Loft aerial

[nod]

I’ve a 8 way booster in the loft

and intend fixing an indoor aerial 

Ive looked online loads to choose from prices vary 

Is it worth paying a premium Or are they much of a muchness 

[dpmiller]

go for the correct gain group rather than a wideband one.

[ProDave]

You need to look up how far you are from the nearest transmitter and what the signal strength is like to determine the size of aerial needed.

 

A lot of the "posh" looking ones have a reputation for being rubbish, particularly not very strong, but that is not an issue for an indoor aerial.

 

THIS guy talks a lot of sense http://aerialsandtv.com/loftaerials.html

[Onoff]

Aerials, unless you live in a strong signal area are very definitely NOT much of a muchness.  The sheds tend to sell "WB" models (wide band). They work best in the middle of the tv band but are not so good at the fringes of the band. Band specific work best over smaller, specific segments of the whole band. First stop for you is here:

 

http://www.aerialsandtv.com

 

As said above get the right one for your transmitter. You might already know what it is. You can usually take a stab by which way the rest are pointing. Find your transmitter which will give you your band the whether you're in a week / strong area. You might be "lucky" and a WB one will work fine.

 

 

Edited May 28, 2018 by Onoff

[Temp]

First find out which transmitter you should point at and how far away it is. That info is used to workout what type and size of aerial you need. Also how high it needs to be.

 

Boosters are the devil's work. If you are in a poor signal area you need a big aerial as high as possible. If that's still not getting a signal the answer might be a mast head amp. If you want to feed several TV sets you need a distribution amplifier which doesn't really need to boost the signal massively.

[nod]

6 minutes ago, Temp said:

First find out which transmitter you should point at and how far away it is. That info is used to workout what type and size of aerial you need. Also how high it needs to be.

 

Boosters are the devil's work. If you are in a poor signal area you need a big aerial as high as possible. If that's still not getting a signal the answer might be a mast head amp. If you want to feed several TV sets you need a distribution amplifier which doesn't really need to boost the signal massively.

Sorry I did say booster

Its a 8 way distibritor that I have There are new houses just built across the road All with loft arials 

Thiugh the nearest neighbour has hers on the chimney

Somthing that I wanted to avoid

 

My friend who is doing the cctv said he will conect the airials to the distribritor and point the Siri all in the same direction as the neighbours 

[Temp]

No worries. Loft aerials can work fine. I'm using one as not too far from sandy heath. Had to remove some foil from the loft insulation though.

[Onoff]

As I'm so low down it the bottom of the valley my aerial is up slope, about 50m from the house, on a pole with a mast head amp and is the biggest Band A Yagi aerialsandtv do. Pointed at Crystal Palace.

 

Most neighbours gave up and went satellite but not me! I've made a couple of horizontally polarized, corner reflector antennas for neighbours too, to go on gable ends that work a treat.

[ProDave]

Well I always have fun and games with a terrestrial signal here. We are in a bit of a valley, over the brow of a hill from the local transmitter.

 

At the previous house as a temporary measure I put the aerial on a short pole on a shed on the highest point of the plot. When the house was complete I moved it to a pole on the gable end. Same aerial, but higher up with a clear view in the direction of the transmitter.  I tried for about 2 hours to get a decent signal and failed, so I put it back on the shed and it remains there now.

 

At the new house I put a short pole on mt scaffold storage rack next to the static caravan. The signal from that is not brilliant.  I wanted a tv in my office in the house.  I was not ready to sort out a proper location for an external aerial so I tried one I had. It was a well built monster of a band A aerial.  I gave the elements all a bit of a haircut to move it more towards being band B and put it in the loft of the new house.  It works reasonably well though get some break up occasionally when it rains.

 

Satellite is more reliable and is what we use most of the time.

[daiking]

Good luck in your quest nod, I am in year 4 of my tv signal goes wonky in the summer.

[Nickfromwales]

10 hours ago, Temp said:

First find out which transmitter you should point at and how far away it is. That info is used to workout what type and size of aerial you need. Also how high it needs to be.

 

Boosters are the devil's work. If you are in a poor signal area you need a big aerial as high as possible. If that's still not getting a signal the answer might be a mast head amp. If you want to feed several TV sets you need a distribution amplifier which doesn't really need to boost the signal massively.

Best to remember the distribution amp will do little or nowt to the incoming signals quality or strength. All it will really do is amplify and compensate for the signal being 'consumed' by multiple sets at the same time. You need to start off with a clear, strong signal from the mast before dividing it.

As a friend told me when working in the PA business, if you amplify a whisper it doesn't turn into a shout, you just get the whisper coming out louder. .