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which Aerial


Mike E-W

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A small log periodic. Get an app for your smartphone to help you know where to point it. While you're at it, get an MHL lead for your phone so you can watch streamed TV when you don't get a signal.  This works so well I hardly bother with the aerial now.

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Just now, Sea Dog said:

A small log periodic. Get an app for your smartphone to help you know where to point it. While you're at it, get an MHL lead for your phone so you can watch streamed TV when you don't get a signal.  This works so well I hardly bother with the aerial now.

Someone on the forum was selling one the other day. The WC perhaps. 

 

I find the small log periodic only really works in strong signal areas. The larger one works most places. 

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3 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

 

I find the small log periodic only really works in strong signal areas. The larger one works most places. 

Of course - the bigger the better, but then it's stowing the thing if you're in the habit of using your boat as a boat.  I find the biggest issue is in the cable and connections. Damp is the biggest enemy and it's a creeping one in both senses of the word. It chips away at the signal until every set up becomes a chore, then you get fed up and try to flog the aerial on here! ;)

 

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1 minute ago, Sea Dog said:

Of course - the bigger the better, but then it's stowing the thing if you're in the habit of using your boat as a boat.  I find the biggest issue is in the cable and connections. Damp is the biggest enemy and it's a creeping one in both senses of the word. It chips away at the signal until every set up becomes a chore, then you get fed up and try to flog the aerial on here! ;)

 

Which is of course a great benefit of the log periodic... It stows flat. 

 

Of course in this day and age you could ditch your aerial and stream everything, but to get a good signal may require, erm.... an aerial. 

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Log periodic without a doubt. the countryside gets *&*^%^%^&*^ boring after a while. Having said that there isn't much to see on the telly these days that would warrant spending mega bucks on a tv or an arial. 

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i have had good results with one of the cheaper Screwfix periodic aerials on a short mast, albeit a taller pole would be better in hilly areas,

on the technical side, in order to obtain a clear picture ,it is necessary to persuade other crew members to go aloft in the rain to spin it round while the skipper remains in the warmth of the cabin to shout instructions, 

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Log periodics are cheaper on ebay and are of the same quality - if you buy from this outfit (Unispectra)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stealth-DIGITAL-HD-TV-Freeview-LOG-PERIODIC-AERIAL-4G-LTE-Ready-Antenna/150848879726?hash=item231f4b3c6e:g:b6oAAOSwj0NUcMFW

for best results you really need an aerial amplifier

and a signal meter

then it's a doddle.

Been there, doing it.

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Another vote for the LP. I do see a few of those bulky cross shaped things and they are just too difficult to stow. I have a long extendable pole, and you can rotate it from the bottom so no roof climbing required.

As for the aerial app - I do sometimes refer to it, but rather confusingly there are usually many transmitters within range, and the nearest may not be the best, depending on any local obstructions.

Don't forget, sometimes a retune of equipment is required, so you may need to point the aerial correctly and retune before you pick anything up.

 

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We don't have a TV though do download a bit of stuff to watch. We did not have a TV for the last few years of living on the land, so that's well over ten years without one. We go on holiday to Cornwall every January and the flat/house invariably has a huge TV which I watch as its a novelty. TV has gone downhill enormously over those years, its absolutely crap. I think because its a gradual long term decline those who watch it every day do not realise how bad it has got.  

 

We watched the snooker, that's about the only thing I could find, even the news is now down marker crap. We then realised that the TV could download stuff so we watched loads of Peaky Blinders, set near Sparkhill where I grew up, lots of boats, and filmed in Liverpool ?.

 

...............Dave

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Question -

Why do so many folks say 'there's nothing to watch' on TV. Most evenings we have several time clashes - so resort to recording items and do watch them later.

Dad's army - for the 64th set of repeats - lord knows why

University challenge

Countryfile

Antiques road show

Question time

That dreadful man late on a Friday evening to see folks dumped off a chair.....

 

Is there something wrong with me? (Don't answer....)

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I find the Omnimax type aerial fine, as long as you use the RF amplifier that comes with it - agreed that on it's own it's cr*p.

Also a retune at *every* change of location.

For the very few locations where you can't get a usable TV signal, out comes the iPhone and HDMI adapter to watch Netflix./iPlayer etc.

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This is the best Ariel we have had no matter where we are we get a signal, I also have the L P  and the S P but we never bother with them anymore , I also have one of the ultra thin things that they are selling at the moment advertising you can get sky and net flex free this Ariel beats them all hands down https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Best-Caravan-Portable-TV-Antenna-Digital-HD-Freeview-Aerial-Ariel-Indoor-Outdoor/123668458007?epid=2254425967&hash=item1ccb36ea17:g:I68AAOSwGMFcd5~e

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39 minutes ago, luggsy said:

This is the best Ariel we have had no matter where we are we get a signal, I also have the L P  and the S P but we never bother with them anymore , I also have one of the ultra thin things that they are selling at the moment advertising you can get sky and net flex free this Ariel beats them all hands down https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Best-Caravan-Portable-TV-Antenna-Digital-HD-Freeview-Aerial-Ariel-Indoor-Outdoor/123668458007?epid=2254425967&hash=item1ccb36ea17:g:I68AAOSwGMFcd5~e

Yep, I have one of those that was even cheaper and it works 99 percent of the time. We also have a small log periodic that was a tenner including coax and postage off ebay that we use and again 99.9 percent of the time a quick twiddle to point and auto retune if needed. The expensive specialist aeirials are a con and the huge aerials I often see are not necessary. In the last 12 months we havnt moored anywhere that we could nt get a signal.

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We must have had a particularly efficient television on Helvetia, as it often needed no aerial for it to work, and most other times a simple magnet based taxi radio aerial on the roof was fine, if that failed the Log Periodic was hoisted.

 

 

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3 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

What about when it's dark? ?

Instead of celebrities, look at the stars or go to the pub. There is also wildlife you know that comes out in the dark.

Edited by Tonka
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Folks (seem to) ignore the fact that TV reception depends on where you are moored

M'Lud Smelly is on the Oxford canal with a large transmitter that covers most of the canals south of Brum. As you go further North and West ish there's excellent coverage from the Holm Moss transmitter Elsewhere reception can be patchy or non-existent. In those cases you need a dish.

 

Where the boat is moored we're at the end of the Crystal Palace reception area and there's no real signal until you get to the other side of Reading where the Oxford transmitter kicks in. 

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