T.V aerial installation

[Chris]

Hi,

I am rewiring a house in a couple weeks and the customer wants some coax ran in for t.v points, however there is no aerial in the property as the last owner didnt have a tv.

Is installing an aerial a pretty straightforward job or am i best telling him to get someone else in to do that?

Thanks

 

[ferg]

I'm not sure if my insurance does cover me for going on a roof but I tell my customers it doesn't.

I always leave aerial installation to others and run decent coax, 2 of, to each point.

I advise cat5 also but mostly customers don't want it.

 

[ElectricSeamus]

A little nonsense here, but generally good stuff. Firstly, there's no such thing as 'satellite cable'. Secondly, the colour of cable is irrelevant and is not indicative of the quality or spec of it. I'd also add that if you end up heavily involved in this, be aware that Sky Q (in case the customer has it now or in the future) requires both cables to come directly from the dish and will not work via any 'loft box' or diplex/triplex plates.

 

[Simon47]

For those that might be tempted to install an aerial - get a decent one (see the aerials & tv site I linked to earlier). If you get the right aerial then you do not need a mast amplifier - if you see an amplifier on the mast (except in the most fringe of reception areas) then that's an admission that some numpty put an inadequate aerial up. People may laugh at you manhandling a 6' 6" Yagi 18 up, but it beats a "bacofoil" contract that needs an amplifier before the TV can see a signal and will fall apart in the first strong winds. It does need a very good bracket and pole though
Remember that an amplifier amplifies any noise as well as the TV signal, and it adds it's own noise. So a small aerial with amplifier WILL have a poorer signal/noise ratio (the most important parameter) than a decent aerial without an amplifier.

Lastly, if possible use a grouped aerial - a wideband will generally give less signal, especially down at the lower frequencies where TV is all moving to. In our case, we can use Winter Hill which currently needs a wideband, but we can also use Lancaster which is Group A - so I bought a Yagi18A* which gives more signal where needed than a wideband would from Winter Hill. In a few years it can be pointed at Winter Hill which is due to shift down to Group A before long. In the meantime I only lose out on a couple of DVB-T2 muxes that I don't have anything to tune into anyway.
See here on Aerials&TV to see just how much signal you can be missing out on using a wideband when a GroupA would be appropriate.
BTW - I have no affiliation with Aerials & TV other than as a satisfied customer. There's a lot of good information on their site, and they only sell quality aerials

* An XB14A gives even more signal, but while about 6" shorter, is one heck of a lot more aerial, and a lot more wind loading to withstand.

 

[ferg]

A little nonsense here, but generally good stuff. Firstly, there's no such thing as 'satellite cable'.

LOL I'll bear that in mind while I keep calling it satellite cable.

 

[Simon47]

And there's that other nonsense - the "digital aerial". No such thing, just a good aerial for the task - if it has enough gain then it doesn't care if it's analogue or digital TV (the latter still being an analogue waveform at the aerial.)