Aerial adjustment

HAMMERCURRENT

Advise please, I was aligning a directional aerial last night, and even when I pointed it away from the transmitter, I was still getting 100% signal and quality, so my question is, without using a meter, is there any way of peaking an aerial in a strong signal situation, for example, in the past when aligning sat dishes (I know they are different technologies) I would purposely restrict the signal to the lnb using cardboard and then adjust the dish for the best signal strength using the receiver's meters.
I also used the analogue stations to try and peak the aerial, but this also wasn't very precise, any ideas? by the way the picture on the tv is fine, but I intend using a 4 way passive splitter when everything is complete, so I would like to maximise the signal leaving the aerial so the 4 outputs have their optimum signal strength.

Thanks.

The Cush

If I was getting a strong Saorview signal in all directions and had no meter I'd simply point the aerial in the direction of my nearest transmitter as indicated by the Saorview coverage checker.

Although as I found out yesterday in Miltown Malbay in Co Clare installing an aerial for a family relation the coverage checker isn't always best indicator. Took a Group B as recommended for Cnoc An Oir (Ch 47) but when I installed and did a signal strength check on the roof it was too low (35-40 dBuV), the same aerial was pulling in approx 55 dBuV with a low BER for Mullaghanish Ch 21. So in some cases the coverage checker may not be the best indicator.

Peter Rhea

HAMMERCURRENT wrote: »

is there any way of peaking an aerial in a strong signal situation, for example, in the past when aligning sat dishes (I know they are different technologies) I would purposely restrict the signal to the lnb using cardboard and then adjust the dish for the best signal strength using the receiver's meters.

You could achieve the same effect on terrestrial with attenuators. The 4-way splitter you mention could also serve this purpose.

HAMMERCURRENT

I have line of site with the transmitter in the Cooley mountains (can't remember it's name) I think I will connect all the outputs on the passive splitter and see if I get any attenuation and realign if necessary. At the moment I have only 2 saorveiw appliances, and I don't know if an unconnected output will have the same loading effect as a connected one.

Thanks guys.

Peter Rhea

The 4-way splitter should deliver less then 1/4 of the input signal to each output, regardless of how many outputs are connected.

eirman

HAMMERCURRENT wrote: »

I have line of site with the transmitter in the Cooley mountains (can't remember it's name)

Clermont Carn I presume. If you get a bearing from your location using a map and then use a good hiking compass to set the direction, you should get to within one or two degrees of accuracy. Don't forget that magnetic north is about 6 degrees off true north. I'm not certain on that 6 degree figure .... it changes, so check it yourself.

coylemj

eirman wrote: »

Clermont Carn I presume. If you get a bearing from your location using a map and then use a good hiking compass to set the direction, you should get to within one or two degrees of accuracy. Don't forget that magnetic north is about 6 degrees off true north north. I'm not certain on that 6 degree figure .... it changes, so check it yourself.

Declination in Co. Louth is currently 4 degrees, Belmullet is 5.75.

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomagmodels/struts/calcDeclination