Installing Chimney TV aerial

[123hotchef]

mine was a digital aerial I used a app on my phone as I could not find a compass and the app was great!

 

[MattF]

Brick or stone chimney? If brick, you can use a SSB for smaller aerials with an alloy mast:

https://www.blake-uk.com/knock-in-s...porting-bracket-gold-passivated-blake-uk.html

Those just require a slight bit of mortar raking/chipped out at the end of two bricks.

Lashing wire can be hooped over a chimney, but you need to straighten it out by hand first, and it's a bugger to do with tall or wide chimneys.

As mentioned, if you're not confident doing it, get someone in to sort it.

 

[Rocketman]

We would refuse to do jobs like that without a clearly written disclaimer. There would be warranty calls everytime the weather changed. You can always get away with it on analogue, but digital is either perfect or not there. As soon as the reflections etc change, zilch is often what you will receive on some channels some of the time.

First thing we do when the satellite goes down from bad weather is switch to freeview with the aerial in the loft.

There is one or two houses on our estate (100+ houses) with aerials on chimneys but there is zero need in our reception area. Though I do remember a installer trying it on saying the local hill will cause all sorts of problems.

The average Joe should be able to DIY try a aerial in their loft. If the signal goes down in bad weather get it fitted outside.

 

[MattF]

it was robbing gits round our way can charge up to 150 quid. a decent aerial with loft stand is only 16 quid more for a n outdoor lashing kit

Someone technically risking their neck to install an aerial is worth a few bob, in my book. Been there, done it, and always hated doing it. When using ladders & cat ladders, rarely are domestic properties a good, safe place to be working, regardless of how safe ones practices.

However, I'm not denying the fact that there are plenty of blaggers & cowboys out there, who'll charge the earth for crap. We have a few round here. In fact, I can't think of any good ones offhand, anymore.

 

[Kayos]

A) never drill a chimney, they are single skinned and you will break the mortar bond.

B) wire rope lashing is now old hat. The ones we use are a Polypropylene strap with ratchets, so it causes no damage, doesn't stretch or rust.

C) if you are not confident with ladders, especially roof ladders, then stay off it and pay someone to do it.

D) ideally you need to set up an aerial for best BER which needs a relevant piece of test equipment.

Pay someone is my advice, if you were in our patch I would have done it for you. Don't worry about looking for things like CAI membership, that is now just a club for those that can afford their fees to be listed.

Do you think local fitters will put other antennas up? I need my 11m and 2m/70cm one on the chimney as its flat around here and they are not high enough on the gable

 

[ajlelectronics]

Do you think local fitters will put other antennas up? I need my 11m and 2m/70cm one on the chimney as its flat around here and they are not high enough on the gable

We would, so can't see why not. They don't need to understand it, to do the donkey work of erection. You can do the technical bits for them of course.

 

[MattF]

That's one made by that French/Spanish? company, (can't remember their name offhand), isn't it? The puke yellow seems familiar.

Edit: Just remembered the name. Televes.

 

[Phil_D]

Yep, one o' them

It's getting a decent signal pointing straight though our party wall to next door, their converted loft and the the two (unkown contents) lofts of the next pair of semis.

I really can't complain about it.

I spent a little time researching ‘decent’ aerials yesterday and the best I could come up with was this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0...4856-9829-4294e54bb241&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65

However it still looks like cheap cr@p!

 

[gaz1]

just look around on other chimneys, you dont need this that and the other for a tv ariel all depends on a few things when choosing an ariel

https://www.screwfix.com/p/labgear-...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CJmpv6Sk9dgCFWYS0wodTZ8L7g

https://www.smartaerials.co.uk/blog/your-guide-to-choosing-the-right-tv-aerial

 

[MattF]

I spent a little time researching ‘decent’ aerials yesterday and the best I could come up with was this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0...4856-9829-4294e54bb241&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65

However it still looks like cheap cr@p!

You'd have to be in a really crappy reception area to need one of those. Just look at what your neighbours have. Most of the time, a simple 10 or 18 element contract aerial will be ample. You can swamp a tuner with too much signal, which will be just as bad as a weak signal. Pointless having to attenuate the hell out of it if a basic aerial will work.

 

[ajlelectronics]

What Matt said!

 

[ajlelectronics]

Labgear is not Labgear, it is a badge for crappy Philex junk. Stay well away.

One that we use a lot is the Televes 1121 which we have been installing for ten years. The only thing to watch is the reflector fixing, it is prone to coming undone and the lower half of the reflector drops off.

If you insist on a loft installation, the last thing you want is high gain. What you need is wide beamwidth to accommodate the reflections. A Bowtie array being the ultimate in widebeam. High gain is for DIRECT line of sight to a distant transmitter, when the narrow beamwidth is a benefit. In that istance I would be looking at a Televes DAT45 or 75 wirh MRD if warranted.

 

[ajlelectronics]

You need better aerials


Of course, I didn't go shopping in budget-tinfoil-aerialsRus...

I think that after 32 years in the business, I know just a little about the subject and RF in general. I am always game to learn something new, but the basic rules of physics don't change.

 

[ajlelectronics]

Labgear used to be labgear - is that another thing I'm out of date on?

Labgear ceased to be Labgear more than five years ago. They decided that to increase sales, they would offer their products to direct retail via the sheds like Been and Queued. The resulting deals meant that the trade could not buy the products as the prices were now above retail, so we stopped buying Labgear. As a result, their sales became poor leading to their demise. Then Philex took the name over because many had got wise to the junk that was badged Philex.

 

[ajlelectronics]

I spent a little time researching ‘decent’ aerials yesterday and the best I could come up with was this:

The reviews tickle me. Many saying that they can see a definite improvement in quality! Bless; Obviously infected with a strain of Audiofoolery. The picture is down to the display, with digital TV, it is either there or it isn't, it doesn't degrade gracefully the way that analogue did.

 

[brightspark]

I just use blake aerials nothing fancy and not expensive http://cpc.farnell.com/blake-uk/dmc...MItcvTpLz12AIVDhQbCh0FbwMoEAQYBSABEgI97PD_BwE and set them up with these https://www.screwfix.com/p/slx-digi...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CNi-vra99dgCFZUD0wod2T0JMg

 

[Phil_D]

had a go aligning my satellite dish properly, now i can't get anything

seems ancient, i think one of the connections in the LNB must have given up the ghost.

 

[Robotstar5]

Do you think local fitters will put other antennas up? I need my 11m and 2m/70cm one on the chimney as its flat around here and they are not high enough on the gable

T&K brackets with poles?

I'm not too bad here, about 550' ASL with a decent takeoff.

 

[fixerupper]

When I worked on chimneys ,I was always amazed at how flimsy TV ariels were ...

 

[Kayos]

T&K brackets with poles?

View attachment 130100

I'm not too bad here, about 550' ASL with a decent takeoff.

That was fine in Bradford but I tested with another 15’ of pole and it was great, however I don’t want a 1/2 wave 11m on 25’ of pole.....