We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember tony sayer
saying something like:

If RTE1 and 2 are still on VHF in your area, you need a box section VHF
antenna (it's 2 dipoles and a square reflector)

What's wrong with a simple multi element Yagi array For Band three
then?...

Not commonly available from what I've seen and is a bit unweildy. The
boxy twin element [1] is fairly common and works well, but as Adrian is
apparently served by UHF on all channels it's no longer relevant.

[1] Memory nudged, so I had a look at mine; it's a boxy dipole with twin
vertical reflectors.
--

Dave

Dave Liquorice wrote:

On Fri, 20 Oct 2006 01:14:50 +0100, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:

http://www.brittany-satellites.com/astra_footprint.php

Shows the footprint for the various beams. IMHO a properly aligned
Zone 1 (the smaller of the two) minidish should be fine, Zone 2 would
be better.

Utter crap.

So those coverage maps are crap are they? References for your assertion
please.

Course not... A Zone 2 mini-dish should work fine in Western Ireland -
provided you've got a clear view toward the satellite of course. Make
sure that the polarisation offset adjustment (LNB rotation) is set into
click-stop position no. 2.

--
Andy

On Fri, 20 Oct 2006 14:19:30 +0100, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:

Utter crap.

So those coverage maps are crap are they? References for your
assertion please.

Personal experience - that do you?

With that attitude? Nope.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Liquorice"
saying something like:

On Fri, 20 Oct 2006 14:19:30 +0100, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:

Utter crap.

So those coverage maps are crap are they? References for your
assertion please.

Personal experience - that do you?

With that attitude? Nope.

**** you then. It's not like I give a **** about the opinion of someone
who hasn't tried it for themselves and actually knows what they're
talking about.
--

Dave

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Andy Wade
saying something like:

So those coverage maps are crap are they? References for your assertion
please.

Course not... A Zone 2 mini-dish should work fine in Western Ireland -
provided you've got a clear view toward the satellite of course. Make
sure that the polarisation offset adjustment (LNB rotation) is set into
click-stop position no. 2.

Note the word 'should'. You'll find it's marginal at best when it gets
heavily clouded up here. Christ, it's bad enough in the middle of
Ireland, the West is worse.
--

Dave

HI All

Sorry to follow up my own post - but just for the sake of anybody who
might be interested

After a lot of faffing around the 'expert' installers failed to turn
up - so I got in touch with an alternative installer.

We now have more than twice the signal strength from the Sky antenna -
turns out that the dish the 'experts' installed was deformed - and
only gave 35% signal strength. A more solid dish of the same size
(80cm) installed by the new guy, using the same quad lnb, gave a 70%
signal strength reading on his portable meter.

At the Sky+ box this not surprisingly increases signal strength - but
also gives a much higher 'quality' reading - which should make the
system more tolerant of rainstorms etc.

Interestingly, the original dish had already started rusting - after
only 5 weeks up on the wall.

As to the terrestrial problems -
the new guy replaced the wideband, loft-mounted aerial with preamp
with a new chimney-mounted yagi of the correct band. Because of the
fact that the transmitter arrays are al pointing away from our
direction (!) - all isn't simple - but the addition of a uhf-only
preamp and a lot of 'tweaking' has resulted in a much better signal on
RTE.

Conclusions....?

Just because the aerial installers have a big red van with 'expert'
written on the outside, it doesn't necessarily mean that they actually
know what they are up to.

The 'good guy' works for his own family business, doesn't have
anything written on the side of his estate car g - but does know
what he's up to. In case anybody needs his assitance he is Anthony
Hayes - and his family shop is tucked away in Bridge Street,
Skibbereen, County Cork.

I won't name the other crowd - but they're also in Skib - and they
have big red vans with 'expert' written on the outside g

Thanks all for the comments & suggestions

Adrian
West Cork, Ireland