Recommend me a TV aerial.

[Guest]

I've just bought a Freeview TV for my little Mayland as SWMBO wants a bit of luxury http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/p ... 419672.htm

Now for the tricky bit - the aerial. I've had experience of Omnimax and the other omnidirectional aerials and not impressed at all. So i'm thinking along the lines of a directional one and saw this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CARAVAN-BOAT- ... 35b680fd08.

As we don't have a lot of storage space on the boat, any domestic type TV aerial might be too big and we could end up damaging the aluminium fins if it's tossed around when stored below.

So what do you guys have - good ones and ones to avoid?

[Antares_9]

I find the Status omniderectional very good, especially with the boosting of digital.

[Hockham Admiral]

It should be fine, if you can get it high enough. And make sure it's designed specifically for your cruise area's TV Transmitter frquency.

[senator]

As David our status 415 Omni Directional works fine now that the signal has been boosted. was bloody useless before.

[quo vadis]

my Glomex was as much use as a chocolate fireguard untill they boosted the digital signal now I get perfect service all over the broads (including Loddon basin)

[diesel falcon]

Any old stick will do now, have an omi jobby cheapest one going and works fine, even mounted on the front deck very low

[wombat nee blownup]

Anything to do with the fact you're fifteen foot above the river level on stands?

[diesel falcon]

Anything to do with the fact you're fifteen foot above the river level on stands?

thanks Victor!!!

[Guest]

As my Mayland is very low in the water and a "normal" aerial might have trouble picking up a signal due to trees, buildings, bridges and high air draft boats, I thought it might be an idea to look upwards to the stars rather than horizontally to a transmitter.

So this is looking a very good option at this moment in time http://www.maplin.co.uk/camping-and-car ... 396849d1e7.

[senator]

They have been used successfully by a number of forumites but unless the mayland is incredibly stable for a small boat you are going to have to set it up on terra ferma every time you stop and you will still have problems with trees.

[Guest]

but unless the mayland is incredibly stable for a small boat you are going to have to set it up on terra ferma every time you stop

Stable? Moves when a rowing boat goes past .

Ah well, the hunt goes on .

[criswat]

hello my peepy bods

i find sticking a nice piece of fried spam on the end works wonders

[Mowjo]

Setfair! try this from Aldi, I believe a few forumites use these so they must be pretty good,,

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/sp ... _24551.htm

Regards Frank,,,,,

[DaveS]

We have satellite TV on the boat, but the dish really needs to be mounted on the bank, as it takes very little movement of the boat, to lose the signal.

I use an old photgraphic tripod for mounting mine.

Terrestrial TV

With the old analogue terrestrial signal frequency allocations, the 5 channels were grouped together, in different parts of Band IV and V, depending on where abouts in the country you were located. Hence we had various aerial groups (Group A, and Group B etc) to suit the part of frequency band (Bands IV and V) being used in your area.

This was fine when we had only the 5 channels, but now with the number of channels allocated to digital TV, these channels are using frequencies right across the UHF TV spectrum.

Therefore the old Group A, and Group B etc aerials, are not suitable as they do have a broad enough operating bandwidth.

For digital TV, an aerial designed for broadband operation is required, such as a Log-Periodic design.

Be careful that an aerial advertised as a 'Digital' aerial is really a broadband type. When colour TV was first launched, the aerial installation trade made a lot of money out of peoples ignorance, by telling them that their existing UHF aerial was not suitable for colour TV reception, and that they needed a new colour version. This was absolute garbage, and if they already had a suitable UHF TV earial, it would have been fine. There was no such thing as colour aerial.

A directional aerial will always be better than an omni-directional one, which will usually have unity gain, and have to rely on an amplifier to provide some gain.

Hope this helps.

Dave

[BuffaloBill]

Setfair. I have one of those Satelite in a suitcase jobs from Maplin

for sale if you want one.

Only used it once due to the boat movement but a friend in our

marina sets his up on a tripod and uses it all the time.

If your'e interested, PM me.

[Guest]

Setfair. I have one of those Satelite in a suitcase jobs from Maplin

for sale if you want one.

Only used it once due to the boat movement but a friend in our

marina sets his up on a tripod and uses it all the time.

If your'e interested, PM me.

Thanks for your kind offer Bill but unfortunately I went out and bought one soon after I posted back in January.

I've opened the case and that's as far as I've got. I'm yet to set it up and use it but the more I think about it, the more I want to sell it and get a normal aerial and pole like Hockham Admiral (John) has on his boat.

[Hockham Admiral]

Thanks for your kind offer Bill but unfortunately I went out and bought one soon after I posted back in January.

I've opened the case and that's as far as I've got. I'm yet to set it up and use it but the more I think about it, the more I want to sell it and get a normal aerial and pole like Hockham Admiral (John) has on his boat.

Absolutely! I've also got one and it's just too much trouble to bother with! Especially now the digi signal is so strong in Norfolk.

[Hylander]

We have the Log 40 and at Stalham with the boats going past it is a bit hit and miss. Once the river system is quiet it is fine.

Bring back analogue. At least you didnt have to troll through 80 stations to find what you are looking for.

Never did like change.

M

[Hockham Admiral]

We have the Log 40 and at Stalham with the boats going past it is a bit hit and miss. Once the river system is quiet it is fine.

Bring back analogue. At least you didnt have to troll through 80 stations to find what you are looking for.

Never did like change.

M

Have you thought of putting it on a post onland when you're there?

Also you can sort your favourite channels out as 1-2-3-4-5 etc on most digi-boxes.

[Hylander]

It has been suggested by my other half that he 'sort the channels out' but if he does, what happens when you move down river, do you have to sort it all again. If you tell me no, once done - sorted , then we will sort them out. Must say it would make life a lot easier, because everytime I change channels its "where are my reading glasses", gosh I rue the day my eyes 'went' so to speak.

[Hockham Admiral]

It has been suggested by my other half that he 'sort the channels out' but if he does, what happens when you move down river, do you have to sort it all again. If you tell me no, once done - sorted , then we will sort them out. Must say it would make life a lot easier, because everytime I change channels its "where are my reading glasses", gosh I rue the day my eyes 'went' so to speak.

Once sorted they'll stay like that. unless he unsorts them!

[Mowjo]

I'm using the Log 40 and have had no problems getting any of the stations anywhere, the only place we had intermitant signals was at Wroxham the other side of the Railway bridge, but it was bucketing down and very windy at the time, Mine mounts on a 3 foot pole mounted on the roof of my Safari and the cable from the aerial runs directly to the TV so I have to feed the cable throught a gap in the sliding roof, I did run it Via one of those waterproof boxes but couldn't get any signal at all once I changed it to direct everything worked fine, as some of you may know the Log 40 is long 42inches long in fact so I've moved the fixing bracket to the middle of the aerial with no loss in signal or quality, I tuned my TV in while at my mooring in B/Edge all the channels came up in the right order and I havn't had to retune it since, And if your interested we buy a mag called Total TV Guide, Price: £1.00 On sale: Tuesdays gives you all the Freeview channels and save a lot of swearing,,

Regards Frank,,,,,

[Hylander]

Note to shopping list tomorrow - a copy of the TV guide. Sorry Total TV guide and I will get a copy on Tuesday.

Thank you.

[Hockham Admiral]

Frank, Hi

Can you let us have a few pics of your mod to the '40, pls? I'd like to do the same to ours.

[Mowjo]

Will do John! i'm off to the boat tomorrow and not sure when we will get home again, it all depends on the weather, but as soon as I get back i'll post some pics, it was a bit fiddly, you need to cut two arms off and drill a couple of holes to rivet the bracket back on but the whole thing took me less than half hour, I did a check with a borrowed signal meter before and after the mod and there is no difference in signal strength, it's nicely balanced now and dosn't seem to be affected by the wind now,

Regards Frank,,,