Basic TV Aerial Facts

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Your TV aerial is of critical importance to the performance of your TV equipment, yet choice and installation often receives little consideration. It is ironic people may pay hundreds of pounds for the latest widescreen TV, and then settle for the cheapest and most haphazard aerial installation.

Awareness of some basic aerial factors will help make the most of new and existing TV equipment.

‘Digital Aerials’ Do Not Exist

There is no such thing as a ‘digital aerial’. An existing aerial installation should work perfectly well with digital TV equipment. It is even possible that your existing aerial will work more effectively when connected to digital equipment than analogue due to the extra strength of digital signals. So if anyone says you ‘need a digital aerial,’ it is completely untrue.

Aerial Quality

There are big differences in build quality between aerials. An aerial installation should last many years, and may be outside on the roof battling the elements, so a sturdy well made one is well worth the investment. Find an installer with a decent track record and comes recommended.

It is not as simple as asking your aerial installer to fit ‘the best aerial you have at any price.’ The best aerial will depend heavily on the signal strength in your area and, if poor, which transmitter serves you.

Aerial Groups/Widebands

With regard to frequencies and tuning considerations, there are two options with your aerial choice. Due to the difficulty of one aerial performing well across the whole frequency band TV broadcasts use, individual transmitters group their broadcasts into one group of frequencies. Each group has a letter designation, so if your transmitter is on, say, ‘A’ group frequencies you would require an aerial tuned to this band of frequencies.

An alternative to this is to install a wideband aerial. As its name suggests, it covers the entire frequency range so should be suitable regardless of your transmitter’s frequency band. Therefore, a wideband appears the obvious choice – but it is not as simple as that. Much depends on the signal strength of the transmitter: a wideband aerial will not necessarily perform as well as a ‘grouped frequency’ aerial in a given frequency range.

If the signal is strong enough, a wideband aerial should perform satisfactorily. With more areas switching to digital, widebands should be more useable as the digital signal is generally more powerful than the old analogue one.

Signal Strength

Do neighbours receive a good signal? What type of aerial do they use? Is your transmitter nearby?

Siting

As you can imagine, where you site your aerial will make a huge difference to reception. A roof installation will be better than a loft insulation, which in turn will be better than an indoor aerial.

Professional Installation

While you may use a professional installer, awareness of the above factors can help you make the best choice of aerial and prevent you spending more than you need to.