Where on earth is my roof aerial?

[NRS]

We are trying to get our TVs set up in the new house. In some of the rooms we can get 100+ free channels. In others we get a couple of poor quality channels. But none of the aerial points are where we want them so we’d like to move them and get everything working properly.

Problem is we have no idea where our roof aerial is or if we even have one.

We can’t see an aerial anywhere on the roof. It’s a detached house so we can’t be using our neighbours.

In the loft there is an aerial booster box which has power. There are coaxial cables connected to the output. They disappear into the loft insulation but presumably run down the internal walls somehow. The input has been severed!

There is a sky dish on the side of the house left by the previous owner. It has miles and miles of cable that wraps around the house and enters at various points. But we don’t pay for sky.

Where on earth is our signal coming from?!

 

[ETAF]

The input has been severed!

maybe you have a really strong signal and the cable is picking some up - unlikely
But if you dont have an aerail on the roof/chimney/walls or in the loft and the amp is there - then one way would be
on one foo the TV's thats working fne disconnect all the cables on the output from the booster amp and see if it still works

Sky dish could be used for freesat - BUT you need a freesat receiver often foun on panasonic tvs

 

[NRS]

You’re correct. We have unplugged the booster box in the loft and the tv still works. So the signal does not come through the aerial booster box. The mystery continues

 

[NRS]

We live 18 miles as the crow flies from our transmission tower and we have a good line of sight as we’re on a hill. BUT surely we have an antenna somewhere?!

 

[foxhole]

Could be in loft , even covered in insulation it might still work . Check google maps for an aerial view, might show up there.

 

[NRS]

We’ve been up here all day. There is no aerial.

I wonder if we’re picking up free sat. We are using an old Sony Bravia. The blurb says it has a DVB-S2 (digital satellite) tuner that can receive standard free-to-air satellite channels

We are using a regular coaxial cable and did a scan for digital tv rather than cable.

I have no idea at this point!

 

[ETAF]

that would be a different connection on the tv - i would expect a normal coax connection = push fit and a screwin connection for the sat
how is the TV connected up

see the sockets here

https://www.reddit.com/r/cableadvice/comments/1f89rrm/sony_tv_fitting_aerial_cable

 

[NRS]

ok, it’s not free sat then as we are using the normal coax for terrestrial freeview. Truly flummoxed

 

[ericmark]

I know my TV can pick up satellite direct, and satellite from the Sky box, terrestrial TV from Moel-y-sant, (freeview) and also freely, and Youtube from our broadband, and it is sometimes hard to work out which we are getting.

From memory, an aerial needs to be around 9 inches, so the coax stripped back 9 inches inner one direction outer the other would pick up TV and act as an aerial, 18 miles is not far.

I remember on the Falklands thinking I was getting Argentine TV, until I realised the poor picture was porn, and then found picking up TV from a room down the corridor where he was watching videos, and the TV's built in aerial was broadcasting it to me.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I wonder if we’re picking up free sat. We are using an old Sony Bravia. The blurb says it has a DVB-S2 (digital satellite) tuner that can receive standard free-to-air satellite channels

The available sat channel listing, will have a very different line up to Freeview, besides, the antenna connection will also be different. The dish, if you have one, will have to be outdoors.