Muppet questions on how to fit a TV aerial in my attic

Hi All

My bedroom TV runs off an aerial in the loft, which was up there prior
to us buying the house.

The TV picture has always been poor on analogue, and we miss about 30
freeview channels digitally speaking, although the ones we do get are
not blocky; they are fine.

So, I went up, followed the co-ax, and found that the aerial was in
fact a tiny 'set top' aerial, of the type you would have seen last in
your granny's house in 1983.

So, I was thinking of replacing it with something more likely to pick
up more channels.

Questions:

1 - If I buy an aerial from where-ever, will it come with co-ax
attached at the aerial end?
2 - If not, how is it attached to the aerial?
3 - Do aerials come with a plug on the other end of the co-ax (if
supplied), for attaching to the TV?
4 - If not, what type of plug am I looking for? And are they easy to
fit to the co-ax?

The alternative to the above is to somehow tap into the existing 'big'
aerial, which already serves 2 TVs in the house elsewhere. However, I
am reluctant to potentially bugger up the picture for the other TVs;
I'd rather buy a new aerial for the bedroom TV, and leave the rest
alone.

Cheers,

Keith.

1 - If I buy an aerial from where-ever, will it come with co-ax
attached at the aerial end?

Get thee a proper outdoor aerial from either a local aerial shop, maplins,
even argos. Also get a 'loft bracket' to mount it.
Just about every aerial available uses a similar clamp on the braid, screw
terminal on the centre connector arrangement for connecting it to the co-ax.
If the other aerial setup is working fine up there then point your newly
installed one in same direction and enjoy your new found channels.

The alternative to the above is to somehow tap into the existing 'big'
aerial, which already serves 2 TVs in the house elsewhere. However, I
am reluctant to potentially bugger up the picture for the other TVs;
I'd rather buy a new aerial for the bedroom TV, and leave the rest
alone.

Agreed. A decent splitter for three feeds probably costs more than a basic
antenna anyway.

Keith wrote:

The alternative to the above is to somehow tap into the existing 'big'
aerial, which already serves 2 TVs in the house elsewhere. However, I
am reluctant to potentially bugger up the picture for the other TVs;
I'd rather buy a new aerial for the bedroom TV, and leave the rest
alone.

All you need is a 3- or more way amplified splitter which you can buy that
will ensure that your 'big aerial' signal is not degraded by adding a
further TV. You do not need to proliferate your aerial collection, just
plug the splitter into the mains, plug the big aerial downlead into it, and
connect each output it has to each TV you want.

And if the coax on the old run is crap, then use it to pull through the new
one and fit a similar plug to the one on the old one.
Its not usually hard, though be sure to make absolutely sure none of the
braid at either end is shorting to the inner wire, and that connections in
the loft are reasonably weather and insect proof with some decent tape
outside.
Now, if this as I suspect, is a standard aerial plug on the set end, You
can sometimes get away without soldering it, you can even get connectors
with screws, and it would be wise to pick one you can fit withoug bodging!
Bodging is what I do in my own house but never anyone elses.. grin, Commonly
seen as crimping the inner in the plug as I can no longer see to solder!

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"The Hemulen" wrote in message
...

1 - If I buy an aerial from where-ever, will it come with co-ax
attached at the aerial end?

Get thee a proper outdoor aerial from either a local aerial shop, maplins,
even argos. Also get a 'loft bracket' to mount it.
Just about every aerial available uses a similar clamp on the braid, screw
terminal on the centre connector arrangement for connecting it to the
co-ax. If the other aerial setup is working fine up there then point your
newly installed one in same direction and enjoy your new found channels.

The alternative to the above is to somehow tap into the existing 'big'
aerial, which already serves 2 TVs in the house elsewhere. However, I
am reluctant to potentially bugger up the picture for the other TVs;
I'd rather buy a new aerial for the bedroom TV, and leave the rest
alone.

Agreed. A decent splitter for three feeds probably costs more than a basic
antenna anyway.

The Hemulen wrote:
1 - If I buy an aerial from where-ever, will it come with co-ax
attached at the aerial end?

Get thee a proper outdoor aerial from maplins,
even argos.

A non sequitur in my opinion.

Bill

Bill Wright wrote:

The Hemulen wrote:
1 - If I buy an aerial from where-ever, will it come with co-ax
attached at the aerial end?

Get thee a proper outdoor aerial from maplins,
even argos.

A non sequitur in my opinion.

I was thinking the same. Though to give a better recomendation we need
to know where the OP is and which way his aerial points.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

Keith said...


4 - If not, what type of plug am I looking for? And are they easy to
fit to the co-ax?

http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/tvplugs.htm

http://www.aerialsandtv.com/wiringup.html

http://www.megalithia.com/elect/bellinglee/index.html

--
Ken O'Meara
http://www.btinternet.com/~unsteadyken/

Thanks to all for the advice, especially Java Jive for his epic post.

Feelng brave after reading your answers, I wandered along to B&Q, with
the intention of buying an aerial. I know most of you will probably
already be shuddering, but, on foot, it's the only place around.

I was planning to buy a high gain one, but these were about £35, so I
bought the cheapest one (£10), which was low gain.

Anyway, cutting a long story short, I've fitted it in the attic,
pointed it in the same direction as the existing house aerial (which
incidentally, has less elements, and looks generally cheaper and
nastier than even my new £10 one), and remarkably, the bedroom TV now
has every conceivable digital channel possible.

Again, thanks to all.