Rabbit ears Vs Loft Aerial - Saorview

foxirl

Hi all,
Just bought 2 Irish(saorview) DVB-T TV Tuner Receiver from Adverts for my 2 tvs.

Tried them out last night using rabbit ears aerial similar to http://www.adverts.ie/tv/one-for-all-aerial/288688

I get reception in my bedroom on thiord floor but not in living room on ground floor.
Was wondering if I bought an out door aerial and placed it in the loft would it make much of a difference or am I wasting my time.
Cable already running to attic so only need to connect the aerial.

Was looking at both of these
http://www.tvtrade.ie/green-group-cd-uhf-aerial.html
http://www.tvtrade.ie/wide-band-grid-uhf-aerial.html

I know people are going to say mount it on the chimney but I do not have access to ladders etc.

Thanks for any advice

fat-tony

Go for the cheap contract aerial and put it in the attic as you suggest. If you got reception on the "rabbit's ears" you will certainly get reception on a proper UHF aerial. If you can get an aerial to match the channel group of your local transmitter all the better, but the group C/D one will be ok if the signal is strong where you are.

lucernarian

If you can get reception in the third floor, it will likely work fine in the loft as the outdoor-type aerials have much better gain than a crappy one-for-all rabbits ears and you'll have it in a high location. Unless the house is a recent build and has foil lined insulation backing the tiles/slates of the roof.

Either way, you don't have much choice but to have a loft aerial, do you?:) But using an outdoor aerial anywhere in the house will work much better than what you have currently.

The grid is an okay all-round performer and works better than a yagi (the group c/d you linked to) for analogue channels in an attic in my experience, as a grid aerial seems to deal with reflected signals better and that may also benefit Saorview somewhat.

You can use the website http://coverage.rtenl.ie/RTENLcoveragechecker.php to find out what direction to point the aerial for best signal and also to find out what polarization the aerial should be which is very important. If you use the main transmitter site in Clare called Maghera, the grid aerial should be mounted so that the "bowtie" elements are horizontal.

This is what a horizontally polarised grid aerial looks like: http://www.techtir.ie/sites/default/files/u1000004/grids.png

lucernarian

The yagi could well work perfectly but the grid aerial accounts for more possibilities as lofts are awkward places for RF reception at the best of times and a big house may need a decent signal if it's to be distributed around different cables.

OP, make sure you wire up the aerial the right way. E.g. make sure the inner wire and outer shield never touch anywhere on the cable and if the cable needs to be split to more than one TV, use a proper splitter like http://www.tvtrade.ie/passive-2-way-tv-splitters.html or http://www.tvtrade.ie/2-way-inductive-tv-splitter.html

Avoid resistive splitters if possible. And if the cables from the aerial are long, a distribution amplifer with 2 or 4 outputs would be a good call.

Good luck!

foxirl

Thanks for all the replies.
Think I will go with the grid on just to be sure.

Have a F140 already to split the signal
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Global-F140-compatible-magic-amplifier/dp/B000NG2RUC

Cables from the splitter are already wired to the attic so do I need any sort of a connector to connect the cable to the actual grid aerial. Also does teh serial need to be mounted in the attic so that the grid part is not touching off anything?

lucernarian

The grid is just the reflector for the "bowtie" elements , whatever touches the grid isn't that important so long as the bowtie bits are left untouched and with no big obstacles like pipes right in front of them.

I've used things such as string, cable clips or a small satellite wall bracket to hang or fix an aerial in an attic.

I wouldn't lie the aerial on the floor of the attic either!

I assume you have a sky box or some sort of power supply to operate that splitter?

The grid aerial won't need anything to connect it except a small phillips head screwdriver and either a pliers or a flatblade screwdriver, it depends on the exact model. And some sharp knife or scissors to strip the insulation off where necessary! The splitter uses f-plugs instead of regular IEC TV plugs but I find f-connectors easier to work with and they're better to use for making joins etc.

foxirl

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

The grid is just the reflector for the "bowtie" elements , whatever touches the grid isn't that important so long as the bowtie bits are left untouched and with no big obstacles like pipes right in front of them.

I've used things such as string, cable clips or a small satellite wall bracket to hang or fix an aerial in an attic.

I wouldn't lie the aerial on the floor of the attic either!

Thanks. Will give it a go

paulcdub85

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

The yagi could well work perfectly but the grid aerial accounts for more possibilities as lofts are awkward places for RF reception at the best of times and a big house may need a decent signal if it's to be distributed around different cables.

OP, make sure you wire up the aerial the right way. E.g. make sure the inner wire and outer shield never touch anywhere on the cable and if the cable needs to be split to more than one TV, use a proper splitter like http://www.tvtrade.ie/passive-2-way-tv-splitters.html or http://www.tvtrade.ie/2-way-inductive-tv-splitter.html

Avoid resistive splitters if possible. And if the cables from the aerial are long, a distribution amplifer with 2 or 4 outputs would be a good call.

Good luck!

why should resistive splitters be avoided? do they cause signal loss? I plan to use this one http://www.tvtrade.ie/2-way-resistive-tv-splitter.html to feed to tv's as it's suitible for outdoors. or would i be better off with this http://www.tvtrade.ie/2-way-inductive-tv-splitter.html

lucernarian

Resistive splitters somewhat increase signal losses compared to inductive splitters and even if inductive splitters are frequency-limited, proper inductive ones used for TV work perfectly over 470-862 MHz so that isn't a disadvantage for inductives.

Inductive splitters have far better isolation between outputs, so that if one leg of the splitter has some sort of cable problem or it's not connected or the cable isn't terminated etc then it won't affect the signal of the other leg nearly as much as with a resistive splitter.

paulcdub85

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Resistive splitters somewhat increase signal losses compared to inductive splitters and even if inductive splitters are frequency-limited, proper inductive ones used for TV work perfectly over 470-862 MHz so that isn't a disadvantage for inductives.

Inductive splitters have far better isolation between outputs, so that if one leg of the splitter has some sort of cable problem or it's not connected or the cable isn't terminated etc then it won't affect the signal of the other leg nearly as much as with a resistive splitter.

Thanks, so would an inductive splitter be ok for the irish analouge channels or saoirview..do they fall within that frequency range?

lucernarian

Oh yes, it should be fine. I've used fringe inductive splitters and they worked fine at both VHF and UHF frequencies. I mentioned 470-862 above but to be honest I can't exactly remember what the spec is. Either way, those splitters can handle all TV frequencies just like a resisitive splitter can, without the disadvantages:)

paulcdub85

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Oh yes, it should be fine. I've used fringe inductive splitters and they worked fine at both VHF and UHF frequencies. I mentioned 470-862 above but to be honest I can't exactly remember what the spec is. Either way, those splitters can handle all TV frequencies just like a resisitive splitter can, without the disadvantages:)

thanks for that

Carawaystick

I've a wideband arial and it gets a signal through a jack wall of 9" blocks on the flat and a cavity block wall no bother in North county Dublin, from 3rock and Kippure, about 50km away.