Freeview Surprise
 

I have just taken our Panny TUC T20 to a friends house about 200 yards away
to try it on their aerial before they buy one.

We are about 30 miles SW of Crystal Palace, and I upgraded our aerial with a
Triax Unix 52A and CT100 to get perfect digital reception. Their next door
neighbour had an aerial upgrade consisting of an Antiference XG8 on a long
mast, and a masthead amplifier to get Freeview.

As my friends installation consists of a 10 year old contract grade 18
element group A peeping over their chimney with a passive loft splitter,
cheapie co-ax and wall plates I didn't hold out much hope for reliable
digital reception.

To my surprise and mild amusement the box worked perfectly all afternoon on
all MUX's with a lowest signal quality of about 7/10 rising to 9/10.

I'm wondering what the masthead amplifier is achieving on the next door
house - unless it's another of Bill's empty red boxes.

"Doctor D." wrote in message
...
I have just taken our Panny TUC T20 to a friends house about 200 yards
away
to try it on their aerial before they buy one.

We are about 30 miles SW of Crystal Palace, and I upgraded our aerial with
a
Triax Unix 52A and CT100 to get perfect digital reception. Their next door
neighbour had an aerial upgrade consisting of an Antiference XG8 on a long
mast, and a masthead amplifier to get Freeview.

As my friends installation consists of a 10 year old contract grade 18
element group A peeping over their chimney with a passive loft splitter,
cheapie co-ax and wall plates I didn't hold out much hope for reliable
digital reception.

To my surprise and mild amusement the box worked perfectly all afternoon
on
all MUX's with a lowest signal quality of about 7/10 rising to 9/10.

I'm wondering what the masthead amplifier is achieving on the next door
house - unless it's another of Bill's empty red boxes.



One wonders if some unscrupulous installers pursuaded people to get
extensive and uneccesary upgrades.

I live about 3 miles to the east of Slough and receive from Crystal
Palace. (On the map, that puts CP at about 40 miles away.) Our
external aerial is about 20 yrs old, I think; I forget, although I did
replace the TV down cable a few months ago when installing a sat dish
I bought for £3 at out local tip in order to receive French/ German/
Itlaian free channels... (Aligned dish with assistance of daughter
watching TV and me on ladder/roof, connected by mobile phones!)

At times of thunderstorms, etc. I have an internal dish -25 yr old
Sony TV top, passive device; bought when we lived in central London. I
also have an aerial amplifier next to the TV -really to boost the dish
signal. The dish sits on a cabinet, hence near the ceiling, of our
downstairs room and points, through a window, towards the house across
the road! (I.e. you would have to flatten a lot of houses/ villages
and towns to get line of sight with CP -excluding any thoughts about
Earth curvature.)

As an experiment, I disconnected the amp; external aerial and just ran
on the dish, pointing at Crystal Palace. BTW, I also have a video
recorder -which boosts the signal, but I think that that is after the
Nokia 221T. (A quick look at the birds nest is why I am not sure the
wiring at the moment!)

On the TV (Sony unit), analogue TV channels are very fuzzy, as I would
expect. Switch to FreeView and I get perfect pictures -although I did
not check signal strength.

My thoughts? Buy or borrow a FreeView decoder before paying for a new
aerial. In the majority of cases, I reckon that the new aerial is only
called for by the shops, installers, servicemen, etc!

Nick

"Nick Yarrow" wrote in message
m...
snip

On the TV (Sony unit), analogue TV channels are very fuzzy, as
I would
expect. Switch to FreeView and I get perfect pictures -although
I did
not check signal strength.

My thoughts? Buy or borrow a FreeView decoder before paying for
a new
aerial. In the majority of cases, I reckon that the new aerial
is only
called for by the shops, installers, servicemen, etc!

Your suspicion is not well-founded. Most existing aerials have
been designed for optimum analogue reception from a local
transmitter. If this transmitter is a relay, they probably won't
get digital at all without changing direction and polarity. If
it's a main transmitter, some of the multiplexes may be outside
the aerial's grouping and a wideband aerial, possibly of higher
gain, will be needed.

"Phil" wrote in message
...

"Nick Yarrow" wrote in message
m...
snip

On the TV (Sony unit), analogue TV channels are very fuzzy, as
I would
expect. Switch to FreeView and I get perfect pictures -although
I did
not check signal strength.

My thoughts? Buy or borrow a FreeView decoder before paying for
a new
aerial. In the majority of cases, I reckon that the new aerial
is only
called for by the shops, installers, servicemen, etc!

Your suspicion is not well-founded. Most existing aerials have
been designed for optimum analogue reception from a local
transmitter. If this transmitter is a relay, they probably won't
get digital at all without changing direction and polarity. If
it's a main transmitter, some of the multiplexes may be outside
the aerial's grouping and a wideband aerial, possibly of higher
gain, will be needed.




And the varience in reception between two adjacent properties would explain
the difference in aerial requirements?

"John Russell" wrote in message
...

"Phil" wrote in message
...

"Nick Yarrow" wrote in message
m...
snip

On the TV (Sony unit), analogue TV channels are very fuzzy, as
I would
expect. Switch to FreeView and I get perfect pictures -although
I did
not check signal strength.

My thoughts? Buy or borrow a FreeView decoder before paying for
a new
aerial. In the majority of cases, I reckon that the new aerial
is only
called for by the shops, installers, servicemen, etc!

Your suspicion is not well-founded. Most existing aerials have
been designed for optimum analogue reception from a local
transmitter. If this transmitter is a relay, they probably won't
get digital at all without changing direction and polarity. If
it's a main transmitter, some of the multiplexes may be outside
the aerial's grouping and a wideband aerial, possibly of higher
gain, will be needed.




And the varience in reception between two adjacent properties would
explain
the difference in aerial requirements?



On the other hand they have been increasing DVB power over time. The next
door neighbour may have needed all his kit in the early days of DVB
broadcasts.

On Sun, 21 Dec 2003 11:47:16 -0000, "John Russell"
wrote:

|
| "Phil" wrote in message
| ...
|
| "Nick Yarrow" wrote in message
| m...
| snip

| Your suspicion is not well-founded. Most existing aerials have
| been designed for optimum analogue reception from a local
| transmitter. If this transmitter is a relay, they probably won't
| get digital at all without changing direction and polarity. If
| it's a main transmitter, some of the multiplexes may be outside
| the aerial's grouping and a wideband aerial, possibly of higher
| gain, will be needed.
|
|
|
|
| And the varience in reception between two adjacent properties would explain
| the difference in aerial requirements?

I have got different reception from identical kit at different corners of
my house. One corner through the top of a tree gives poor reception and
the other corner better reception round the side of the tree.

Full report later after more experiance

Dave F

On the other hand they have been increasing DVB power over time. The next
door neighbour may have needed all his kit in the early days of DVB
broadcasts.


The aerial next door has only been up about 6 months - and the chimneys of
my friends house and next door are in line about 20' apart with no trees
close to the aerial line of sight.

"Doctor D." wrote in message
...
I have just taken our Panny TUC T20 to a friends house about 200 yards
away
to try it on their aerial before they buy one.

We are about 30 miles SW of Crystal Palace, and I upgraded our aerial with
a
Triax Unix 52A and CT100 to get perfect digital reception. Their next door
neighbour had an aerial upgrade consisting of an Antiference XG8 on a long
mast, and a masthead amplifier to get Freeview.

As my friends installation consists of a 10 year old contract grade 18
element group A peeping over their chimney with a passive loft splitter,
cheapie co-ax and wall plates I didn't hold out much hope for reliable
digital reception.

To my surprise and mild amusement the box worked perfectly all afternoon
on
all MUX's with a lowest signal quality of about 7/10 rising to 9/10.

I'm wondering what the masthead amplifier is achieving on the next door
house - unless it's another of Bill's empty red boxes.


I think my friends are very fortunate with the results we obtained
yesterday, as my old contract 18A was not giving wholly satisfactory results
some 200 yards away (although you can see their house from my roof). My
current Crystal Palace installation has no amplifier, and in fact is
diplexed with a group E for Hannington and passes through the VCR, the Sky
box and a Labgear 4 way amplifier before it gets to the Freeview box. We
still get an average 9/10 on all MUX's.

It is very hard to see why a masthead amplifier is required by the
neighbours.

One wonders if some unscrupulous installers pursuaded people to get
extensive and uneccesary upgrades.


I'm bloody sure they do. What's more a lot of these 'upgrades' are actually
'downgrades'.
Bill


Ageism damages our culture as much as racism.