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