Freeview Reception

[boatone]

Had a small Freeview set top box lying around doing nothing for ages so took it down to the boat today to see what reception was like now the DBV broadcasts are up to full power.

Most impressed ! Too many programmes to count including all the ones we're most interested in.

Aerial is a small aluminium antenna similar to this one mounted on a 1 meter ally pole on the cabin roof. Cost about £25 from a caravan shop.

 

[dash300]

Now we've gone digtal I find that up river you either have signal and get a picture or no signal and nothing. There are no half measures as with the old analogue where sometimes a reasonable picture was just about bearable.

 

[Mirror Painter]

Reception report

At Lechlade a netbook with a TV dongle and an aerial much less efficent than your Yagi works. An aerial like this:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/12-24v-outdoor-digital-aerial-476170

^ It didn't cost that much when I bought mine.


But I still use this much more than the telly:

http://www.robertsradio.co.uk/Products/DAB_radios/SOLARDAB2/index.htm

(note to thieves - nothing of value is on boat overnight. Except me sometimes).

 

[boatone]

Now we've gone digtal I find that up river you either have signal and get a picture or no signal and nothing. There are no half measures as with the old analogue where sometimes a reasonable picture was just about bearable.

The beauty of the digital signal is that, as long as the carrier signal is strong enough, the digital sound and video will be decoded to give a stable viewing experience. You do need about 50% signal strength though. As you say, you either get it or you don't and my feeling is that we will find we get good picture reception in places that previously were beset by severe ghosting etc. Certainly the reception in Bray marina was vastly superior to the old analogue signal.

My antenna has no amplification at all.

 

[TrueBlue]

The beauty of the digital signal is that, as long as the carrier signal is strong enough, the digital sound and video will be decoded to give a stable viewing experience. You do need about 50% signal strength though. As you say, you either get it or you don't and my feeling is that we will find we get good picture reception in places that previously were beset by severe ghosting etc. Certainly the reception in Bray marina was vastly superior to the old analogue signal.

My antenna has no amplification at all.

The analogue signal strengths were held back or even reduced when Freeview was started, likewise the digital signal was kept at lower levels until the analogue stuff was dropped.

So now you get a double bonus, which is great.

Your log periodic is also great, quite apart from its type, it is also mounted in the centre so it doesn't wave in the wind quite so much.