High Gain TV Antenna

[rkinsella]

My parents holiday home has pretty awful terrestrial TV reception and I am trying to root cause the problem. I think I may have cracked it but need some validation.

They have a high gain wideband antenna on the roof which should gives a decent signal but doesn't, the antenna is very similar to this one .

A bit of snooping on the coverage map indicates the digital tv transmitters are almost due south and north of the house. (The transmitter suggested by the coverage map is south-south-east). The antenna on the roof is pointing east/west, at almost a 90 degree angle to the transmitters. (if you are curious type "ardcath, co. meath" into the search box to see what I mean).

I am guessing this the source of the issue?

 

[ChrisFrost]

In short the answer is "possibly"

There are times when the obvious transmitter choices just don't work out well. This is often to do with line of sight. If the signal is blocked by geography then choosing a less powerful relay transmitter might be the best choice overall, so the aerial ends up pointing in a different direction. Holiday homes do tend to be in locations where TV reception can be a bit tricky. A professional installer will carry an aerial meter and assess the signal strength from the available transmitters, then choose the strongest. Is there a transmitter in the direction your parent's aerial is pointing?

Of course the other possibility is the aerial was installed by an eejit

This might have been a well meaning eejit trying to do someone a favour, or the local pub eejit who does a bit of this and that and also chucks up aerials for beer money.

If there's a neighbour's house close by and they get a decent signal then it's worth trying the new direction. Also check the orientation of the aerial. There's some excellent advice in the Satcure How To guides here

 

[Sam Gangee]

A "grid array" aerial used to be used for analogue reception where "multipath" signals caused "ghosting". As digital TV doesn't suffer this effect, the grid array is less useful and many installers are using a log-periodic aerial, instead, as it's an excellent "all rounder".

Obviously, as Chris implies, no aerial is going to work well unless it's aligned on the required transmitter.