Best marine tv aerial

kevsbox

kevsbox

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212
Location
Portsmouth, UK
www.kevsbox.com
Hi all
I have been looking at fitting a TV aerial to the outside of our yacht for use in UK waters. I have seen prices from £25 to £125 which leads me to ask 2 questions.
1. Will the cheaper ones be total rubbish
2. Is it worth going for the upper price, mid range or cheap?
This will be uased in UK coastal waters, mainly the solent for free view.

Any thoughts please
 
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I’ve got one of these.

LEADSIGN Portable Indoor/Outdoor TV Aerial with Magnetic Base, 360°Reception High Gain Digital Freeview TV Antenna, 4K 1080P VHF UHF (Black)
£13 from Amazon.
just run it out to sit on the boom or somewhere on the foredeck. Excellent Reception. Apparently the preferred choice of canal boaters who can stick the magnetic base anywhere. You’ll need an extension cable​

 
stuartwineberg said:
I’ve got one of these.

LEADSIGN Portable Indoor/Outdoor TV Aerial with Magnetic Base, 360°Reception High Gain Digital Freeview TV Antenna, 4K 1080P VHF UHF (Black)​

£13 from Amazon. ​

just run it out to sit on the boom or somewhere on the foredeck. Excellent Reception. Apparently the preferred choice of canal boaters who can stick the magnetic base anywhere. You’ll need an extension cable​

Click to expand...
I have a similar one, different make, in my motorhome. Excellent kit.
 
TV aerials are so 1970s.

All channels and subscription TV is available over the internet, as most people know :)

A decent data contract on your phone allows you to use it as a mobile hotspot, which gives you more TV than you want, every radio station in the country, email, internet etc. To use it all you can use a variety of methods.

Smart TV (smaller model off the shelf TVs are often DC powered, through a "power brick), cheap as chips.

Laptops, tablets etc.

We have a "ships computer", which is just an off the shelf laptop. This connects to a Samsung LED TV using a HDMI cable so the TV just acts as a monitor.. The laptop is tucked out of the way and controlled by a wireless keyboard and mouse. Box sets, movies and music can be downloaded to the laptop for later viewing, all TV services are available (without an aerial), we get the internet and email on the TV screen, all normal computer programs are there, i can feed onboard N2K data to the laptop etc etc. You don't need to use all of these features, pick and mix as required. If you just want TV, a smart TV and a mobile hotspot works great.
 
PaulRainbow said:
TV aerials are so 1970s.

All channels and subscription TV is available over the internet, as most people know :)

A decent data contract on your phone allows you to use it as a mobile hotspot, which gives you more TV than you want, every radio station in the country, email, internet etc. To use it all you can use a variety of methods.

Smart TV (smaller model off the shelf TVs are often DC powered, through a "power brick), cheap as chips.

Laptops, tablets etc.

We have a "ships computer", which is just an off the shelf laptop. This connects to a Samsung LED TV using a HDMI cable so the TV just acts as a monitor.. The laptop is tucked out of the way and controlled by a wireless keyboard and mouse. Box sets, movies and music can be downloaded to the laptop for later viewing, all TV services are available (without an aerial), we get the internet and email on the TV screen, all normal computer programs are there, i can feed onboard N2K data to the laptop etc etc. You don't need to use all of these features, pick and mix as required. If you just want TV, a smart TV and a mobile hotspot works great.
Click to expand...
Pretty much agree except data packages come at a price and in quite a few location Beaulieu for one both the wifi and the mobile signal are very poor. We use a blend of smart tv over internet and over the air freeview depending on available signal
 
stuartwineberg said:
Pretty much agree except data packages come at a price and in quite a few location Beaulieu for one both the wifi and the mobile signal are very poor. We use a blend of smart tv over internet and over the air freeview depending on available signal
Click to expand...
I have an unlimited SIM deal with 3, £20 a month. Fair point about the coverage, that's one reason we download what we can, so we always have a "stock" of stuff to watch. That said, watch very little TV anyway, even though we live aboard.
 
stuartwineberg said:
I’ve got one of these.

LEADSIGN Portable Indoor/Outdoor TV Aerial with Magnetic Base, 360°Reception High Gain Digital Freeview TV Antenna, 4K 1080P VHF UHF (Black)​

£13 from Amazon. ​

just run it out to sit on the boom or somewhere on the foredeck. Excellent Reception. Apparently the preferred choice of canal boaters who can stick the magnetic base anywhere. You’ll need an extension cable​

Click to expand...
I just wonder if the expectation that it will be on a metal base means that it is designed to work best with a ground plane beneath it? Maybe it won't work so well on a GRP structure.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
I just wonder if the expectation that it will be on a metal base means that it is designed to work best with a ground plane beneath it? Maybe it won't work so well on a GRP structure.
Click to expand...
Good spot. If the signal is weak i stand it on a metal tray (an old long service award from my corporate days). TBH it works fine sitting up on the sail cover 99% of the time
 
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