Indoor saorview aerial possible? Fermoy

Just to add my €0.02 - unless you can physically see the transmitting mast from where the indoor aerial is pointing, all bets are off concerning indoor UHF TV reception. But that's not to say that it is impossible beyond a certain distance - an upstairs TV of mine can quite happily get both Saorview multiplexes from the Triuskmore TX site in Co. Sligo over a distance of 71km using a DIY indoor aerial that involves using two soft drink cans! Though it helps that there are no obstructions in the path between Truskmore and my home.

Old "rabbit ears" aerials that are often designed for analogue VHF TV & FM radio (as well as DAB where available) are sometimes suggested and dismissed (especially by one particular poster often in this sub-forum) but they can be optimised for UHF TV reception by simply retracting each telescopic leg to a length of 10-15cm each, forming a basic dipole for UHF TV frequencies. You can usually find such aerials cheaply in the likes of Dealz or other such shops and for only a couple of/few Euros, it's your best chance of a simple win if it works. This is easier to work with if the received signals you want are horizontally polarised, but can work with vertically polarised signals too. If you get everything with the aerial in one acceptable position, then you have a result. Sometimes putting the telescopic legs at an angle of up to 30 degrees can help a little.

If you get some channels but not others, or some/all channels are subject to breaking up, then a (slightly) better indoor aerial could do the trick. The previously mentioned Telecam TCE2000 was a very good indoor aerial but it hasn't been in production for quite a few years now. Indoor aerials that look like a miniature outdoor aerial are the ones to look for - aerials that look like a loop (either circular or square) aren't as good in comparison. Though I've no experience of it, the Antiference Silver Sensor (unamplified version) is well regarded in such cases like this. If nothing else, a small log-periodic or yagi without a big reflector element aerial that could be stuck up on top of a wardrobe for example, purchased with a cable & relevant connector(s) could also be worth doing. No point buying anything bigger for indoor "set top" reception unless you plan to stick in in an attic/loft.

As far as amplified indoor aerials go, they won't do anything that a decent unamplified indoor aerial can't do at least 9 times out of 10. People on this part of boards.ie have popped up to speak of the marvels of how the amplified (usually One4All) set top aeril worked when nothing else would work. Often they just took a shortcut and found an easy win but at a more expensive cost. Most amplified aerials don't have a simple pass-through in the amplifier if its not powered so they won't deliver all of the received power through it if there's no power for the amplifier, so it acts as an attenuator instead. Also, the claimed "gain" of such amplified aerials are of no real use. Amplifiers are designed to overcome losses in cables as well as some amount of noise in the tuner - as indoor aerials have very little losses in the short cable run they have (even if the cable is quite ****), then it's of little real use. Real gain comes from the aerial with directors & reflector and the higher up it is the better in most cases. That's why outdoor aerials are advised for your best shot of reception. If you must an amplified aerial, then choose one that has a modest amount of gain (no more than 12-15db) to avoid overloading the tuner. If you're using an amplified aerial that you bought from Argos etc. and it works for you, then that's fine - I'm just saying that it's very likely an unamplified solution like that mentioned in the last paragraph would work just as well, especially outside rural areas.

Finally, aerials sold as "up to xxxkm/miles" mean nothing and are an American marketing term that has been brought over to this side of the Atlantic by sellers on eBay & Amazon. Realistically even for reliable outdoor reception from a high powered transmitter site that has a tall mast/tower well above the local topology, you're pretty much restricted to reliable reception between 50-75km away from the TX, with some reductions where line-of-sight isn't possible and/or co-channel interference is a possible issue. In some favourable cases you could get reception over 100km away but that's not the case for most people (and co-channel interference is likely to be a bigger problem). Yes, I'm lucky that I can get indoor reception from over 70km away - but that's because I'm lucky.