Aerial type/direction help please.

[Stivino]

I need help installing a TV aerial in Kinross. Accoerding to the BBC website, and other transmitter info sites I've looked at, Kinross has it's own little transmitter and is a satelite of Craigkelly. According to all the info I can find, I need a band C/D aerial and it should be vertically polarised and be facing toward the site shown in the link.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/transmitters/tv/tv_craigkel.shtml
However, when I look around the street, every house has a different aerial type and they are pointing in three different directions.
Can anyone point me in the right direction? (There's a pun in there)
Stivino carino.

 

[ericmark]

Radio signals do not always behave as expected and can bounce off buildings and mountains this can cause two signals to arrive out of phase.

So it is possible that to avoid this directional aerials are directed to a transmitter further away.

The TV aerial installers have a small box they can use while up the ladder to help them aim and will just turn it to best signal.

I do realise that as a result one can end up with wrong band of aerial and depending on wind strength one may consider a wide band aerial a better option.

Although we do all act like sheep and it is common like you have done to consider copying so it is also possible all the rest are not directed to best option.

I live on the edge of Wales and here aerials point in all sorts of directions either to pick up English transmitters or to select one of the many repeaters if you look at aerial heights and powers on your list they vary greatly so you may not be using the closest.

I am a member of RAYNET an amateur radio organisation who try to provide emergency communications and we practice by helping with events like fun runs, mountain bike events and the like. And we try to combine theory with practice and study the maps to try to work out a path for signals but so often we find we have really odd results. Sometimes further study will explain them but often we know it works but not a clue why.

Of course we have signal strength meters and it is far easier to aim in best direction with that aid some freeview boxes and satellite boxes also have aids built it to help but many seem to have nothing which was not so bad with analogue but a real pain with digital to aim an aerial when it works or doesn't with no in between.

 

[Stivino]

The line of sight between the house and transmitter is clear enough, and the transmitter is only about two miles away, so I still don't really understand why they should all be different.

 

[plugwash]

Also note that sometimes the small booster transmitters either don't have freiview or are missing some of the muxes.