Any recommendations for an aerial - looking to fit it at the top of the gable at the rear of the house. 

One stop shop. Read their excellent guides and unless your sat on a TV transmitter get a band specific aerial rather than wideband. Identify your TV transmitter and go from there. Usually easily enough to figure out, look where the neighbours aerials are pointing towards. Log periodic aerials are nice and compact IF suitable.

 

https://www.aerialsandtv.com/knowledge/planning-your-install

 

I'm in an extreme fringe area so have the biggest Band A Yagi they do. 

If you want unobtrusive, we’ve got one of these.

 

 

but check it’ll work where you are.
 

We generally get good DTV reception including the HD channels but sometimes the weather does seem to affect it for a few hours. 

Oh, and as for orientation I searched the web for our nearest transmitter, used Google Earth to get the direction from house to transmitter and then used the compass on my smart phone to align it. 
 

I got a local aerial installer, he did his thing it all worked.  Didn't think any deeper than that.

Are aerials still a thing? Doesn't everyone just cast their telly these days?

Free stuff , live stuff @Square Feet

1 hour ago, Square Feet said:

Are aerials still a thing? Doesn't everyone just cast their telly these days?

Depends if you want to watch adverts, we record a lot and click forward through the ads.  Online , ITV, C4 and C5 are full of ads, Netflix and Prime aren't much better now

2 hours ago, Square Feet said:

Are aerials still a thing? 

Yes and ours comes into its own about 8 days a year when the interweb fails.

It has rotated in the wind to be well off pointing at the transmitter but continues to be good reception: that used to be an issue so either they have turned up the transmitter power or modern tvs can use a poorer signal.

 

 

 

12 hours ago, Onoff said:

look where the neighbours aerials are pointing towards.

Google earth will also guide you to the transmitter. However, I found that a tweak to miss a line-of -sight tree helped a lot at the time. Presumably a professional has a machine detecting the strongest signal.

 

Yet now it points about 45° away and works fine.

6 hours ago, JohnMo said:

I got a local aerial installer, he did his thing it all worked.  Didn't think any deeper than that.

In fact thinking about it, the electrician asked about the aerial and said fit it and told him where to fit it, he got the got the guy out and added the cost to his bill - I did nothing except point at where to install the aerial

If you are installing it yourself, Antenna Finder on iOS is excellent, and the developer is very helpful too. You pop your postcode in or let it find your GPS coordinates, and it lists all the transmitters, distance, power, and locations (degrees) and suggests the best one for you.

Oh, and tells you which way your aerial fins should point depending on whether it is a main or repeater transmitter (horizontal or vertical).

 

Ours is in the roof space/ attic and works just fine.

Set it up by looking at neighbours and the using signal strength gauge in the TV menu.

5 hours ago, garrymartin said:

Oh, and tells you which way your aerial fins should point depending on whether it is a main or repeater transmitter (horizontal or vertical).

 

 

Aka polarisation.

On 15/10/2026 at 17:46, garrymartin said:

Antenna Finder on iOS is excellent,

I didn't realise that existed, thanks.

I downloaded the app, entered my location and it told me I was pointing at the incorrect antenna (as are all the house nearby, potentially). I was too tight to pay the £5 or so to 'unlock' the bearing information that I needed in order to point at the correct antenna, but it was easy enough to find the antenna on Google Earth and then the measuring tool gave me the bearing I would need, the compass on the smart phone did the rest.

The result? We were pointing at an antenna about 5 miles away, we are now pointing at one that is over 31 miles away and it would seem the picture is as good, if not better. I suspect the coming storm will highlight any deficiencies.