Indoor Aerial Recommendations

[davidred]

Unfortunately I am renting at the moment and the owners of the house decided that when they had Foxtel cable installed they would ignore the advice from anyone and everyone to leave their Free to air aerial system connected.

So now I am left with having to use an indoor aerial and some type of booster to gain a good quality signal. At the moment I have a cheap $15 set of rabbit years strung out on the roof and for the most part, the reception is fine.

Add some wind, the reflection of the sun and the next door neighbours dog sneezing and it all goes to hell rather quickly.

So can anyone recommend a good quality indoor antenna & booster set?

Cheers

[Mat]

Are you VHF/UHF or UHF-only? Also, what is the roof made of?

davidred wrote:
> Unfortunately I am renting at the moment and the owners of the house
> decided that when they had Foxtel cable installed they would ignore the
> advice from anyone and everyone to leave their Free to air aerial
> system connected.
>
> So now I am left with having to use an indoor aerial and some type of
> booster to gain a good quality signal. At the moment I have a cheap
> $15 set of rabbit years strung out on the roof and for the most part,
> the reception is fine.
>
> Add some wind, the reflection of the sun and the next door neighbours
> dog sneezing and it all goes to hell rather quickly.
>
> So can anyone recommend a good quality indoor antenna & booster set?
>
> Cheers
>
>

[davidred]

Are you VHF/UHF or UHF-only? Also, what is the roof made of?

Hi Mat,

You'll have to forgive me about this answer.. :)

I live about ~10-15km away from the Mt Cootha broadcast site in Brisbane so I'm guessing that I need VHF/UHF to cover all the stations that are broadcast here.

The roof is tiled. About the best reception I have going at the moment is to put up my rabbit ears just outside the window on the roof. The reception is excellent 99% of the time but that last remaining percent causes the audio to drop out for a split second when using optical out to the receiver.

I've isolated power circuits, boards, appliances, turned fridges off, etc but it still occurs so I'm left with having to try to gain the best I can possibly get from an indoor antenna.

Cheers

[Mat]

Impulse noise is a bugger for digital. More so than I realised until I
got my STB. And because my expectation was DVD-quality I am now MORE
compelled to get a decent antenna installation than I was before.

High gain antenna, as high up as possible, as far from the domestic
noise sources as possible, high quality coax (RG6) etc. No tricks.

Have you tried putting a log-periodic/fringe antenna in your loft/roof
space? I used to do that in an old place. It was very effective -
especially for band III.

If you're renting for more than a couple of months, and the property
manager is fine with it, you might want to consider remounting an
aerial. If there was one before then it obviously wasn't a body
corporate restriction etc. The landlord wouldn't care.

My experience with renting was that if something is of benefit to the
property the manager reimburses. You can push the "I'm making the place
HDTV-ready for the next tenant". I used that angle for window locks and
smoke alarms. Otherwise you can take it down when you leave.

davidred wrote:
> Mat Wrote:
>
>>Are you VHF/UHF or UHF-only? Also, what is the roof made of?
>
>
> Hi Mat,
>
> You'll have to forgive me about this answer.. :)
>
> I live about ~10-15km away from the Mt Cootha broadcast site in
> Brisbane so I'm guessing that I need VHF/UHF to cover all the stations
> that are broadcast here.
>
> The roof is tiled. About the best reception I have going at the moment
> is to put up my rabbit ears just outside the window on the roof. The
> reception is excellent 99% of the time but that last remaining percent
> causes the audio to drop out for a split second when using optical out
> to the receiver.
>
> I've isolated power circuits, boards, appliances, turned fridges off,
> etc but it still occurs so I'm left with having to try to gain the best
> I can possibly get from an indoor antenna.
>
> Cheers
>
>

[BenOne©]

Mat wrote:

> Impulse noise is a bugger for digital. More so than I realised until I
> got my STB. And because my expectation was DVD-quality I am now MORE
> compelled to get a decent antenna installation than I was before.
>
> High gain antenna, as high up as possible, as far from the domestic
> noise sources as possible, high quality coax (RG6) etc. No tricks.
>
> Have you tried putting a log-periodic/fringe antenna in your loft/roof
> space? I used to do that in an old place. It was very effective -
> especially for band III.
>
> If you're renting for more than a couple of months, and the property
> manager is fine with it, you might want to consider remounting an
> aerial. If there was one before then it obviously wasn't a body
> corporate restriction etc. The landlord wouldn't care.
>
> My experience with renting was that if something is of benefit to the
> property the manager reimburses. You can push the "I'm making the place
> HDTV-ready for the next tenant". I used that angle for window locks and
> smoke alarms. Otherwise you can take it down when you leave.
>


If I was renting and their was no loft space and the landlord wouldn't let me
mount on the roof, I'd set one up in the TV room. A decent SD signal is worth it.

P.S. When was the last time you were "told off" for top posting?
--
Ben Thomas
Opinions, conclusions, and other information in this message that do not
relate to the official business of my firm shall be understood as neither
given nor endorsed by it.

[davidred]

I've given up the indoor solution. I was misled by my reception because with digital everything is perfect except for a few minor errors here and there with the audio that I was experiencing.

Then I plugged the aerial into the TV to see how the analogue stations faired up and I'm amazed digital can even pull a signal out of the rubbish that was being received.

Quick phone call to the property manager and we're full steam ahead to getting an aerial mounted on the roof.

Cheers