Freeview aerial

Phone around the companies in your area to get the best deal. I recently got a rooftop aerial supplied and installed in my bedroom for £50. You will be able to have it available in more than one room although this will cost extra (I just used a signal booster that I had to split the signal into another room to save some money). Previously I had been using an indoor aerial attached to a booster which got very poor reception but I now have a full signal and perfect digital reception from the rooftop aerial. I am about 20 miles from the Darvel transmitter. With the price some indoor aerials are you may only need to pay a little extra to get a rooftop aerial which will guarantee a better reception than an indoor aerial.

This sort of report from MediaGuardian doesn't help either for the future:

Freeview Coverage After Analogue Switch-off

Although it's honest of them to admit it, it rather flies in the face of DigitalUK's attempts to convince us all to change "sooner rather than later".

Here in Plymouth we face this prospect in about 2 years. I thought the intention was always to allow more frequencies to be available post-2012. This is just going to spoil Freeview's advance on Sky.

I don't know why this has suddenly been reported considering it's been known for ages. Basically it will only affect those on a selection of small relays.

People there will still end up with more channels than they have at the moment, and will not lose any existing analogue channels.

Out of interest. Where is the nearest transmitter to Carrickfergus in County Antrim?

The main transmitter is Divis (analogue and Freeview), there are analogue relays at Carnmoney and Whitehead.

Divis? I'd better turn my aerial in the Belfast direction. I'm asuming Divis is that place in south west Belfast.

There are two transmitters on the northern outskirts of Belfast. The taller one with four lights is Black Mountain which carries commercial radio and Channel Five. The transmitter further to the east is Divis.

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/mapsys/anatv/divis.asp

Just thought I should correct myself there, having now read that Ofcom has announced that no relays will receive the commercial multiplexes. Previously it was assumed that some of the larger relays would carry all six muxes. Evidently it's all down to money, rather than availability of frequencies.

This article makes it rather more clear than the MG one.

I bought one from Argos for £3.99 - works pretty well.

Freeview is a strange thing isn't it.

Usually a bit of a rain or a slight breeze and reception is all over the place.


Yesterday, 70mph winds, the aerial looking like it's about to fall off the roof - perfect picture!

My analogue was useless yesterday mind... I can see the transmitter relay tower from my window and still it was snowy!

DTT doesn't seem to like thunderstorms I discovered on Saturday night. The big storm we had made Mux 2 virtualy unwatchable - very upsetting as it was during TV Burp.