Aerial for freeview

[fudge]

I have bought my 16 year old son a freeview box for christmas for his tv in his bedroom , the problem i will get though will be the signal strength through his existing indoor areial .
I was thinking of fixing him up a loft aerial but have read that the roof could stop the signalls getting through.
My other option would be to connect my existing outdoor aerial which i had fitted when itv digital was around , but if at a later date i decided to give up my ntl digital and just have freeview then i would want that aerial my self, I was woundering how good a picture would be if i put a line splitter in my outdoor aerial leed so my sons tv would run of it and if i did choose to go freeview at a later date my tv could run of it. Would this idea work or would the signal strength be to weak to run 2 sets from one aerial.
Or does anybody know of a good loft aerial i could purchace. Thanks

[altis]

An aerial in the loft might work if you're not far from the transmitter and the route is otherwise unobstructed. But you'll be much better off with an outdoor one instead. If you have a good signal then you can just use a splitter but you can always use a distribution amplifier. These are like an aerial booster combined with a splitter and are not expensive. While you are at it, why not combine the TV signal with the FM and DAB ones too. If you want to be really clever you can also add the output from your STB so you can watch cable/satellite around the house too. For this you'll need a 'loftbox' or something similar.

There's some useful info here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/factsheets/index.shtml

[fudge]

Hi altis , i have just been looking in argos and they have a tv distribution box which runs up to four tv s of one aerial but does not say if that is for digital . £24.99
There is also a one for all three set booster again £24.99 and amplifies signals up to 15db, ( i dont know what that means ) and this one says ok for digital .
I noticed they are also selling indoor aerials stateing for freeveiw and gains up to 36db for £14.99 as i say i dont know what this db is about but what do you think is the best one to go for. thanks

[nffc]

Get the Telecam aerial, and the SLX 1-set booster for about a tenner. Multi-set boosters have too much cross-wiring which introduces more noise, digital needs a clean signal.

[atlantis]

Get some one from this link to check things out and advise you further:
http://www.cai.org.uk/asp/faq.asp

[fudge]

I have found a couple of Freeview forums and reading through these some have good pictures with an indoor aerial and others bad pictures , At the moment my son has the Telecam indoor aerial that nffc reccomends so i might see how that goes , i have also been on the link atlantis has pointed out and e mailed them, i dont want to go to the trouble of spliting my outdoor lead and feeding it up to his bedroom if an indoor one will work just as well.

[nffc]

Post the first half of your postcode or better still go to http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe? to check your predicted signal.

Although I have to say it's not overly reliable...

DTT transmitters within "distant" range of postcode NGx

Transmitter 1: BBC 2: Digital 3 & 4 A: SDN B: BBC C: NG Transco D: NG Transco Gp Pol OS grid ref. OD
m Field
dBµV/m Distance
miles Bearing
degrees Antenna
(suggestion) UHF ERP
W AOD
m UHF ERP
W AOD
m UHF ERP
W AOD
m UHF ERP
W AOD
m UHF ERP
W AOD
m UHF ERP
W AOD
m Waltham 49 10k 418 23 8k 418 26 8k 418 33 8k 418 45 5k 418 42 5k 418 W H SK809233 (http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/txpath.exe?RXOS=NG4&RXHT=10%20&TXOS=SK809233&TXHT=418&UHF=45&TXNAME=Waltham) 133 46 17 134 Amplified extra hi-gain Nottingham 39 40 181 67 40 181 53 40 181 63 40 181 29 40 178 59 40 181 W V SK503435 (http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/txpath.exe?RXOS=NG4&RXHT=10%20&TXOS=SK503435&TXHT=181&UHF=45&TXNAME=Nottingham) 132 26 7 278 Amplified extra hi-gain Belmont 30 10k 495 48 20k 441 68 10k 347 66 10k 347 60 4k 314 57 4k 314 W H TF218836 (http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/txpath.exe?RXOS=NG4&RXHT=10%20&TXOS=TF218836&TXHT=347&UHF=45&TXNAME=Belmont) 125 23 46 55 Extreme outer fringe
Belmont I can get all channels in good SNR and Waltham and Nottingham I can get nothing from at all.

This is with the Telecam aerial, no booster, on top of my bookshelves.

---------- Post added at 23:27 ---------- Previous post was at 23:22 ----------

I forgot- what is of the real interest is the dBuV - field strength. More so than the ERP and takes into account the ERP plus the distance away, plus the tendency of that channel to disappear and also effects of superposition from adjacent sites.

Obviously it doesn't take into account local topography for that you'd need to map the terrain between you and the transmitter itself, you can do that
http://www.tellyaerial.34sp.com/ta.php/transmitters

If you're reasonably close and not too obstructed geographically you will manage with the Telecam, it really is good.

Don't go overboard with boosters as it doesn't discriminate noise from the actual signal and introduces noise of its own, it doesn't really increase the SNR just makes the signal stronger so the box can detect it. The SLX single set one ChavGos sell is good, 15 dB net gain (18 dB gain, 4 dB noise) - you don't need any more, because otherwise, you won't get it anyway.

[fudge]

Sorted , i tried his indoor aerial but did not pick up any channels apart from bbc1, so i decided to connect my outdoor aerial up . took a bit of time to connect lead from front room up to his back bedroom but was worth it , great pictures now being picked up , i did that on saturday then because of the oil blow we had here on sunday my ntl tv and internet had been down untill today so we were all up in his bedroom watching the news on his freeview , but yes i do reccomend the freeview and for only £24.99 one of payment you cant go wrong. (from asda )