TV Aerial in the loft - improving reception

[Ray Singh]

The analogue TV signal was switched off a while ago in the area where i live. I was using a standard TV aerial mounted in the loft, which worked fine.
After the Digital switch over, the TV would not work at all, so i bought a £17.99 digital TV box from Comet (yes last of the big spenders). This worked without the need to change the aerial for a few channels, but i don't receive all the channels available. Some of the channels are scrambled - i.e. i can see some colours on the screen and some garbage noise.

Will improving the aerial to a digital antenna help, even if its still in the loft?

I'm keen to get some 'man' channels like quest.

[GreenDog]

Saw a few advertisements in the local paper the other night, £35 to fit a new aerial. Not sure how much it'd be in your neck of the woods but doubt it's going to break the bank to have the job done properly.

[dogbucket]

'Digital Aerial' is one of those stupid labels given to products like 'Digital Headphones'. They are are generally just designed to be wideband, as the digital carriers are spread through out the spectrum used for TV signal more so than the analogue channels used to be.

The analogue channels were grouped together in narrow bands of frequencies depending on where you lived. The aerial that would have been fitted back then would be optimized for this narrow band. Therefore it is possible your aerial may not be the best design for digital reception.

So worth trying a new one, get the biggest you can and look at the gain figure (quoted in dB). The higher the number the better. Also check cabling/connectors etc as these can degrade and reduce signal at the TV.

An amp may help, but better to get the best signal from the aerial first.

However if you are in a fringe area the roof material itself may attenuate the incoming signal too much and an external aerial is needed.

[FasterFreddy]

Have a look around this site: http://www.ukfree.tv

It's very helpful if you're thinking of changing your aerial or trying to use a different transmitter.

If you're missing channels, take a look at these pages in particular:

http://www.ukfree.tv/helpme.php?faqid=1107051116
http://www.ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107051...

[DavesFlaps]

ariel is one of the words I have difficulty spelling, along with calander.

[Simpo Two]

I tried a B&Q loft aerial for Freeview and it was pretty useless. So I stumped up for a proper bloke to put a proper aerial in the proper place (on the roof) and now I get all the channels.

There are 800 channels, and having weeded out the rubbish I'm now left with digital adverts and digital repeats, the Top Gear Channel (dating back to 2001) and the Star Trek Channel. Great.

[AlexanderV8]

Also, as I found out in my new house, make sure the aerial isn't just placed on the rafters/insulation - properly secure it to an upright without it touching anything else, point it in the right direction & Bob's your uncle.

When your TV searches for the channels, the signal strength is displayed on the screen (at least it is on mine), so you can see what you are getting signal wise. Mine went from strength 5 & hardly any channels to 10 & about 80 channels (mostly crap though!)

[JM]

Simpo Two said:

There are 800 channels, and having weeded out the rubbish I'm now left with digital adverts and digital repeats, the Top Gear Channel (dating back to 2001) and the Star Trek Channel. Great.

On Freeview?

I seem to be missing nearly 700 channels.

[Simpo Two]

JM said:

Simpo Two said:

There are 800 channels, and having weeded out the rubbish I'm now left with digital adverts and digital repeats, the Top Gear Channel (dating back to 2001) and the Star Trek Channel. Great.

On Freeview?

I seem to be missing nearly 700 channels.

Goes up to 801 I think, but I agree there may be chunks missing. Much of it is scrambled, off-air or duplicates of other channels.

Funny how programming seems to be changing. Instead of programmes spread over 5 channels on certain days and times, we now have 800 channels with 'back to back' episodes of the same programme on every day.