Sharing TV Aerial with Neighbour

LSainsbury · 20-03-2010, 20:14

Hi,

Our Sky HD went faulty on us this afternoon. Long story - won't go into it now - but we have our old Sky+ box as a backup with is now connected up and we are waiting for Sky to replace the box - in a week.

Anyway, our neighbour has a nice aerial attached to their house and we were thinking of alternatives.

I know FreeSat comes through a dish so that's a possibility.

It occoured to me that we could possibly take a feed from the aerial. Obviously this would need to be done with the neighbours consent, but I just wondered what would be involved in spliting the signal?

Woud a distrubuition box / amplifier be required?

Would we need some kind of written aggrement with the neighbour that gave us permission to have feed off the aerial?

Jon T · 20-03-2010, 20:36

Depends on how strong a signal your neighbour is receiving and how may times the feed is split to feed his equipment. Other than that it's just a question of splitting the feed with a splitter(see here). Length of co-ax may be also be an issue, as the longer it is, the weaker the signal will be at your end.

As to written agreements, it's a free to air signal, so nothing illegal in wanting to do what your doing, but i'd put something in writing that shows you've got the providers consent anyway. This should also specify time span, and that the provider has no responsibility for the provision of the signal, and that you don't expect it to be there.

rogerdraig · 20-03-2010, 21:03

personally i would say they would be daft to agree and if they did the splitters amplifiers etc done well enough not to affect their reception too much ( and it will affect them in some way which could rise to ill feeling no matter what agreement you make ) mean that it would likely be better to just put up your own ariel or buy a very good indoor one

zaax · 05-04-2010, 15:12

They do just that for blocks of flats, one dish 100's of users. For your use you just need a 4-way Satellite LNB (http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?...=lnb&source=15). The only problem is if the neighbors move away.

Jon T · 05-04-2010, 15:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by zaax

They do just that for blocks of flats, one dish 100's of users. For your use you just need a 4-way Satellite LNB (http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?...=lnb&source=15). The only problem is if the neighbors move away.

Read the the first post again

, he was talking about splitting the feed from a normal UHF TV antenna, not a satellite dish. Also, SKY were going to replace the faulty HD box in a week from the date of the post, that date has past.

SMG · 05-04-2010, 16:04

Bad idea to share anything with the neighbour, if things go pear shaped at anytime, ie, bad reception, any fault, the neighbours tv tuner, its going to be "your fault". Do yourself a favour, dont share.

dd11 · 05-04-2010, 16:10

I had 1 tv set being fed off my neighbours areal for a few years without any boost, just a normal 1 in 2 out splitter.
However now I have my own and use a signal booster as I have it running to all the tvs in the house so quite a large length of cables.

Could you not just buy your own areal if you wanted one? Or would the issue putting it up?

Jon T · 05-04-2010, 16:15

Or people just read the first post again and work out that Lee probably no longer needs to do what he was proposing.

dd11 · 05-04-2010, 16:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon T

Or people just read the first post again and work out that Lee probably no longer needs to do what he was proposing.

It was only the other week an he said he was 'thinking of alternatives' so may still be thinking. Besides, even if he no longer requires our advice this thread may help other people.