Help on Aerial install

Hi guys,

Just got a quote from an Aerial installer. The current install is an aerial
pointing to Sutton Coldfield
mounted on a chimney in west Coventry. It's wired to the back room
downstairs and from there chained to
another four points.

The reception is poor, even when disconnecting the chain and connecting to
just the one socket, the signal is
still poor. They tested the socket and said it was low strength (45 I
think?)

The Aerial guy said the best thing to do would be to mount a ?high gain?
Aerial on a pole bracketed to the
wall, this would go higher than the roof Aerial. Feed this in to the loft,
then from there have an amplifier and go from that to the rooms. Sounds
good to me.

Now for the Aerial install on the pole, and cabling to the loft with the amp
and then cabling to the downstairs front room he qouted £220. If I wanted
extra points (ideally five in all) it would be £35 per extra point and £90 -
£100 for a six point amplifier?

It all Seems a bit steep to me? Is there anything specialised he could be
using? special amp maybe?

I'd like to know, because i'm tempted to have a crack at the whole thing
myself (done Sat installs etc..), or just pay a decent price for the Aerial
mounting and cabling in to the loft, but then do everything else myself.

Oh, and whats my chances of getting freeview?

I'm not asking much am I? :-)

TIA,

gbnews

"gbnews" wrote in message
...
Hi guys,

Just got a quote from an Aerial installer. The current install is an
aerial
pointing to Sutton Coldfield
mounted on a chimney in west Coventry. It's wired to the back room
downstairs and from there chained to
another four points.

The reception is poor, even when disconnecting the chain and connecting to
just the one socket, the signal is
still poor. They tested the socket and said it was low strength (45 I
think?)

The Aerial guy said the best thing to do would be to mount a ?high gain?
Aerial on a pole bracketed to the
wall, this would go higher than the roof Aerial. Feed this in to the
loft,
then from there have an amplifier and go from that to the rooms. Sounds
good to me.

Now for the Aerial install on the pole, and cabling to the loft with the
amp
and then cabling to the downstairs front room he qouted £220. If I wanted
extra points (ideally five in all) it would be £35 per extra point and
£90 -
£100 for a six point amplifier?

It all Seems a bit steep to me? Is there anything specialised he could be
using? special amp maybe?

I'd like to know, because i'm tempted to have a crack at the whole thing
myself (done Sat installs etc..), or just pay a decent price for the
Aerial
mounting and cabling in to the loft, but then do everything else myself.

Oh, and whats my chances of getting freeview?

I'm not asking much am I? :-)

TIA,

gbnews



gbnews,
Sounds a bit expensive to me - if you want to price the parts,
have a look at Maplin's site - they aren't known as a particularly cheap
place - for example, their high gain aerials are between £30-40 and a 6 way
distribution amp is £40, masthead amp is £18 + £13 for it's power supply
unit. Aerial wall bracket is £10, 10 foot mast is £15. TV coax cable is £25
for 100m . Outlet points are between £3 and £5.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/

If you are happy climbing up there and make sure the aerial mast is really
well secured then you could save plenty. By the way, do the nearby houses
all have large aerials? - because if they don't then maybe your existing
aerial just needs aligning or a new cable?
Freeview may need a good wideband aerial to pick-up all channels, you can
check the freeview site to see if it will work ok at your location
http://www.freeview.co.uk/index.html.

Dave



Dave

gbnews wrote:

Hi guys,

Just got a quote from an Aerial installer. The current install is an aerial
pointing to Sutton Coldfield
mounted on a chimney in west Coventry. It's wired to the back room
downstairs and from there chained to
another four points.

The reception is poor, even when disconnecting the chain and connecting to
just the one socket, the signal is
still poor. They tested the socket and said it was low strength (45 I
think?)

The Aerial guy said the best thing to do would be to mount a ?high gain?
Aerial on a pole bracketed to the
wall, this would go higher than the roof Aerial. Feed this in to the loft,
then from there have an amplifier and go from that to the rooms. Sounds
good to me.

Now for the Aerial install on the pole, and cabling to the loft with the amp
and then cabling to the downstairs front room he qouted £220. If I wanted
extra points (ideally five in all) it would be £35 per extra point and £90 -
£100 for a six point amplifier?

It all Seems a bit steep to me? Is there anything specialised he could be
using? special amp maybe?

I'd like to know, because i'm tempted to have a crack at the whole thing
myself (done Sat installs etc..), or just pay a decent price for the Aerial
mounting and cabling in to the loft, but then do everything else myself.

Oh, and whats my chances of getting freeview?

I'm not asking much am I? :-)

TIA,

gbnews


Recently put a new aerial up at my parents' in west Coventry. Prior to
this the picture from Sutton Coldfield was v poor, even with an
amplifier. Originally we were going to put two aerials up; one pointing
to Allesley Park for BBC, ITV and C4, and another towards Sutton for C5
However, we ended up with just the one pointing to Sutton. We paid over
the odds for an aerial from Argos (but we could take it back if no
good). Put a distribution amplifier (or whatever they me be called) in
the bedroom and wired to three other rooms from there.

Perfect analogue pictures on all channels. Tried a Freeview box -
perfect picture. All of the post code checker sites say that they
shouldn't be able to get digital but its been working perfectly since
Feb. I was concerned that when the trees grew leaves it may effect the
picture (or is this a fallacy?), but so far so good.

Material cost about £90, not including the Freeview box.

I suggest you get some other quotes if you don't want to do it yourself.
I know from experience there is at least one cowboy aerial installer
in Coventry who will sell you far more than you need and even then not
gaurantee a good picture.

Andy

Recently put a new aerial up at my parents' in west Coventry. Prior to
this the picture from Sutton Coldfield was v poor, even with an
amplifier. Originally we were going to put two aerials up; one
pointing
to Allesley Park for BBC, ITV and C4, and another towards Sutton for
C5 However, we ended up with just the one pointing to Sutton. We paid
over
the odds for an aerial from Argos (but we could take it back if no
good). Put a distribution amplifier (or whatever they me be called) in
the bedroom and wired to three other rooms from there.

Perfect analogue pictures on all channels. Tried a Freeview box -
perfect picture. All of the post code checker sites say that they
shouldn't be able to get digital but its been working perfectly since
Feb. I was concerned that when the trees grew leaves it may effect the
picture (or is this a fallacy?), but so far so good.

Material cost about £90, not including the Freeview box.

I suggest you get some other quotes if you don't want to do it
yourself. I know from experience there is at least one cowboy
aerial installer
in Coventry who will sell you far more than you need and even then not
gaurantee a good picture.

Thanks for the useful reply Andy. What type of Aerial did you buy? and did
you mount it on a pole, if so how high did you go?

Thanks,

gbnews

gbnews wrote:

Thanks for the useful reply Andy. What type of Aerial did you buy? and did
you mount it on a pole, if so how high did you go?

Thanks,

gbnews


The aerial was a Labgear 52 Element High Gain TV Aerial (Argos part
number 535/2069). It only comes with a diddy pole so you'll probably
need to buy one of these too. As I said, I only bought it from Argos
because it was an easy option - not sure of a good place to buy aerials
from in Coventry. I'm sure you can get the same for less money elsewhere.

The aerial is on a pole which is only about 2m long. It is fixed to the
eaves of the house at their highest point because we could access this
from the flat roof of an extension. The old aerial was pole mounted on
the chimney and was probably about another 2m higher than the new one.

If I were you, assuming you have the time and inclination to do it, I
would get an aerial from somewhere that will take it back if it doesn't
improve things. Buy a drum of decent cable from Screwfix or B&Q and some
decent connectors. Borrow a Freeview box. Get the aerial as high up as
you can and see if you can get it to work. If you can't then at the end
of the day it'll only have cost you the price of the cable, clips,
connectors and pole (£50 ish) - most of which you can use when you've
paid a professional to do the hard part (getting the aerial up on the
chimney) to put outlets in all the rooms you want. Don't know what
you'll do with pole.

In you original post you mention a "socket". I assume the cable
terminates in a connection box of some sort. I would avoid these.
Terminate the incoming cable onto a connector that will plug directly
into the TV (or VCR or booster or whatever). Do the same for any other
TV points added. The boxes increase the attenuation of the signal and
become another point of potential failure in the system.

Good luck. I'll look out for a shiny new aerial next time I'm driving
down the A45 ;-)

Andy

"Andy P" wrote in message
...
gbnews wrote:

Thanks for the useful reply Andy. What type of Aerial did you buy? and
did
you mount it on a pole, if so how high did you go?

Thanks,

gbnews


The aerial was a Labgear 52 Element High Gain TV Aerial (Argos part
number 535/2069). It only comes with a diddy pole so you'll probably
need to buy one of these too. As I said, I only bought it from Argos
because it was an easy option - not sure of a good place to buy aerials
from in Coventry. I'm sure you can get the same for less money elsewhere.

The aerial is on a pole which is only about 2m long. It is fixed to the
eaves of the house at their highest point because we could access this
from the flat roof of an extension. The old aerial was pole mounted on
the chimney and was probably about another 2m higher than the new one.

If I were you, assuming you have the time and inclination to do it, I
would get an aerial from somewhere that will take it back if it doesn't
improve things. Buy a drum of decent cable from Screwfix or B&Q and some
decent connectors. Borrow a Freeview box. Get the aerial as high up as
you can and see if you can get it to work. If you can't then at the end
of the day it'll only have cost you the price of the cable, clips,
connectors and pole (£50 ish) - most of which you can use when you've
paid a professional to do the hard part (getting the aerial up on the
chimney) to put outlets in all the rooms you want. Don't know what
you'll do with pole.

In you original post you mention a "socket". I assume the cable
terminates in a connection box of some sort. I would avoid these.
Terminate the incoming cable onto a connector that will plug directly
into the TV (or VCR or booster or whatever). Do the same for any other
TV points added. The boxes increase the attenuation of the signal and
become another point of potential failure in the system.

Good luck. I'll look out for a shiny new aerial next time I'm driving
down the A45 ;-)

Andy
Way over price for the Aerial Fitting And it would have to be on one hell of
a pole to be fitted to a wall and be higher then the roof !!. Unless on
gable end.
Take a look at ARD For Aerial + Fittings
http://www.ardelectronics.com/

Try this to see which Aerial you will need.
http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tva.exe?

BigGuyUK

Andy P wrote:
gbnews wrote:

Hi guys,

Just got a quote from an Aerial installer. The current install is an
aerial
pointing to Sutton Coldfield
mounted on a chimney in west Coventry. It's wired to the back room
downstairs and from there chained to
another four points.

The reception is poor, even when disconnecting the chain and
connecting to
just the one socket, the signal is
still poor. They tested the socket and said it was low strength (45 I
think?)

The Aerial guy said the best thing to do would be to mount a ?high gain?
Aerial on a pole bracketed to the
wall, this would go higher than the roof Aerial. Feed this in to the
loft,
then from there have an amplifier and go from that to the rooms. Sounds
good to me.

Now for the Aerial install on the pole, and cabling to the loft with
the amp
and then cabling to the downstairs front room he qouted £220. If I
wanted
extra points (ideally five in all) it would be £35 per extra point and
£90 -
£100 for a six point amplifier?

It all Seems a bit steep to me? Is there anything specialised he
could be
using? special amp maybe?

I'd like to know, because i'm tempted to have a crack at the whole thing
myself (done Sat installs etc..), or just pay a decent price for the
Aerial
mounting and cabling in to the loft, but then do everything else myself.

Oh, and whats my chances of getting freeview?

I'm not asking much am I? :-)

TIA,

gbnews


Recently put a new aerial up at my parents' in west Coventry. Prior to
this the picture from Sutton Coldfield was v poor, even with an
amplifier. Originally we were going to put two aerials up; one pointing
to Allesley Park for BBC, ITV and C4, and another towards Sutton for C5
However, we ended up with just the one pointing to Sutton. We paid over
the odds for an aerial from Argos (but we could take it back if no
good). Put a distribution amplifier (or whatever they me be called) in
the bedroom and wired to three other rooms from there.

Perfect analogue pictures on all channels. Tried a Freeview box -
perfect picture. All of the post code checker sites say that they
shouldn't be able to get digital but its been working perfectly since
Feb. I was concerned that when the trees grew leaves it may effect the
picture (or is this a fallacy?), but so far so good.

Material cost about £90, not including the Freeview box.

I suggest you get some other quotes if you don't want to do it yourself.
I know from experience there is at least one cowboy aerial installer in
Coventry who will sell you far more than you need and even then not
gaurantee a good picture.

Andy

Oops. C5 is from Lichfield, not Sutton Coldfield.

BigGuyUK wrote:

"Andy P" wrote in message
...

gbnews wrote:


Thanks for the useful reply Andy. What type of Aerial did you buy? and

did

you mount it on a pole, if so how high did you go?

Thanks,

gbnews



The aerial was a Labgear 52 Element High Gain TV Aerial (Argos part
number 535/2069). It only comes with a diddy pole so you'll probably
need to buy one of these too. As I said, I only bought it from Argos
because it was an easy option - not sure of a good place to buy aerials
from in Coventry. I'm sure you can get the same for less money elsewhere.

The aerial is on a pole which is only about 2m long. It is fixed to the
eaves of the house at their highest point because we could access this
from the flat roof of an extension. The old aerial was pole mounted on
the chimney and was probably about another 2m higher than the new one.

If I were you, assuming you have the time and inclination to do it, I
would get an aerial from somewhere that will take it back if it doesn't
improve things. Buy a drum of decent cable from Screwfix or B&Q and some
decent connectors. Borrow a Freeview box. Get the aerial as high up as
you can and see if you can get it to work. If you can't then at the end
of the day it'll only have cost you the price of the cable, clips,
connectors and pole (£50 ish) - most of which you can use when you've
paid a professional to do the hard part (getting the aerial up on the
chimney) to put outlets in all the rooms you want. Don't know what
you'll do with pole.

In you original post you mention a "socket". I assume the cable
terminates in a connection box of some sort. I would avoid these.
Terminate the incoming cable onto a connector that will plug directly
into the TV (or VCR or booster or whatever). Do the same for any other
TV points added. The boxes increase the attenuation of the signal and
become another point of potential failure in the system.

Good luck. I'll look out for a shiny new aerial next time I'm driving
down the A45 ;-)

Andy

Way over price for the Aerial Fitting And it would have to be on one hell of
a pole to be fitted to a wall and be higher then the roof !!. Unless on
gable end.
Take a look at ARD For Aerial + Fittings
http://www.ardelectronics.com/

Try this to see which Aerial you will need.
http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tva.exe?

BigGuyUK


What is way over price? The OP's quote or my diy £90? If you buy a
cheaper aerial, and I did say I paid over the odds by buying from Argos,
then yes you could do it cheaper than the £90. You could use much
cheaper cable but even then you would only save £10 or so. You could
also say that if you only use 20m of cable then it would be cheaper, but
if you are going to cable multiple rooms you might as well buy a 100m drum.

Buying from ARD would cost about £60 for materials (including the aerial
and delivery). BUT they only sell 6 foot poles in packs of 5 thus
negating a lot of the reduction in price (£78+).

"Unless on gable end" - you got it!

Looking at it another way I think £90 is excellent value to get a
perfect analogue picture in four rooms with digital working perfectly
too. Especially considering the quality of the original reception from
the system installed by a "proffesional" for somewhat more than £90, and
the fact that all the "post code checker sites" say that digital isn't
available.

Andy