Looking at buying a loft aerial for three tv's via a booster/distributor box. Any hints or tips. Thanks.

Hi

Asda do two nice looking loft aerial kits £17 and £30

I used the £30 one and it works great

In the kit is all you need to join one tv cable, clips and mounting pole

They are in green boxes made by Philex

The kits are only in the bigger stores though

I think you can take them back if results are poor

Hope this helps

Dave

whats your postcode to get the right aerial!

http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?

put your postcode in here, it will tell you what one. any problems post back

Great article on Digital Reception issues. A bit dated but well worth a read...

http://www.wrightsaerials.tv/digitalterrtvrecep.htm

If you need a wideband in your area I've seen this aerial from Maplins recommended in a few places...

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...1128&doy=18m12

We have set one up in my loft and it seems to work well for us. It is quite physically big though.

Avoid booster amps if at all possible. If you have a weak signal best fit a bigger aerial first. Only if that's still not enough fit a mast head amp at the aerial. Distribution amps are another thing altogether. We have one from PROception.

I was recently asked to help a relative sort out a problem. She had a digital TV with apparently bad reception (freezing and blocking). Turned out the signal was too strong for her TV due to use of booster in loft. Something to be aware of.

Bear in mind that some of the current digital frequencies will change after switch over. Even if a wideband aerial is necessary now (eg to get both) it might make sense to switch back to a narrow band aerial later.

Who knows what will happen when the bandwidth freed up by the analog chanels is used for other purposes.

Thanks so far. Checked postcode,came up with a settop aerial. Would this work through an amp to two tv's upstairs. Not to bothered about main tv as we have sky, would be nice to have the freeview wired up tho'. Would rather buy one decent aerial than two for the kids upstairs.

You haven't said roughly where you live in relation to the main transmitter.

Whether a loft aerial is going to work or even a set top will be highly dependant on how far you are from the transmitter and what's in the way both over a longer distance i.e. hills and more locally i.e. trees.

I'm in Northampton - about 30 miles from Sandy Heath which is a 1000kw transmitter. However, you can only just get an analogue signal with a set top aerial so digital is a no-no on an indoor aerial.

Outdoor aerials - even those being fitted by the pros - are usually 52 element high-gain or similar.

By all means start by trying a single set top aerial as if that works then fine. But if it doesn't you may find a loft aerial isn't the answer.

Consider getting a proper distribution amp. We have a PROception that's working very well.

It routes the signal from the aerial in the loft down to the living room where you can add in signals from the Sky box, DVD or other boxes. Then the signal goes back upto the distribution amp where feeds are provided for each room.

This set up generally requires two wires from the loft to the livingroom BUT with the Proception one of those could be shared with a feed from the sat dish if necessary.

Each remote room can have it's own freeview box or you cam watch the output from the skybox or DVD player in the living room.

The Proception amp I have also an input for a CCTV camera or camera system.

We are in a very weak signal area and need a wideband. I'm using this aerial.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?...1128&doy=19m12

Sounds like you won't need one anything like that big. Note that it IS possible to have too strong a signal. The symptoms look similar to too weak a signal on freeview (blocking and freeze frame).

EDIT: Hi AlanO. I'm on the A14 between kettering and Huntingdon and also looking at Sandy Heath. Managed to get that Mapilin aerial to work high up in the loft looking through the roof and some trees. I was expecting to have to mount it outdoors on the chimney but thought it worth a try inside first and got away without. Been in about 10 months with no reception probs at all.

I'm about 2miles from kilvey hill.

you need a group A mounted vertical

simple thing to do is buy a £20 box

check signal strength on digital channels. It should be 80 to 85%. This will increase after analogue shut down.

Any stronger will swamp analogue signal, you can buy an attenuator ( spelt right ? ) to decrease the signal until analogue shut off)

Info on that transmitter here

http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=SS672940

"Group A" means you want one that just covers the Group A part of the TV band (eg not a wideband) the "Vertical" means mount it like this...

http://www.bitzshop.co.uk/acatalog/T...alMounting.gif

I don't think Maplin do Group A aerials. See local TV shop.