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**Chris** · 01-05-2009, 23:28

These are the results for your postcode area, using Wolfbane's digital TV predictor:

http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd....L&HT=10&OS=ct9

Screencap attached below.

Essentially you do not have to have a wideband aerial for digital in Margate. This is good news in your situation for the reasons posted above by nodrogd. However there's a catch - there are two transmitters on the same site at Dover. The Dover transmitter requires a Group CD aerial; Dover B requires a Group E aerial. And Dover B does not carry all the muxes. There are all sorts of combinations of things that could be wrong here - you could be tuned to one transmitter but using an aerial intended for the other transmitter's group, for example.

Go into your loft and look at your aerial's nose. It should have a coloured plug in the end. The colour corresponds to a group as follows:

Group / UHF channels / Colour

A 21-37 Red

B 35-53 Yellow
CD 48-68 Green
E 35-68 Brown
K 21-48 Grey
W 21-68 Black (Wideband)

Whether or not you have the correct group, it's very unlikely that your current aerial is up to the job. Wolfbane suggests an amplified extra high-gain aerial for Freeview in your area and that's bad news for indoor aerial installations. However if you really, really have to have an aerial inside your loft, you need to go out and invest in the biggest, meatiest aerial you can lay your hands on, and yes, it will have to come with a mast-head amplifier.

As you can't sniff out a digital signal by connecting the aerial to the TV and having someone downstairs shout to you as you move the aerial around in the loft, as you would with analogue, you are also going to have to make very sure that you're pointing the thing in precisely the right direction as well. The Wolfbane results will give you the correct bearing. Repeat the search on the Wolfbane site, using an OS grid reference for your house if possible, to get precisely the correct bearing, then take a compass up to the loft with you.