External TV Aerial recommendation please.

[7daysinaweek]

Hi All

Mrs 7days has a home office in the garden which has a inbuilt freesat tv monitor, the reception to the telly in very hit and miss. We have tried several indoor aerials that plug into the back of the monitor and have not found a one which gave a continued good reception.

Can anyone give advice on which would be the best type. We are now looking at putting a external aerial and my DIY skills are just about up to drilling through the wooden insulated wall for the cable. Would a dish or a traditional pointy type be the way to go?

many thanks!

7diaw

[discobob]

Go for a dish mate if you have it and a clear line of site in the direction of your neighbours dishes, an older sky one would be OK and you would more than likely find one on Faceache Marketplace

[ph5172]

I would try a cheap and cheerful standard type first. 
If you can drill a hole you can mount an external arial

[harrycatcat1]

Try this for the sake of 20 quid, I wouldn't have a dish, lmb etc

https://www.toolstation.com/digital-tv-aerial/p54040?store=MB&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&mkwid=_dm&pcrid=&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=Cj0KCQjwteOaBhDuARIsADBqRejogbV4Q1BoMxJXlJP3HlRIU88Q6K41yWixQInv7Y1sxH6AMs6phfoaAlHIEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

[7daysinaweek]

3 hours ago, discobob said:

Go for a dish mate if you have it and a clear line of site in the direction of your neighbours dishes, an older sky one would be OK and you would more than likely find one on Faceache Marketplace

Cheers for the replies all.

We are on Virgin Media Fibre optic for our home tv and internet so no connected home aerial. Cheers @harrycatcat1 ,what are the downsides of a dish?, may go with your toolstaion recommendation.

[harrycatcat1]

1 minute ago, 7daysinaweek said:

Cheers for the replies all.

We are on Virgin Media Fibre optic for our home tv and internet so no connected home aerial. Cheers @harrycatcat1 ,what are the downsides of a dish?, may go with your toolstaion recommendation.

The only thing is the LMB thing I'm no expert but if you buy second hand dish then the LMB could be cream crackered.  Less to go wrong with the aerial, just my opinion 👍

[ph5172]

Apologies I have just re read. 
freesat!!!

 

this will not work with an arial and you will need a dish as previously stated. 
 

another option would be a smart stick and steam via your internet 

[7daysinaweek]

6 minutes ago, ph5172 said:

Apologies I have just re read. 
freesat!!!

 

this will not work with an arial and you will need a dish as previously stated. 
 

another option would be a smart stick and steam via your internet 

Apologies ph

Mrs7days gave me 'duff information'  it is freeview and not freesat. It would appear we are as poor as each other with our understanding of these new 'Fangled Technologies'. 

[harrycatcat1]

14 minutes ago, 7daysinaweek said:

Apologies ph

Mrs7days gave me 'duff information'  it is freeview and not freesat. It would appear we are as poor as each other with our understanding of these new 'Fangled Technologies'. 

Skip off to toolstation 😉👍

[ph5172]

Yep. External arial. Point in the same direction as the others and job jobbed. 
 

you could also try ordering an indoor one from Amazon - they are flat and can stick to the wall or window indoors.
If it’s no use you can return it. 

[JohnfromUK]

4 hours ago, 7daysinaweek said:

have not found a one which gave a continued good reception.

A guess, but your office building may have foil clad insulation in it's construction ........ which is quite a good signal blocker.  If this is so, you would be right to fit an external aerial.  See if you can see what direction the neighbours aerials are pointing - and fit it pointing the same way (which will be at your local transmitter).

Many (most?) TVs have a signal strength indicator hidden in a menu and this can be used to tweak aerial direction of needed.  NOTE that you may also need to rotate it 90 degrees about it's long axis as both vertical and horizontal polarity have been used on different transmitters - again - look at neighbours/other local aerials.

[7daysinaweek]

31 minutes ago, ph5172 said:

Yep. External arial. Point in the same direction as the others and job jobbed. 
 

you could also try ordering an indoor one from Amazon - they are flat and can stick to the wall or window indoors.
If it’s no use you can return it. 

Many Thanks ph.

We have tried a flat stick on one and also a desk mounted wand type. I have stood on chair and moved it about, both to no avail. Will go with the external aerial. 

 

29 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

A guess, but your office building may have foil clad insulation in it's construction ........ which is quite a good signal blocker.  If this is so, you would be right to fit an external aerial.  See if you can see what direction the neighbours aerials are pointing - and fit it pointing the same way (which will be at your local transmitter).

Many (most?) TVs have a signal strength indicator hidden in a menu and this can be used to tweak aerial direction of needed.  NOTE that you may also need to rotate it 90 degrees about it's long axis as both vertical and horizontal polarity have been used on different transmitters - again - look at neighbours/other local aerials.

Hi John

It is insulated, foil clad, floor, walls and ceiling. The monitor is wall mounted next to a floor to ceiling glass window, thank you for the strength indicator and positioning advice, I have learned something new today and will pull that up in the menu. 

[JohnfromUK]

You might find this helpful;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/help-guides/freeview/what-type-of-aerial-do-i-need

Any metal - including foil blocks radio (and TV) signals .......... hence the current trend for putting radio keyless fobs for cars in a metal box to prevent theft by the signal being 'eavesdropped' and relayed.

This is an example for a Sony of the signal strength indicator  https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00094962

Edited October 26, 2022 by JohnfromUK

[7daysinaweek]

14 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

You might find this helpful;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/help-guides/freeview/what-type-of-aerial-do-i-need

The tool shows that we have good coverage from out nearest mast on Winter hill and the direction indicator lines up with the direction the old roof aerials point. Great help that John.

[harrycatcat1]

37 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

You might find this helpful;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/help-guides/freeview/what-type-of-aerial-do-i-need

Any metal - including foil blocks radio (and TV) signals .......... hence the current trend for putting radio keyless fobs for cars in a metal box to prevent theft by the signal being 'eavesdropped' and relayed.

This is an example for a Sony of the signal strength indicator  https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00094962

Very good advice 👌 👍 

[7daysinaweek]

This is an example for a Sony of the signal strength indicator  https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00094962

 

John, I don't think it is a Sony model, that said, it is a relatively new digital flat screen model which is about a year old. I would think it will have a similar setting strength guide tool.

Once again, most helpful. I will let you know how I get on.

 

 

[Minky]

I've got a Picture of you wandering around with the aerial of your choice waving it about trying to get a picture back like when people had those little V shaped rodinside aerials.  Ending up shouting at one another. 😁😃  IF you start drilling holes through walls for the cable to go through drill the hole up at an angle so that any rain doesn't run inside and then down into the back of your tv.  Then take the cable down below the hole making a U bend then up through the hole.  This forms a drip bend so that the water runs down the cable to the U bend and drips off below the hole.  The TV reception will depend on how far you are from the transmitter and whether there are trees or buildings in the line.  If you are mounting the aerial on a shed wall it isn't up as high as an aerial mounted on a chimney.  As someone  stated most modern tv's have a built in signal meter to help.  If you can't get a strong enough signal the tv will sometimes drop in and out with population of the picture or a loud cracking sound like a stone being thrown against a window.  If any of this happens you could try a free sat top box and use a Sat dish.  If you have a reasonable view to the south east this might be the way to go.  Both the aerial or dish will need to be accurately aligned up.  If they aren't  You might be lucky and get a picture of sorts with the aerial but not with the dish.  It has to be right. We've got both the free sat out in the conservatory and the free view in the house.  The reason for this is that the cable run from out the back of the house would be very difficult.   Another advantage to a dish is that we have had the tv transmitter go down so not tv.  The sat keeps going

Edited October 26, 2022 by Minky

[7daysinaweek]

Again, thank you all for the advice and the additional advice Minky, invaluable that. I would have just drilled a hole straight through with no bend in the cable and will gladly take that advice.

The top of the office is only about seven or so foot and we have houses that back onto us, also a large bank of around 50 foot trees beyond the houses in which the signal direction comes.

Hopefully with all the advice a mounted external aerial will do the job.

[Minky]

1 hour ago, 7daysinaweek said:

The top of the office is only about seven or so foot and we have houses that back onto us, also a large bank of around 50 foot trees beyond the houses in which the signal direction comes.

Hopefully with all the advice a mounted external aerial will do the job.

The likelyhood of you getting a standard aerial to work in that situation is pretty low.  The signal strength will be really bleed down by the buildings and trees.  If you've got a view to the sky facing south east go for a freesat top box and a dish. You can get àn online guide using Google earth to zoom down to you location and line the dish up over parts of buildings like chimney pots or the corner of houses.  It sounds complicated but is dead simple.  The reception is briliant from the satellite. 

[7daysinaweek]

[discobob]

I think you TV can do Freesat as well as that is an F Type connector - can you put the model number up. As said, as you are much lower than the surroundings with houses and trees about you will have problems with the signal being attenuated.

 

[old man]

On 26/10/2022 at 17:11, harrycatcat1 said:

The only thing is the LMB thing I'm no expert but if you buy second hand dish then the LMB could be cream crackered.  Less to go wrong with the aerial, just my opinion 👍

Changing a LMB easy peasy.

[miki]

Low Noise Block-downcovertor and Feed (LNBF).
2 main frequency bands here in the UK/Europe, KU and KA, the KA is much smaller than the KU.

Sky/Freesat etc uses a KU - they are not easy to 'cream cracker'.

 

[harrycatcat1]

25 minutes ago, miki said:

Low Noise Block-downcovertor and Feed (LNBF).
2 main frequency bands here in the UK/Europe, KU and KA, the KA is much smaller than the KU.

Sky/Freesat etc uses a KU - they are not easy to 'cream cracker'.

 

👍👍👍👍👍