Good distribution box for UHF? +General Wiring Questions

Redisle · 21-01-2009 10:16PM #1

Im living within a mile of the spur hill mast here in Cork and I want to put up a new aeriel to avail of the DTT.
At the moment we have an aeriel on the chimney, the vhf part fell down recently (and we stopped receiving the sctv stuff) and the uhf part is pointed at mullaganish I believe (It's also an ugly old looking thing, Spur hill was not a transmitter when the house was built)

Im going to take down the current antenna and put up a new one.. something like this as suggested in the other thread.

At the moment we have a masthead amp that was used to bring in the BBC channels from the sctv relay.. I presume I won't need to use an amp with the new antenna since I am so near the transmitter?

Now, Im looking for a distribution amp.. what do other people use?? Id need one with a 6 port output.. would appreciate any suggestions.

One other thing.. Is it better to have all the tv sockets going straight to a distribution amp rather than having amp = socket = socket = socket etc. When the house was wired originally all the tv sockets were wired in series like above but I disconneted that setup because I felt it was degrading the signal.. was I right?

Thanks.

dkane · 21-01-2009 10:29PM

Redisle wrote: »

One other thing.. Is it better to have all the tv sockets going straight to a distribution amp rather than having amp = socket = socket = socket etc. When the house was wired originally all the tv sockets were wired in series like above but I disconneted that setup because I felt it was degrading the signal.. was I right?

Yes much better to have each socket go directly to the amp. You will see degradation of the signal if the sockets are wired in series.

gtg60 · 22-01-2009 12:40PM

A mile from the transmitter? You should be able to get away with an indoor aerial!
I have one of those aerials you describe in my attic and I receive signals from Three Rock and the Greystones relay and I'm at least 10 miles from both.

Do you have Sky? If you do it might be worth making sure the distribution amp you get is compatable with the Magic Eye things, they're very handy and if you run a cable from your aerial and back to the distribution amp you'll be able to control your Sky box from each room.

Rippy · 26-01-2009 10:34PM

Do not use ANY amplifier if you are only a mile from Spur Hill.
The amp would be overloaded and you will receive nothing , analogue or digital.
You should receive DTT muxes at around 80-90 db on a 10 element yagi aerial.
Amp this and you are then exceeding 100db . Not a good idea.
Group C/D or W Yagi 10 on roof. WF100 (or equivelent ) cable to F-type passive splitter. Wf100 downleads if possible. If nopt try whatever you got.
Should still have 70 db + (analogue ) at TV points, 60db + (DTT) at Tv points.

TheDriver · 27-01-2009 08:53AM

pop up to dwyers on forge hill for uhf aerials, thats where most of trade get them from.

Redisle · 28-01-2009 11:15AM

Thanks for that Rippy, would something like this be appropriate so?

And yeah Dwyers would be my plan for this stuff alright, its just down the road and the prices there are way way better than places like woodies and b&q, I get all my electrical stuff there too.

Rippy · 12-02-2009 01:51AM

Correct, passive f splitter is exactly what you need.
Should get one in Dwyers.

Good distribution box for UHF? +General Wiring Questions

Comments