Aerial on Roof. Soarview Compatible?

SachaJ

Afternoon all......

I've just moved into a house and it has a couple of aerials on the roof. There is one coax cable coming down the side of the house which I've connected to my TV but I'm getting nothing. The TV itself is a 6 year old or so Sony 32V4500 which has a digital tuner. I believe this TV should be able to pick up the Soarview channels.

So either the aerials I have are not Soarview compatible or the cable coming down from them is disconnected somewhere.

See below for photos of the two aerials (plus two small reddish boxes - any idea what those are?). I'm trying to avoid going up on the roof if possible - not a fan of heights. Is there anything I can get which I can plug into the cable to test if it's disconnected and if not, the signal strength I'm getting from the aerials (that's if they are Soarview compatible (UHF?))

Appreciate any feedback.....

same ol sh1te

Where's the rest of it?

You'll have to go up in the roof to see the colour of the bottom yagi, best get a professional

SachaJ

So I assume the bigger aerial is missing an end part. Would that be enough so that I'd get nothing on the TV?

Any idea what the smaller aerial is?

Pastor Toastman

Is that 3 cables hanging off the bottom of the mast? Would be a diplexer down there & the other 2 "boxes" are amplifiers & would need a power supply?

At least 1 of the others will be an amplifier anyway.

OP are you in the east or northeast of Ireland? The bottom aerial would more than likely be for Clermont Carn transmitter & would work as well for Saorview as it did for analogue, assuming everything still in good condition.

same ol sh1te

SachaJ wrote: »

So I assume the bigger aerial is missing an end part. Would that be enough so that I'd get nothing on the TV?

Any idea what the smaller aerial is?

Yes, it's fubar.

Bottom is a uhf yagi, but without going up there to see colour code of the end cap nobody knows.

Pastor Toastman

The top aerial is just missing a couple of directors, not a "fatal" condition, although it's a very old "Aerialite" or "Jaybeam" make.

I would think the top 1 is for Northern Ireland reception.

SachaJ

Pastor Toastman wrote: »

Is that 3 cables hanging off the bottom of the mast? Would be a diplexer down there & the other 2 "boxes" are amplifiers & would need a power supply?

At least 1 of the others will be an amplifier anyway.

OP are you in the east or northeast of Ireland? The bottom aerial would more than likely be for Clermont Carn transmitter & would work as well for Saorview as it did for analogue, assuming everything still in good condition.

Yes there's three cables coming off the bottom. I can see where two of them go (one down the front and one down the rear of the house) and have plugged both into the TV with nothing.

I think I'll get the good camera out with a decent lens and see what I can see.

And yes, I'm in drogheda.

The Cush

With those aerials having been installed in the analogue TV era now might be a good time to have them upgraded for DTT by a professional installer as was mentioned above.

The lower Clermont Carn wideband/Group CD aerial should now be replaced by a Group T (white tip) wideband aerial to reduce possible future 4g interference.

Not sure which NI Freeview transmitter covers Drogheda or if a masthead amp is now required. A professional installer will be able to get everything setup for you.

Registered installers - http://www.isaa.tv/isaamap.htm

SachaJ

Ok, I got the telephoto lens out a snapped a few photos. The end of the bottom antenna is green if that means anything. Also I haven't a clue where the 3rd cable is going from that box at the end of the pole. One cable goes down the back of the house, the other down the front. I'm starting to think that 3rd cable is going straight through a roof tile into the attic. I'll go up and check later.

Back of the antennas showing those red boxes






The little box at the end of the pole with 3 cables coming out of

Pastor Toastman

SachaJ wrote: »

Yes there's three cables coming off the bottom. I can see where two of them go (one down the front and one down the rear of the house) .

Must be some kind of splitting arrangement, whatever that thing is sticking out at the base of the mast. Hope it isn't a big ball of tape, with the cables just twisted together.

It could be that 1 "box" is an amplifier for the top aerial (NI channels) & the other is combining the feeds from both, which would mean you wouldn't need an amplifier power supply to get a Saorview signal. Or the combiner could be 1st in the chain, with the amplifier working on the combined signal, in which case it would need to be powered for Saorview.

EDIT: Ah, I see now from your latest photos it's a proper splitter & the box at the top is the amplifier, working on the top aerial only.

That bottom aerial is fairly "fresh" looking too & I can see the stump of an old 1 below it, so it could be a recent installation, in which case you would think whoever installed it would have checked for signal at the TV points in the house.

SachaJ

And a shot showing where various cables are going into those red boxes

Pastor Toastman

Love the way the installer of the Clermont Carn aerial has looped the cable over the sharp edge of the reflector, rather than along the boom & through the space in the middle.

Looks like he just sawed the old aerial off & stuck that 1 up, just grafting it on to other stuff that could be there 30 years or more.

SachaJ

Thanks for all the feedback so far guys. So if I connect my TV directly to the lower antenna (remove the splitters, amps and whatever out of the signal path) , will that work for saorview?

watty

Assuming TV isn't for Freeview only. Which it might.

watty

watty wrote: »

Assuming TV isn't for Freeview only. Which it might.

Yes, I was just about to mention this. If the TV is 6 years old there's a fair chance it isn't MPEG-4.

SachaJ

http://www.sony.ie/support/en/content/cnt-specs/KDL-32V4500/list

Above link claims an mpeg4 tuner

SachaJ

Just been into the attic and as suspected there was a cable coming in through the roof tiles. This was split and a coax going to each bedroom. I removed all those cables during the house renovation and ran twin wf100 from a central point to each room.

So I think I just need to get a direct signal from that lower antenna to my central point. It will do for now.

Pastor Toastman

The splitter at the bottom of the aerial mast could even be a multi-output amplifier & would need a power supply in that case.

The Cush

SachaJ wrote: »

http://www.sony.ie/support/en/content/cnt-specs/KDL-32V4500/list

Above link claims an mpeg4 tuner

As I mentioned in a reply to a previous post of yours on this, I have the 26" model and works OK for Saorview except digital Aertel

The Cush

SachaJ wrote: »

So I think I just need to get a direct signal from that lower antenna to my central point. It will do for now.

That's what I'd do, get rid of all the other stuff on the mast, diplexers, masthead amp, splitter etc. and run a direct feed from the lower Clermont Carn aerial into a distribution amp in the attic feeding the TV points. You could add an aerial for Freeview later and feed this to the other TV points also.

SachaJ

The Cush wrote: »

As I mentioned in a reply to a previous post of yours on this, I have the 26" model and works OK for Saorview except digital Aertel

Yep saw that. Just wanted to have it mentioned in this thread for completeness.

SachaJ

The Cush wrote: »

That's what I'd do, get rid of all the other stuff on the mast, diplexers, masthead amp, splitter etc. and run a direct feed from the lower Clermont Carn aerial into a distribution amp in the attic feeding the TV points. You could add an aerial for Freeview later and feed this to the other TV points also.

I have a dish with a quad LNB which will cover me for Sky and Freesat to any room in the house I want. The Saorview is for her indoors as she wants the Irish channels in the kitchen.

Thanks again for all the replies. Been a great help. Just need the balls to get up on the roof now!

The Cush

SachaJ wrote: »

Just need the balls to get up on the roof now!

Might be safer to get someone in to do it.

Antenna

The Cush wrote: »

The lower Clermont Carn wideband/Group CD aerial should now be replaced by a Group T (white tip) wideband aerial to reduce possible future 4g interference.

Regarding 4G
It depends what direction the 4G signals are coming from.
In the direction the aerial is pointing, a group T should indeed have less pickup, however from other directions, such as a strong 4G signal roughly 90 degrees off beam, there may be no benefit and a 4G filter would still be required if there is overload.

there are such things as aerials with 4G filters built-in (in addition to the element length/spacing designed for an upper limit of Ch60). However I don't think the contract aerial in the link is one of them.

Its also the case that a vertical polarised wideband Group-T aerial would be more prone to pickup the strong TETRA base station signals (390-395MHz area) than a Group C/D aerial. (unless its a more expensive type with a bandpass filter built in). So far, TETRA has been far more of a problem in overloading TV amplifiers etc than 4G ( higher peak power levels with TETRA) - in areas where 800MHz band 4G is active

The Cush

Antenna wrote: »

Regarding 4G
It depends what direction the 4G signals are coming from.
In the direction the aerial is pointing, a group T should indeed have less pickup, however from other directions, such as a strong 4G signal roughly 90 degrees off beam, there may be no benefit and a 4G filter would still be required if there is overload.

True indeed, in relation to the OP we don't know where or in which direction the nearest 4g mast is, so if replacing or upgrading aerials the best option would be to install a reduced band aerial. If there are any 4g problems in future a 4g filter is easily installed.