TV aerial questions

[andyyat]

Hi everyone. We have recently returned from a long trip around Scotland. Whilst I respect things are remote we really struggled to get TV reception. Everywhere we went we had to auto retune and on all but one occasion we found no stations and we just gave up. However, I then noticed others had reception. It puzzled me so hence my question. I am interested to know if something is wrong, we are doing something wrong or whether the aerial we have is just not good enough. We have a burstner harmony line 720 2019 model. As an aside when we got home I tested it and all tuned in fine. I am keen to know experience of others and if we need to change our aerial what would be recommended. Picture of the aerial is below. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[dunnah01]

Do you also have an aerial amplifier inside the van. Without this then reception with that aerial is poor. With an amplifier it's very good.

 

[andyyat]

Yes we have an amplifier I meant to take a pic of that but our MH is at the storage at the moment so don’t have a pic. It has two
Settings on it for Amplification low and high. We have it typically on high. Like I said all works well in good signal area. I read something that what we have is an omni direction aerial. Basically as I understand it we can’t move it. Thinking that may have been the problem.

 

[dunnah01]

Yes we have an amplifier I meant to take a pic of that but our MH is at the storage at the moment so don’t have a pic. It has two
Settings on it for Amplification low and high. We have it typically on high. Like I said all works well in good signal area. I read something that what we have is an omni direction aerial. Basically as I understand it we can’t move it. Thinking that may have been the problem.

It's the same aerial as we have and we get good reception in most places. You have to retune every time you change the reception area but that's not a huge problem. Scotland probably has quite a few tv reception cold spots so it's either mobile data if available or satellite if you really want to blow the budget.

 

[andyyat]

It's the same aerial as we have and we get good reception in most places. You have to retune every time you change the reception area but that's not a huge problem. Scotland probably has quite a few tv reception cold spots so it's either mobile data if available or satellite if you really want to blow the budget.

That is great to know. Can I ask what amplifier do you have running with it and is the setting on high or low amplification. Somebody mentioned to me that having it on the low amplification is sometimes better.

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[Trevor Wbm]

Just to clarify: omni directional aerials pick up around a full 360 degrees, so don't need to be pointed at the transmitter.

If you look here https://ukfree.tv/maps/freeview you'll see Scotland isn't over blessed with transmitter sites, and with your antenna mounted around 3m off the ground rather than on a tall roof top pole, the chances of seeing a site are very much reduced.

Folk you noticed with a picture might have been streaming or using a sat dish.

 

[andyyat]

Thanks that is really useful. Wow that west coast where we were is very sparse of transmitters. I was not aware of that. That makes sense. We did stream a couple of times where we had internet. Many thanks.

 

[Reallyretired]

Omnidirectional aerials seem fine now we're digital. You often had ghosting on analogue signals in the past. Invariably whenever you move more than a few miles retuning will be necessary.

 

[raysalaugh]

We are using a Status 570 antenna with amplifier.

 

[dunnah01]

That is great to know. Can I ask what amplifier do you have running with it and is the setting on high or low amplification. Somebody mentioned to me that having it on the low amplification is sometimes better.

Our amp is a dial from 0-5 but it always stays on 5

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[pappajohn]

Scrap that waste of roof space, it's omni-directional and will always be crap reception unless you parks next to a TV mast.
A directional aerial such as the Status 570 is far superior.
As an aside, you will always need to retune at different locations.
Always have, probably always will.

 

[bigwood]

We have the status 570 and amplifier but it’s still not perfect in some areas. Our second choice is to use the I Pad or DVD player.

 

[Lee Rasberry]

Hi everyone. We have recently returned from a long trip around Scotland. Whilst I respect things are remote we really struggled to get TV reception. Everywhere we went we had to auto retune and on all but one occasion we found no stations and we just gave up. However, I then noticed others had reception. It puzzled me so hence my question. I am interested to know if something is wrong, we are doing something wrong or whether the aerial we have is just not good enough. We have a burstner harmony line 720 2019 model. As an aside when we got home I tested it and all tuned in fine. I am keen to know experience of others and if we need to change our aerial what would be recommended. Picture of the aerial is below. Thanks in advance for any help. View attachment 679652

Hi andy. That's a Maxview Gazelle antenna, but the booster doesn't sound familiar. If you could get a photo I can take a look at the spec to see if it's on par with our normal booster.

Unfortunately there will always be areas where you can't get Terrestrial TV coverage, especially up in Scotland, but on the whole, omnidirectional antennas offer a good compromise between performance, size, cost and ease of use.

 

[andyyat]

Will try and get a pic this weekend and post it. Thanks for your response much appreciated.