[MM]

This is a bog-standard 18-element TV aerial from Wilkinsons (£8.99)
and I plan to mount it in the loft space, where even a room aerial
gives excellent reception via the SLx6 Philex aerial booster.

From my bedroom window I can observe the aerial on the chimney of a
neighbouring house. How can I preserve its "angle" as closely as
possible when I mount my aerial? Or isn't the position that critical?

I've been thinking of schooldays when we were given the trigometric
task of working out a tree's height, but I can't think of any
comparable algorithm to transfer the neighbour's aerial's "direction"
to mine. I'll just have to "remember" the position as I climb into my
loft.

MM

[Frank Erskine]

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 16:57:20 +0100, MM wrote:

This is a bog-standard 18-element TV aerial from Wilkinsons (£8.99)
and I plan to mount it in the loft space, where even a room aerial
gives excellent reception via the SLx6 Philex aerial booster.

From my bedroom window I can observe the aerial on the chimney of a
neighbouring house. How can I preserve its "angle" as closely as
possible when I mount my aerial? Or isn't the position that critical?

I've been thinking of schooldays when we were given the trigometric
task of working out a tree's height, but I can't think of any
comparable algorithm to transfer the neighbour's aerial's "direction"
to mine. I'll just have to "remember" the position as I climb into my
loft.

Get somebody to watch the TV as you point the aerial in different
directions.
Even easier, attach a short cable to the aerial temporarily and take a
TV set into the loft, then simply adjust for the best signal (least
grainy and minimal ghosting)(assuming you're still using analogue
reception).
Remember to check all channels because you may have a compromise a
bit.
An 18-element will be quite directional.

--
Frank Erskine

[Mark Spice]

"MM" wrote in message
...
This is a bog-standard 18-element TV aerial from Wilkinsons (£8.99)
and I plan to mount it in the loft space, where even a room aerial
gives excellent reception via the SLx6 Philex aerial booster.

From my bedroom window I can observe the aerial on the chimney of a
neighbouring house. How can I preserve its "angle" as closely as
possible when I mount my aerial? Or isn't the position that critical?

I've been thinking of schooldays when we were given the trigometric
task of working out a tree's height, but I can't think of any
comparable algorithm to transfer the neighbour's aerial's "direction"
to mine. I'll just have to "remember" the position as I climb into my
loft.

MM

When I did this I just took a compass bearingoff the neighbour's arial and
then replicated it in the loft with mine. A bit of judicious shouting from
SWMBO about picture quality led to some fine adjustment and Robert was one's
father's brother.

Cheers

Mark

[MM]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 17:12:37 +0100, "Mark Spice"
wrote:


"MM" wrote in message
.. .
This is a bog-standard 18-element TV aerial from Wilkinsons (£8.99)
and I plan to mount it in the loft space, where even a room aerial
gives excellent reception via the SLx6 Philex aerial booster.

From my bedroom window I can observe the aerial on the chimney of a
neighbouring house. How can I preserve its "angle" as closely as
possible when I mount my aerial? Or isn't the position that critical?

I've been thinking of schooldays when we were given the trigometric
task of working out a tree's height, but I can't think of any
comparable algorithm to transfer the neighbour's aerial's "direction"
to mine. I'll just have to "remember" the position as I climb into my
loft.

MM

When I did this I just took a compass bearingoff the neighbour's arial and
then replicated it in the loft with mine. A bit of judicious shouting from
SWMBO about picture quality led to some fine adjustment and Robert was one's
father's brother.

At the risk of sounding like a bit of an orienteering virgin, can you
explain how to do that with a compass (which I don't have, but I
expect they're dirt cheap, the simple ones). Do you mean that I should
somehow position myself in the road and orientate with the compass
accordingly? I can't get close to the house in question because of
fences, but I can see the aerial through my binoculars in much detail!

Thanks! (And thanks, too, to Frank earlier.)

NB: Other houses in the road also have their aerials pointed "pretty
much" in the same direction, but the emphasis here is on "pretty
much", because I wouldn't say their installers had bothered on
position too much, going by the discrepancy between several aerials!
Like I said, reception with a tiny room aerial (plugged, though, into
the distribution/booster thingy in the loft) is already excellent, and
had I known I probably wouldn't have bothered to buy the 18-element
aerial anyway. But I've assembled it now, so it's gonna get used!

MM

[Mark Spice]

"MM" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 17:12:37 +0100, "Mark Spice"
wrote:


"MM" wrote in message
.. .
This is a bog-standard 18-element TV aerial from Wilkinsons (£8.99)
and I plan to mount it in the loft space, where even a room aerial
gives excellent reception via the SLx6 Philex aerial booster.

From my bedroom window I can observe the aerial on the chimney of a
neighbouring house. How can I preserve its "angle" as closely as
possible when I mount my aerial? Or isn't the position that critical?

I've been thinking of schooldays when we were given the trigometric
task of working out a tree's height, but I can't think of any
comparable algorithm to transfer the neighbour's aerial's "direction"
to mine. I'll just have to "remember" the position as I climb into my
loft.

MM

When I did this I just took a compass bearingoff the neighbour's arial
and
then replicated it in the loft with mine. A bit of judicious shouting
from
SWMBO about picture quality led to some fine adjustment and Robert was
one's
father's brother.

At the risk of sounding like a bit of an orienteering virgin, can you
explain how to do that with a compass (which I don't have, but I
expect they're dirt cheap, the simple ones). Do you mean that I should
somehow position myself in the road and orientate with the compass
accordingly? I can't get close to the house in question because of
fences, but I can see the aerial through my binoculars in much detail!

Thanks! (And thanks, too, to Frank earlier.)

NB: Other houses in the road also have their aerials pointed "pretty
much" in the same direction, but the emphasis here is on "pretty
much", because I wouldn't say their installers had bothered on
position too much, going by the discrepancy between several aerials!
Like I said, reception with a tiny room aerial (plugged, though, into
the distribution/booster thingy in the loft) is already excellent, and
had I known I probably wouldn't have bothered to buy the 18-element
aerial anyway. But I've assembled it now, so it's gonna get used!

MM

You only need to get a rough direction as you fine tune it later. What I
did was to position myself in line with the arial and line up the body of
the compass along that line. You can then turn the bezel of the compass so
that the 000 is at the point of the North needle. When you go into your
loft just turn the compass so that the North pointer meets back up with the
000 and you are lined up in the same direction again.

'Pretty Much' should be good enough as you will still want to do some fine
tuning but getting this far saves a lot of random waving about.

Cheers

Mark

[Vortex]

At the risk of sounding like a bit of an orienteering virgin, can you
explain how to do that with a compass (which I don't have, but I
expect they're dirt cheap, the simple ones). Do you mean that I should
somehow position myself in the road and orientate with the compass
accordingly? I can't get close to the house in question because of
fences, but I can see the aerial through my binoculars in much detail!

Thanks! (And thanks, too, to Frank earlier.)

NB: Other houses in the road also have their aerials pointed "pretty
much" in the same direction, but the emphasis here is on "pretty
much", because I wouldn't say their installers had bothered on
position too much, going by the discrepancy between several aerials!
Like I said, reception with a tiny room aerial (plugged, though, into
the distribution/booster thingy in the loft) is already excellent, and
had I known I probably wouldn't have bothered to buy the 18-element
aerial anyway. But I've assembled it now, so it's gonna get used!

MM

This is simple.

1. Plug your postcode into http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/coverage.html;
this will return the transmitter that applies to your area, and amongst
other things the compass bearing to it from your postcode

2. Obtain a compass from Milletts or similar (start at about a fiver)

3. Orient aerial.

[Bob Eager]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 15:57:20 UTC, MM wrote:

This is a bog-standard 18-element TV aerial from Wilkinsons (£8.99)
and I plan to mount it in the loft space, where even a room aerial
gives excellent reception via the SLx6 Philex aerial booster.

From my bedroom window I can observe the aerial on the chimney of a
neighbouring house. How can I preserve its "angle" as closely as
possible when I mount my aerial? Or isn't the position that critical?

What I did was this:

a) Get the location of the transmitter (dtg.org.uk I think) and find it
on the OS map.
b) Find my house on the OS map.
c) get the bearing of the Tx from my house.
d) convert this to an angle relative to my road
e) since the roof joists are at 90 degrees to the road, add 90 degrees
to the angle from d)
f) make cardboard template containing that angle
g) use template to align aerial relative to joists

Then fine adjust in usual way

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

[Harry Bloomfield]

MM formulated on Sunday :

I've been thinking of schooldays when we were given the trigometric
task of working out a tree's height, but I can't think of any
comparable algorithm to transfer the neighbour's aerial's "direction"
to mine. I'll just have to "remember" the position as I climb into my
loft.

If you have a sighting compass, stand at the back or front of the
aerial you want to align such that you see it in perfect alignment. Now
site your compass on the aerial and note the degrees. Then just
transfer that bearing onto your own aerial in the loft. The original
may not be spot on, so try a few bearings on several aerials.

--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

[Harry Bloomfield]

Bob Eager brought next idea :
What I did was this:

a) Get the location of the transmitter (dtg.org.uk I think) and find it
on the OS map.
b) Find my house on the OS map.
c) get the bearing of the Tx from my house.

You forgot the correction for magnetic variation.

--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

[Alan]

In message , Bob Eager
wrote

What I did was this:

a) Get the location of the transmitter (dtg.org.uk I think) and find it
on the OS map.

You can get the bearing directly by putting your postcode into
http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?


--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com

[Bob Eager]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 19:59:49 UTC, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

Bob Eager brought next idea :
What I did was this:

a) Get the location of the transmitter (dtg.org.uk I think) and find it
on the OS map.
b) Find my house on the OS map.
c) get the bearing of the Tx from my house.

You forgot the correction for magnetic variation.

Why? No compass involved at any stage (unless this is a wind-up). c) is
done with a protractor or simple trigonometry.

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

[Harry Bloomfield]

Bob Eager laid this down on his screen :
On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 19:59:49 UTC, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

Bob Eager brought next idea :
What I did was this:

a) Get the location of the transmitter (dtg.org.uk I think) and find it
on the OS map.
b) Find my house on the OS map.
c) get the bearing of the Tx from my house.

You forgot the correction for magnetic variation.

Why? No compass involved at any stage (unless this is a wind-up). c) is
done with a protractor or simple trigonometry.

How do you translate the bearing of the transmitter to a bearing from
the house without a compass, if you cannot see the transmitter? You at
least need a compass to work out the direction the house faces.

--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

[MM]

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 20:55:32 +0100, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

MM formulated on Sunday :

I've been thinking of schooldays when we were given the trigometric
task of working out a tree's height, but I can't think of any
comparable algorithm to transfer the neighbour's aerial's "direction"
to mine. I'll just have to "remember" the position as I climb into my
loft.

If you have a sighting compass, stand at the back or front of the
aerial you want to align such that you see it in perfect alignment. Now
site your compass on the aerial and note the degrees. Then just
transfer that bearing onto your own aerial in the loft. The original
may not be spot on, so try a few bearings on several aerials.

Thanks for all the wonderful replies!

MM

[Bob Eager]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 20:22:58 UTC, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

How do you translate the bearing of the transmitter to a bearing from
the house without a compass, if you cannot see the transmitter? You at
least need a compass to work out the direction the house faces.

(sigh)

The bearing of the transmitter to the house is done ON THE MAP (simple
trig, or use a protractor). Then (read original post) I measured the
bearing corresponding to the run of the (straight) road on which I live.
From that, simple addition (or subtraction) gives me the angle between
the line to the transmitter, and the front edge of the house (parallel
to aforementioned road). Joists are 90 degrees from that. Make template.
Done.

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

[John]

"Alan" wrote in message
...
In message , Bob Eager
wrote

What I did was this:

a) Get the location of the transmitter (dtg.org.uk I think) and find it
on the OS map.

You can get the bearing directly by putting your postcode into
http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?


--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com

WOW! Brilliant

[Harry Bloomfield]

Bob Eager expressed precisely :
Then (read original post) I measured the
bearing corresponding to the run of the (straight) road on which I live.

Ah, I see now.

The method does though rely heavily on the road being straight for long
enough and your house being aligned to that road. Living on a rather
short road with several bends in it and in a house not aligned with the
road, I was struggling to grasp your method.

--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

[Bob Eager]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 20:12:18 UTC, Alan wrote:

In message , Bob Eager
wrote

What I did was this:

a) Get the location of the transmitter (dtg.org.uk I think) and find it
on the OS map.

You can get the bearing directly by putting your postcode into
http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?

True. But you still need a compass then...

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

[Mungo \Two Sheds\ Toadfoot]

MM wrote:
This is a bog-standard 18-element TV aerial from Wilkinsons (£8.99)
and I plan to mount it in the loft space, where even a room aerial
gives excellent reception via the SLx6 Philex aerial booster.

From my bedroom window I can observe the aerial on the chimney of a
neighbouring house. How can I preserve its "angle" as closely as
possible when I mount my aerial? Or isn't the position that critical?



I have a compass on my mobile; you line up the little graphic of the sun to
the real sun then you know where you are.

Up in my niece's loft: 'Right then... phone... sun... oh bugger.'

Luckily I'd already played outside so I knew roughly which way to point the
aerial! Doesn't seem to matter if you're not too precise either, which is
lucky.

Si

[Bob Eager]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 21:19:30 UTC, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

Bob Eager expressed precisely :
Then (read original post) I measured the
bearing corresponding to the run of the (straight) road on which I live.

Ah, I see now.

The method does though rely heavily on the road being straight for long
enough and your house being aligned to that road. Living on a rather
short road with several bends in it and in a house not aligned with the
road, I was struggling to grasp your method.

I guess one could compensate by using a fairly large scale map - I've
always had one of those, wherever I've lived.

After all, high accuracy isn't needed since there's always a final
adjustment. I know I'd have pointed in completely the wrong direction
otherwise!

(actually, the transmitter recommended by the DTG site turned out to be
useless. Another one, about 120 degrees anticlockwise, as it were,
turned out to be far better)

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

[raden]

In message , Bob Eager
writes
On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 21:19:30 UTC, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

Bob Eager expressed precisely :
Then (read original post) I measured the
bearing corresponding to the run of the (straight) road on which I live.

Ah, I see now.

The method does though rely heavily on the road being straight for long
enough and your house being aligned to that road. Living on a rather
short road with several bends in it and in a house not aligned with the
road, I was struggling to grasp your method.

I guess one could compensate by using a fairly large scale map - I've
always had one of those, wherever I've lived.

After all, high accuracy isn't needed since there's always a final
adjustment. I know I'd have pointed in completely the wrong direction
otherwise!

Basically, I just pointed mine in the direction that all the other
aerials were pointing and then wiggled it about to fine tune it


--
geoff

[Bob Eager]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 22:57:21 UTC, raden wrote:

Basically, I just pointed mine in the direction that all the other
aerials were pointing and then wiggled it about to fine tune it

I'd have done that if there were any consistency! Three different major
directions...only one of which worked for FreeView. Also difficult to
see when inside the loft...!

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

[Frank Erskine]

On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 23:00:21 +0100, "Mungo \"Two Sheds\" Toadfoot"
wrote:


I have a compass on my mobile;

Is this the twirly thing that hangs above your bed?

:-)
--
Frank Erskine

[Lurch]

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 22:57:21 GMT, raden mused:

In message , Bob Eager
writes
On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 21:19:30 UTC, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

Bob Eager expressed precisely :
Then (read original post) I measured the
bearing corresponding to the run of the (straight) road on which I live.

Ah, I see now.

The method does though rely heavily on the road being straight for long
enough and your house being aligned to that road. Living on a rather
short road with several bends in it and in a house not aligned with the
road, I was struggling to grasp your method.

I guess one could compensate by using a fairly large scale map - I've
always had one of those, wherever I've lived.

After all, high accuracy isn't needed since there's always a final
adjustment. I know I'd have pointed in completely the wrong direction
otherwise!

Basically, I just pointed mine in the direction that all the other
aerials were pointing and then wiggled it about to fine tune it

Which is the correct answer as that will basically be how next doors
aerial was aligned so the exact angle doesn't really matter, and
technically next doors aerial will be at a slightly different angle if
they are both pointing at the same point somewhere.
--
Regards,
Stuart.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Bob Eager laid this down on his screen :
On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 19:59:49 UTC, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

Bob Eager brought next idea :
What I did was this:

a) Get the location of the transmitter (dtg.org.uk I think) and find it
on the OS map.
b) Find my house on the OS map.
c) get the bearing of the Tx from my house.

You forgot the correction for magnetic variation.

Why? No compass involved at any stage (unless this is a wind-up). c)
is done with a protractor or simple trigonometry.

How do you translate the bearing of the transmitter to a bearing from
the house without a compass, if you cannot see the transmitter? You at
least need a compass to work out the direction the house faces.

The map has a sorta built in compass.

[[email protected]]

I'm afraid most of the replies above are missing the point. The
correct direction for your antenna may, in fact, not be the same as
for your neighbour - which is why all the antennas in your street are
not all pointing in the same direction. In reality, the TV signal
from the transmitter may not only come directly from the transmitter,
but also after reflection for local hills, buildings, etc. This is
called multipath. The net effect of all these reflections is that the
direction of the strongest signal at your house may not be exactly in
the direction of the transmitter. The only correct way to align your
antenna is to measure the signal strength. In the absence of a meter,
the best way to figure out this is to connect a TV. Someone else
mentioned this above. Don't muck around with a compass - even if your
trigonometric skills are spot on, the signal won't be...

[Bob Eager]

On Mon, 9 Jul 2007 05:05:29 UTC, "
wrote:

I'm afraid most of the replies above are missing the point. The
correct direction for your antenna may, in fact, not be the same as
for your neighbour - which is why all the antennas in your street are
not all pointing in the same direction.

Of course. But the original point I made was that you have to start
somewhere - inside a loft it is difficult to know a good starting point.
So, use of the bearing, as I did, gives one an initial direction to
point the thing. After that, it takes only one brain cell to realise
that you adjust it for maximum signal strength and minimum gosting, etc.
--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

[Bob Eager]

On Mon, 9 Jul 2007 00:22:47 UTC, Lurch
wrote:

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 22:57:21 GMT, raden mused:

In message , Bob Eager
writes
On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 21:19:30 UTC, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

Bob Eager expressed precisely :
Then (read original post) I measured the
bearing corresponding to the run of the (straight) road on which I live.

Ah, I see now.

The method does though rely heavily on the road being straight for long
enough and your house being aligned to that road. Living on a rather
short road with several bends in it and in a house not aligned with the
road, I was struggling to grasp your method.

I guess one could compensate by using a fairly large scale map - I've
always had one of those, wherever I've lived.

After all, high accuracy isn't needed since there's always a final
adjustment. I know I'd have pointed in completely the wrong direction
otherwise!

Basically, I just pointed mine in the direction that all the other
aerials were pointing and then wiggled it about to fine tune it

Which is the correct answer as that will basically be how next doors
aerial was aligned so the exact angle doesn't really matter, and
technically next doors aerial will be at a slightly different angle if
they are both pointing at the same point somewhere.

See my reply too...thre are three different directions round here!
--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

[Mungo \Two Sheds\ Toadfoot]

Frank Erskine wrote:
On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 23:00:21 +0100, "Mungo \"Two Sheds\" Toadfoot"
wrote:


I have a compass on my mobile;

Is this the twirly thing that hangs above your bed?

:-)

Yeth.

Sucks thumb

Si

[Lurch]

On 9 Jul 2007 06:41:16 GMT, "Bob Eager" mused:

On Mon, 9 Jul 2007 00:22:47 UTC, Lurch
wrote:

On Sun, 08 Jul 2007 22:57:21 GMT, raden mused:

In message , Bob Eager
writes
On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 21:19:30 UTC, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

Bob Eager expressed precisely :
Then (read original post) I measured the
bearing corresponding to the run of the (straight) road on which I live.

Ah, I see now.

The method does though rely heavily on the road being straight for long
enough and your house being aligned to that road. Living on a rather
short road with several bends in it and in a house not aligned with the
road, I was struggling to grasp your method.

I guess one could compensate by using a fairly large scale map - I've
always had one of those, wherever I've lived.

After all, high accuracy isn't needed since there's always a final
adjustment. I know I'd have pointed in completely the wrong direction
otherwise!

Basically, I just pointed mine in the direction that all the other
aerials were pointing and then wiggled it about to fine tune it

Which is the correct answer as that will basically be how next doors
aerial was aligned so the exact angle doesn't really matter, and
technically next doors aerial will be at a slightly different angle if
they are both pointing at the same point somewhere.

See my reply too...thre are three different directions round here!

There's a few areas round here where there's more than one direction
as well, makes it more fun when you have no idea where the hell you
are!
--
Regards,
Stuart.

[Andy Hall]

On 2007-07-09 08:42:35 +0100, Huge said:

On 2007-07-08, Vortex wrote:

1. Plug your postcode into http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/coverage.html;
this will return the transmitter that applies to your area, and amongst
other things the compass bearing to it from your postcode

On a related topic, anyone know why the Freeview channel numbers in the RT
don't correspond with those displayed by the Freeview TV, PVR and digibox
I own?

It's free. Did you expect precision? ;-)

[Andy Burns]

On 09/07/2007 08:42, Huge wrote:

On a related topic, anyone know why the Freeview channel numbers in the RT
don't correspond with those displayed by the Freeview TV, PVR and digibox
I own?

I don't buy the RT, but ...

The channels occasionally get a re-shuffle, have you re-scanned?

If you live somewhere that receives signals from more than one digital
transmitter the duplicates can get shunted into the 800 range.

If you have older Sony kit that only uses 2 digit channel numbers it can
shunt the 3 digit channels around to fit in the gaps.

[Andy Burns]

On 09/07/2007 11:38, Huge wrote:

On 2007-07-09, Andy Burns wrote:

If you live somewhere that receives signals from more than one digital
transmitter the duplicates can get shunted into the 800 range.

I suspect this is the most likely case. Accroding to gtg.org.uk, 5US
should be on Ch35 on Sandy Heath, but it's Ch801 here.

Do you have anything else on ch35, or is it just empty?

[MM]

On 8 Jul 2007 17:44:43 GMT, "Bob Eager" wrote:

On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 15:57:20 UTC, MM wrote:

This is a bog-standard 18-element TV aerial from Wilkinsons (£8.99)
and I plan to mount it in the loft space, where even a room aerial
gives excellent reception via the SLx6 Philex aerial booster.

From my bedroom window I can observe the aerial on the chimney of a
neighbouring house. How can I preserve its "angle" as closely as
possible when I mount my aerial? Or isn't the position that critical?

What I did was this:

a) Get the location of the transmitter (dtg.org.uk I think) and find it
on the OS map.
b) Find my house on the OS map.
c) get the bearing of the Tx from my house.
d) convert this to an angle relative to my road
e) since the roof joists are at 90 degrees to the road, add 90 degrees
to the angle from d)
f) make cardboard template containing that angle
g) use template to align aerial relative to joists

Then fine adjust in usual way

One final question: Can I mount the aerial on a wooden pole? I
couldn't buy a metal one this morning, so I bought a thicker type of
broom handle from the local hardware store for £2. Does the aerial
(normally fixed to a chimney or external metal wall bracket) need to
be earthed in some way? The pole will be mounted on a flat piece of
timber that runs across the joists in the centre of the loft space.

MM

[tony sayer]

In article , MM
writes
On 8 Jul 2007 17:44:43 GMT, "Bob Eager" wrote:

On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 15:57:20 UTC, MM wrote:

This is a bog-standard 18-element TV aerial from Wilkinsons (£8.99)
and I plan to mount it in the loft space, where even a room aerial
gives excellent reception via the SLx6 Philex aerial booster.

From my bedroom window I can observe the aerial on the chimney of a
neighbouring house. How can I preserve its "angle" as closely as
possible when I mount my aerial? Or isn't the position that critical?

What I did was this:

a) Get the location of the transmitter (dtg.org.uk I think) and find it
on the OS map.
b) Find my house on the OS map.
c) get the bearing of the Tx from my house.
d) convert this to an angle relative to my road
e) since the roof joists are at 90 degrees to the road, add 90 degrees
to the angle from d)
f) make cardboard template containing that angle
g) use template to align aerial relative to joists

Then fine adjust in usual way

One final question: Can I mount the aerial on a wooden pole? I
couldn't buy a metal one this morning, so I bought a thicker type of
broom handle from the local hardware store for £2. Does the aerial
(normally fixed to a chimney or external metal wall bracket) need to
be earthed in some way? The pole will be mounted on a flat piece of
timber that runs across the joists in the centre of the loft space.

MM

No.. you can tie it up with string if you want!..
--
Tony Sayer

[Andy Burns]

On 09/07/2007 13:36, MM wrote:

Can I mount the aerial on a wooden pole?

yes (given that it's in the loft)

Does the aerial need to be earthed in some way?

no

[Jethro]

On 8 Jul, 16:57, MM wrote:
This is a bog-standard 18-element TV aerial from Wilkinsons (£8.99)
and I plan to mount it in the loft space, where even a room aerial
gives excellent reception via the SLx6 Philex aerial booster.

From my bedroom window I can observe the aerial on the chimney of a
neighbouring house. How can I preserve its "angle" as closely as
possible when I mount my aerial? Or isn't the position that critical?

I've been thinking of schooldays when we were given the trigometric
task of working out a tree's height, but I can't think of any
comparable algorithm to transfer the neighbour's aerial's "direction"
to mine. I'll just have to "remember" the position as I climb into my
loft.

I found a cracking site which had the grid references of all UK
transmitters (google for it - I CBA) ... couple of minutes work with a
pen & paper, and I had the angle off the north. Took a compass into
the loft, and away I went.

I ahd to do that, as it seems no one round my way has an external
ariel. Not sure why ....

[Lurch]

On Mon, 09 Jul 2007 06:29:02 -0700, Jethro
mused:

On 8 Jul, 16:57, MM wrote:
This is a bog-standard 18-element TV aerial from Wilkinsons (£8.99)
and I plan to mount it in the loft space, where even a room aerial
gives excellent reception via the SLx6 Philex aerial booster.

From my bedroom window I can observe the aerial on the chimney of a
neighbouring house. How can I preserve its "angle" as closely as
possible when I mount my aerial? Or isn't the position that critical?

I've been thinking of schooldays when we were given the trigometric
task of working out a tree's height, but I can't think of any
comparable algorithm to transfer the neighbour's aerial's "direction"
to mine. I'll just have to "remember" the position as I climb into my
loft.

I found a cracking site which had the grid references of all UK
transmitters (google for it - I CBA) ... couple of minutes work with a
pen & paper, and I had the angle off the north. Took a compass into
the loft, and away I went.

I ahd to do that, as it seems no one round my way has an external
ariel. Not sure why ....

Because you're not allowed an external aerial?
--
Regards,
Stuart.

[Jethro]

On 9 Jul, 16:24, Lurch wrote:
On Mon, 09 Jul 2007 06:29:02 -0700, Jethro
mused:





On 8 Jul, 16:57, MM wrote:
This is a bog-standard 18-element TV aerial from Wilkinsons (£8.99)
and I plan to mount it in the loft space, where even a room aerial
gives excellent reception via the SLx6 Philex aerial booster.

From my bedroom window I can observe the aerial on the chimney of a
neighbouring house. How can I preserve its "angle" as closely as
possible when I mount my aerial? Or isn't the position that critical?

I've been thinking of schooldays when we were given the trigometric
task of working out a tree's height, but I can't think of any
comparable algorithm to transfer the neighbour's aerial's "direction"
to mine. I'll just have to "remember" the position as I climb into my
loft.

I found a cracking site which had the grid references of all UK
transmitters (google for it - I CBA) ... couple of minutes work with a
pen & paper, and I had the angle off the north. Took a compass into
the loft, and away I went.

I ahd to do that, as it seems no one round my way has an external
ariel. Not sure why ....

Because you're not allowed an external aerial?

Possible, I guess ... one day I'll stop being so anti social and
ask :-) Looking at our deeds and covenants, there's nothing
disallowing an external arial ... when we moved in, there was already
an internal loft arial, which I was rather chuffed at (not a great
head for heights me). As with a lot of things in this house, it was
badly fitted, which I corrected, but apart from that I have no
complaints. We have cable, so I don't know if it's good enough for
freeview (yet).

[Bob Eager]

On Mon, 9 Jul 2007 12:36:17 UTC, MM wrote:

One final question: Can I mount the aerial on a wooden pole? I
couldn't buy a metal one this morning, so I bought a thicker type of
broom handle from the local hardware store for £2. Does the aerial
(normally fixed to a chimney or external metal wall bracket) need to
be earthed in some way? The pole will be mounted on a flat piece of
timber that runs across the joists in the centre of the loft space.

No problem. One of mine is mounted on a thing called a 'loft lance',
which is a pole with a woodscrew-y thing on one end. No good if it's a
big aerial, though!

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

[raden]

In message , Bob Eager
writes
On Sun, 8 Jul 2007 22:57:21 UTC, raden wrote:

Basically, I just pointed mine in the direction that all the other
aerials were pointing and then wiggled it about to fine tune it

I'd have done that if there were any consistency! Three different major
directions...only one of which worked for FreeView. Also difficult to
see when inside the loft...!

And what about polarisation ?

I presume that will eliminate at least 33.3% of the options

ISTR that normally main transmitters and repeaters have different
orientations to remove interference


--
geoff