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uk: looking for good aerial for DVB?
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: London
Status:
Offline
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Hi All,
I picked up a store-demo Formac Watchandgo USB a few months ago (fyi: I'm in London, UK). I was immediately frustrated with poor signal quality (not a single channel was artifact free), even though the sales guy insisted that the active antenna that came with this unit would "pull in signal through 10 feet of concrete". I stuck it back in the box, thinking I'd deal with it later, and it sat on a shelf until my daughter asked yesterday what it was. I thought I'd try again.
Still no joy with the included aerial, so I went to a local electronics shop today and asked for their best indoor aerial for DVB. Unfortunately, the one they gave me (from Phillips: powered, amplified) is even worse than the one that came with the Watchango (it sees fewer carriers, not to mention channels).
Everybody else in my neighborhood has aerials on their roofs. I was hoping to not have to find some way to get up on my roof (slate tiles, 3 stories up, no ladder), and am looking for a really good indoor aerial. Barring an indoor one, what should I look for in an outdoor aerial?
Can anyone make any suggestions?
Any advice much appreciated (even "go to this different forum and ask your question" type advice :-)
Chas
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: London
Status:
Offline
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: London
Status:
Offline
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Well, I can certainly add to complaints about the software, as it's crashed numerous times and even caused a kernal panic twice on my testing machine (iBook).
As an aside, I'm not using the PCMCIA card version (no PC Card slots in our iBook, Mac Pro & G5 desktop), mine is an external box connected via usb.
I'm stuck with it though (at least I didn't pay full price :-/
Chas
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: London
Status:
Offline
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: London
Status:
Offline
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That is very cool info, many thanks for the pointer!
iTele seems particularly capable :-)
Chas
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Body in London, mind elsewhere
Status:
Offline
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DVB reception in London can be very dodgy unless you've got a roof top aerial. i live about 2 miles from Crystal Palace and get a hit a miss connection with the small antennas but with the roof top one it's prefect.
in central london it's very hit and miss.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: London
Status:
Offline
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Hi Nivaq,
Yeah, I'm not as close to Crystal Palace as you are, but the DVB-T websites indicate that that is my closest transmitter. In house antennae are useless here, it's "miss" only (I can state that definitively!). So, it's going to have to be much higher. I'm going to get a good quality antenna and install it in my upstairs neighbors loft (as getting on my roof would be very difficult). Here's hoping that that does the trick!
Thanks for the contribution.
Chas
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: London, UK
Status:
Offline
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Yeah, we're in the shadow of a hill from Crystal Palace, but then we've always had coax to a rooftop aerial.
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