Aerial/Satellite Dish Find answers to popular questions or post your own regarding any aspect of home entertainment

[Tott]

We've just moved to a bungalow which has a loft aerial which gives very poor reception, unfortunately there isn't a chimney to attach an external one. Houses stand at the back in the direction the aerial so I'm guessing fixing one to a pole on the fascia probably wouldn't entirely fix the problem?

I have tried using a booster with little difference.

Now there is a satellite dish on the back of the house, we haven't got Sky, but was wondering if I could utilise this in any way?

I have a (Virgin) cable connection to the front of the house which we are using for our TV in the living room but was looking to use the aerial for 2 or 3 other rooms.

[ericmark]

A new free to air satellite receiver will cost about £40 and has 100's of stations but be aware of the difference between free to air and free to view. Free to view still requires a card and includes Channel 5 it seems it is to stop people not resident within the UK from receiving channel 5 the market of sky transmission is not common for those in EU. Also of those 100's of channels you have every region so 10 x BBC1 and 10 x BBC2 etc. Plus more shopping channels than soft Mick so only really about 200 channels of the 500 odd are really any good still more than Freeview. A re-conditioned Sky box with free to view card is likely to be better than a free to air but you will have less flexibility to set local channels.
Within the next few years multiplex frequencies will change and transmit power is likely to rise you may find reception changes.
Also there are boxes which can send SCART signals as analogue TV signals down 75 ohms coax so allowing you to view what is seen on main TV throughout the house.

[Tott]

Thanks again for your reply and helpful information - I'll look into your suggestions.

As I understand it the digital signal is presently quite low which (as you say) will improve 'dramatically' after the switch over from analogue - unfortunately our region (south/south east) is the last one to get it!