Buying an indoor freeview aeriel - no aeriel

[SpottyDog]

Hi people of cable forum, I was hoping someone out there could give me a little advice on receiving freeview.

I've just got a second tv which has built in freeview. When we moved in we immediately got Sky so never need to get the aeriel sorted out. But now with the new TV in the back of the house where there is no aeriel I thought of getting one of those indoor ones from around £15.00. But now after some research I'm not sure that's a good idea.

I've done the wolfbane thing like a previous poster and I was hoping someone could make sense of it please. It's got Storeton at the top and Winter Hill underneath.

Storeton
1 (PSB 1) BBC A: 28 UHF / 560 ERPW
2 (PSB 2) D 3 & 4: 25 UHF / 560 ERPW
A (COM 1) SDN: 23 UHF / 560 ERPW
B (PSB 3) BBC B: 22 UHF / 560 ERPW
C (COM 2) Arqiva A: 26 UHF / 560 ERPW
D (COM 3) Arqiva B: 29 UHF / 560 ERPW

Gp A
Pol V
OS grid ref. SJ314841
Field dBµV/m: 49
Distance miles: 9
Bearing degrees: 201
Antenna (suggestion): Hi Gain

Winter Hill
1 (PSB 1) BBC A: 62 UHF / 100 ERPW
2 (PSB 2) D 3 & 4: 59 UHF / 100 ERPW
A (COM 1) SDN: 58 UHF / 100 ERPW
B (PSB 3) BBC B: 54 UHF / 100 ERPW
C (COM 2) Arqiva A: 61 UHF / 100 ERPW
D (COM 3) Arqiva B: 55 UHF / 12 ERPW

Gp CD
Pol H
OS grid ref. SD660144
Field dBµV/m: 43
Distance miles: 21
Bearing degrees: 60
Antenna (suggestion): Amplified extra hi-gain

Thanks for looking, any advice on what to do next would be excellent and very much appreciated.

Best.

[Chris]

Storeton is a tiny relay antenna but might be ok for you if you have decent line of sight. Exactly where are you, if you don't mind my asking? I'm from round that way originally. ;)

[SpottyDog]

Hi Chris, I'm in Aintree Liverpool.

[Chris]

Ah ... Well I wouldn't waste your time on Storeton in that case .... Bidston hill is probably in your way. How about Winter Hill though? You may well be able to see that. You can tell which direction to look by checking your neighbour's aerials as they will almost certainly all be pointing at it.

[Scrubbs]

It might be worth ringing a professional company and see how much they are going to cost for fitting an aeriel and running the cable to your tv?

[Chris]

There are always options. Personally, if there were a need to mount something on the outside of the house, I'd be looking to run an extra cable from the satellite dish and attaching it to a cheap Freesat decoder in the bedroom, rather than buying an entirely new terrestrial aerial with a masthead amp.

Spottydog ... Out of interest, what's your satellite dish like? Does it have any spare terminals on the LNB where you could attach another cable?

[SpottyDog]

Spottydog ... Out of interest, what's your satellite dish like? Does it have any spare terminals on the LNB where you could attach another cable?

Cheers Chris. Hmm, not sure about that. It's a bog standard Sky mini dish on the front of the house above the door. I'm not too sure what I should be looking at?

All the neighbours are pointing at Winter Hill with their aeriels on their chimney breasts. Interestingly I've just looked at our roof and I've got an antenna pointing at Winter Hill too. Who would have thought it.

Now, here's something new, none of the aerial connections work in this house anywhere, as I tried when I moved in. But since I had SKy I wasn't bothered, what's the deal with that???

Cheers!

SD

[Chris]

If you have a rooftop aerial and multiple aerial sockets in the house, it's likely that your aerial is cabled as far as the loft, where there's either a broken or disconnected splitter/amplifier, or else there's no amplifier at all as a previous occupant has taken it away with them - so just a load of aerial cable ends with nothing to plug into.

Get into your loft and have a look - the solution to your problem just might possibly be as simple as repairing/replacing the spltter/amplifier that was almost certainly once there.

[SpottyDog]

Smashing, I'll have a look at that later, cheers for the really quick replies and diagnosis.

All the best.
SD

[Chris]

Let us know how it goes :)

[SpottyDog]

I will do.

[Matth]

You need wolfbane's predictor....
http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/freeviewhelp/coverage.html#wolfbane

[Chris]

He posted his Wolfbane results in post 1. ;)

[Kymmy]

Winter hill is quite a distance away from there but it is quite flat land in between.. It's though hard to say what would work but I doubt a set-top would work and at very least you'd probably need an amped high-gain in the loft space if you didn't want an outdoor antenna (it also great depends on the orientation of the house, whether it be semi/terraced/detached and what the roof is made from.)