Andrew wrote:
Just noticed this thread on the AVFORUMS site.

https://www.avforums.com/threads/iss...erial.2352361/


I didn't know there was an 'omni-directional' freeview aerial.

read the thread and look at the photos.

The elderly neighbours have an external aerial on quite a high
external pole so they presumably cannot be in a strong signal
area.


I wish you guys had tvfool.com , as this tells you
so much about your local conditions.

Here, I plugged in an address in an area that is poorly
served by TV.

https://i.postimg.cc/wMcnbt54/Radar-All-Fred.png

If I used an Omni, maybe I could pick up 31,44,9.

If I used a directional, and pointed it at 149 degrees true,
I could pick up 9 and 12. There would be enough additional
gain just from the antenna (say 10dB) to make 12 a bit
more solid. But if I wanted all four 31,44,9,12,
then I might need to put the directional aerial on
a rotator. And the mount would have to be solid enough,
that when the wind blows, the deflection does not
cause temporary loss of sync on the TV set (black screen etc).

Summary: You can use just about anything, if the conditions
are right for it. Things work in your favor, if all
the desired channels are on the same compass point.
Our cottage back home, TV starved as it is, has all
available channels on one compass point, so no rotator
could ever be needed (and you can go crazy with the
directional setup).

Maybe in the case of the elderly neighbours, it's the
pole and clearing the treeline that is the most important
aspect of this install, and what is on the pole was
not considered important in any way. Maybe a rabbit ears
could have been stuck on top of the pole :-) Think how
cool that would be.

Paul