can you combine aerials?

I got a freeview box for my spare room system which has a little telly attached, mainly with the intention of picking up the music channels. I'm in a weak freeview area, so it picked up practically nothing. so off I go to B&Q and get a so-called digital aerial. i get it up in the loft and find the existing aerial is twice as big and impressive albeit layed out a bit differently, plus I haven't got an F plug to connect the coaz ont the aerial. so I'm wondering - could I use both aerials and somehow splice their leads together into the junction box (and would there be any benefit or detriment from so doing) ? is there anything magic about these things or are they just glofieid coat hangers?

 

You will need a booster, they cost around £15 for a four way one. They amplify the signal so you can connect x amount of TVs to it. We have three TVs connected to the upstairs arial and one digital box. The picture quality is fine.

 

I've got a booster on the old aerial, which was fine for analogue stations but crap for digital.. Main problem is here, I'm in a very marginal freeview receptio n area so the aerial needs all the help it can get. I don't know if there is really any difference between a digital and analogue aerial or whether it's just marketing hype - they both just look like bits of metal to me.

 

If you combine the aerial signals you will have to ensure that they are aligned and spaced so that the signals from each aerial reinforce rather than cancel. Seems like hard work to me.

Getting the aerial out of the loft and onto the roof will be a better approach, but you might be into significant cash. Why not just get a DAB radio?

Paul

 

aligning sounds a pain, and another aerial on the roof would involve planning permission as well as cash, as I'm in a conservation area and it's really not worth it... I'll try out the new aerial and see if it makes any difference. DAB wouldn't help - I just wanted to watch telly while I'm in my gym-room with some decent sound through the hifi there. the real answer is for the freeview tightwads to give us a decent transmitter in Suffolk !

 

We're in a conservation area and have a roof aerial no problems. And a Sky dish (this would have required planning if it had been visible from the road or something. But the road is outside the conservation area. And the bastards have given outline permission for a huge new house in the garden behind us, completely contrary to their own guidelines. Put it up and be damned...)

FWIW the ECHR guarantees that the government won't interfere with your right to receive broadcast material, Article 10 part 1. This could be entertaining if the planners get cheeky...

Paul

 

There is just a little bit of magic involved with antenna's ( antennae ?) .
If your two aerials are of different bands then by just splicing the leads together you may get ghosting and other problems caused by one signal swamping or reflecting off the other one. Also depending on which transmitter you get the signals from, your digital transmitter may be located in a different location than your other aerial is pointed at and might also need a differently polarised signal.
For example I recieve BBC1, 2, ITV and CH4 from a Horizontally polarised transmetter using a Group C/D aerial and my channel 5 from a Vertically polarised group A aerial, that transmits from a slightly different direction and compltely different transmitter. To combine the two signals into one downlead I needed to fit a Group A + C/D diplexer to combine the signals without any problems, I've also added and diplexed in an FM radio aerial, this combined signal then goes to a booster and is distributed to each room in the house. The addition of SKY satellite has mostly made my efforts redundant though ( . it was scary up that ladder too ! ).

I would do a web search, find out where your local TV signals are coming from and then work out from this info what type of Aerial you need, which way up it needs to be positioned and what way it needs to point. This is all very easily sorted out, however contacting a local aerial man might be a more hassle free and effective solution. The work will also carry some kind of warranty or guarantee.

HTH.

 

here in very east sufolk im getting a great signal on freeview,roof top aerials pointing towards norwich,not sure if the transmiter near southwold transmits digatal or not, alough it do's need a 12db booster.A digatal aerial is afaik just a wideband tv aerial.

 

well, got it working - having been back to B&Q to pick up the bits that were missing from the kit I managed to squeeze it into the top of the loft, and it picks up the channels we can expect round here. can't say the sound is great but it was only a £40 quid Matsui ... I originally got it because I moved the cable linking the mono telly to run between my son's PC and his hifi (so he can now play all the MP3s on my hard drive over the wireless LAN thru his system), and it would have been twenty quid for another cable. So for 20 quid extra plus 15 for the aerial I get stereo and another dozen channels