TV Arial for mast head mounting

[sixpack]

I am planning to fit a new TV arial to the top of the mast (SHMBO "needs" daily fix of the soaps) as the reception with the existing one is very poor.

Any suggestions as to a good arial to fit and will I need a booster etc. I expect the coax to be ~45' from deck to mast head plus another 20~25~ form connector bloct below mast to TV table.

Is there really a good omni directional arials out there?.

cheers.

 

[penultimate]

I rarely watch TV during the sailing season and now only on a Laptop using a USB TV adaptor. I originally had an omni aerial mounted on the spreaders but changed to a Glomex omni aerial at the masthead in order to get better reception during winter layup ashore. Even then I found a directional Yagi array gave much better results.
Afloat I believe any advantage from having the omni aerial mounted at the masthead was nullified by the movement of the masthead. I needed flat calm and the boat's head steady.

 

[steve28]

there is a review in the pbo this month if that helps you,
I use a maxview omnidirectional which is bolted at the front of the mast, it seems ok down in the river valleys of cornwall.


steve

 

[TrueBlue]

I have an omnimax - it's a bit limited (virtually no gain), but you will need to have a masthead amplifier, the unit comes with an amplifier / power supply which has to be fitted in the cabin. Pretty useless if you have a long cable run....

It doesn't work in fringe areas - by that I mean anywhere where the service if from a slave transmitter where the signal is horizontally polarised (local aerials will have the elements vertical). Maxview deny this, of course.

 

[pappaecho]

I got a multi element array with stick on suckers for quid at a car boot sale. It is better than anything else i have used - much better than an omni directional. It was produced to fit on the side of a caravan.
When a gale in January brought down out professionally fitted aerial, it worked as a very good ground level receptor, including all the digital channels as well. I suspect you would get much better reception from this type and would be able to hoist and lower from the crosstrees. You would have to have some means of pointing it in the right direction, and find that a couple of "towed" buckets tied to the pushpit, will damp down the swinging caused by wind and tide

 

[William_H]

Not so familiar with UK Tv however as TrueBlue points out some TV transmitters transmit in Vertical polarisation and some horozontal. The external antennas in the area will be hor or vert. elements and your antenna should be mounted the same. If it is a disc shape then on edge for vertical polarisation or flat for hor. (True Blue got it confused) Omni directional here means from all points of the compass not different polarisation. Polarisation if wrong makes a lot of difference. UHF signals get attenuated rapidly in cheap coax so for a cable run from the top of the mast you should have the amplifier near the antenna so that the amplified signal is attenuated rather than have the amplifier trying to amplify a signal almost lost in the noise at the bottom of the cable.
If your boat is always held in one position you don't need an omni antenna and a yagi directional array is far better. (thats an ordinary antenna to you) good luck olewill