of years ago when I first got Freeview via an old Pace box - one aerial feed was for digital and the other for analogue. So the Televes set back amplifier was to compensate for the loss through the split and I accept if I could undo the split I wouldn't need the amplifier to pull in the ROI DTT. So you're absolutely right.

watty

An amp should be nearish the aerial and always in front of a split. Much better quality.