On Sat, 6 Dec 2003 13:27:12 -0000, Colin Wilson
wrote:

Any loft antennas, even in strong signal areas are likely to give poor
results. In poor signal areas, the roof attenuates the signal a
great deal, and in stronger areas the effect of reflected signals will
cause ghosting and general fuzziness on analogue transmissions and
high error rates leading to possible loss of picture on digital TV.

Any idea if the likes of this would be better at avoiding these pitfalls?
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/...16809&id=14374

It's not really possible to tell from the photo. Some contract
grade antennas are built in this way (with the X configuration of
directors) but other areas like the cable connection arrangement,
which is important, and the general construction are poor.

That's why I suggested going for a known good branded product.

If you look on-line for products like Triax Unix, Antiference DX,
Televes, you will find them in the £25-35 range.

Proper spec, CT100 cable costs from around £25-30 for a 100m reel -
the cheap £10 satellite cable is not as good. You might be able to
buy cable by the metre of course.

Other materials like mounts and brackets will cost about another £5,
so you can do the job in material costs for about £60.

The situation that you have mentioned, going through walls and being
at 30 miles from the transmitter gives me two negative points about a
loft installation.

You could try it, and then if you have problems ask an installer to
put the antenna that you have bought on the roof. In this scenario,
it will have cost more because he won't have made a margin on the
materials but would charge for the time.




You would be far better off finding an installer who will fit a good
quality antenna snip

Yeah... know what you mean

He should also have the correct equipment to align the antenna for
optimum results - which does not necessarily mean strongest signal.

The nearest i`ve ever known an installer around here do as far as
alignment is concerned is to point the thing in the same general
direction as everyone elses :-}


I just took a quick look at yell.co.uk with a search on Aerial
Services and Liverpool and there are the usual range of businesses
with names like Low Cost, ABC and so on - basically to get your
attention or appear near the top of a list.

If you want to find a good installer, one thing to look for is if they
reference that they also do communal, SMATV and commercial work.
Although not a guarantee, this is usually a pointer to an organisation
with some level of competence and the right test equipment.

Unfortunately the proliferation of Sky dish installations has
attracted a lot of cowboys into the business, who do many per day to a
mediochre standard.

In part, it also depends on what you are prepared to accept in terms
of quality of picture.





Thanks for the reply !

..andy

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