Andrew Gabriel wrote:

In article ,
Colin Wilson writes:

Get teh bets and largest aerial you can firt.

The number of elements make a difference though from what I can make
out... the mid-range one has 18 and the top of the range has 43 - i`m not
sure about physical dimensions though


In theory, more elements increases the gain on-axis and reduces
it off-axis, so it should be better if you can accurately perform
the more critical alignment it requires.

However, I'm sceptical that many aerials are really designed that
accurately, at least as far as the physics goes. I suspect much of
the design is to 'look' higher quality so they can charge more;-)



IIRC the number of elements increases teh gain slightly, but the real
gain is in drectionality and freedom from ghosting.

If the transmitter is behind hills/houses you do need LOT of height,
but its easy to check yoiurloft with a set top aerial and a small TV up
there. If you can get reaosnable quality from that, and move around to
find teh best spot, a decent aerial in the same spot will do about 4-10
times better than the set top aerial. 4 stomes stronger and maybe 10
times better on ghosting.

Final alignment is done by ot looking at signal strength, but picture
quality. You want to make sure your main ghosts are coming into the
antenna best rejection lobes, this is usually a few degrees off maxiumum
signal.

In the end you fiddle around with te antenna and a TV in the loft, til
you are pretty sure its as good as you are going to get, then bolt it
down and enjoy whatever you can get.

Frankly it will be better than a quick external installation by a cowboy
rigger in 99 cases out of 100.

Doing it this way also allows you to assess the best place within the
loft. Metal tanks and metal in the house will make big differences, so
its not always obvious where the best place actually is till you try em
all..

but