[Merged]Freeview aerial installation

[Hornet]

I had Action Aerials install an aerial on my house yesterday. Man took one look at house and said should be able to get it in loft. Detached house with easy access so NO REASON not to put on roof!

House has all wiring as new. Told me if he put it up outside will use a DM15 and amp booster as I am in poor reception area for digital. If in loft for same price will give me best aerial DMX15 and booster. He checked loft and said excellent signal on his reader no point putting on roof. Said as long as as good OK.

15 mins later installed by tying it up with two cable ties on rafters! Bent two back rods of aerial to do this and front touches felt in roof, but he said all fine reading excellent.

All tuned in all channel between 50% and 100% in diginox signal reader.

When he went and we watched ITV 50% on box, it pixellated about 10 times in an hour only split second each time. Sky news fine and no pixels 100% signal all times.

Is it normal for freeview channels to pixel now and again?

Have I been conned re. loft and stronger aerial?

Get feeling he didn't want to take ladders of van. I have rang co. told them not happy, they are sending same engineer back Wednesday to discuss? If still not happy I need to call them again!

Any advice? THANKS

PS £200 paid in total!!!

[on in an hour!]

Originally Posted by Hornet

I had Action Aerials install an aerial on my house yesterday. Man took one look at house and said should be able to get it in loft. Detached house with easy access so NO REASON not to put on roof!

House has all wiring as new. Told me if he put it up outside will use a DM15 and amp booster as I am in poor reception area for digital. If in loft for same price will give me best aerial DMX15 and booster. He checked loft and said excellent signal on his reader no point putting on roof. Said as long as as good OK.

15 mins later installed by tying it up with two cable ties on rafters! Bent two back rods of aerial to do this and front touches felt in roof, but he said all fine reading excellent.

All tuned in all channel between 50% and 100% in diginox signal reader.

When he went and we watched ITV 50% on box, it pixellated about 10 times in an hour only split second each time. Sky news fine and no pixels 100% signal all times.

Is it normal for freeview channels to pixel now and again?

Have I been conned re. loft and stronger aerial?

Get feeling he didn't want to take ladders of van. I have rang co. told them not happy, they are sending same engineer back Wednesday to discuss? If still not happy I need to call them again!

Any advice? THANKS

PS £200 paid in total!!!

any pixellation is due soley to the aerial placement,unfortunately it sounds like hes had you over,i would insist a different engineer visits as this guy is gonna be annoyed at you (however wrongly) for complaining,for £200 you should have no pixellation.

[altis]

No installer worth his salt would put an aerial INSIDE a roof unless you live right next to the transmitter. You'll lose an enormous amount of signal thru the bricks, tiles or whatever. An aerial booster will not make up for the loss. It will simply amplify the noise as well as the signal. TVs are designed to work with very small signal levels but what they need is a good signal to noise ratio. This can only be achieved by having a good aerial in a good location. The only use for an aerial booster is to overcome signal loss thru a long downlead - and for this it must be at the aerial end.

£200 - You were ripped off mate!

There's some useful information in this thread:
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/26...view-help.html
In particular, you might check out the terrain mapping from your nearest transmitter to your house. You'll be able to see if the height of the aerial will make a big difference to the signal.

[iain_herts]

as been said NO aerial should be placed in the loft as this will affect the signal.

we charge anywhere between £120 and £200 depending on what is needed

we also use high gain aerial's mainly XG8 which is for london

best thing to do is look at other aerial's around your local area and see what they are like.

what kinda pole 5Ft/10Ft/16Ft
are they any mastheads on these other aerial's (be a small box on the pole)


just the other day we was working a 2 story building and to get a decent signal we had to put it on a 22Ft pole to look over some trees

lol what a scank. A mate of mine fits aerials and he told me how much they cost wholesale lol . He fits em as a favour to me as I fix his pcs etc free. So I get people who are not so well off who needs one he fits it charges me nowt then I charge 50 quid

[Nedkelly]

When looking for a aerial installer use a C.A.I approved installer as you have something to fall back on

[pedantic]

Originally Posted by Nedkelly

When looking for a aerial installer use a C.A.I approved installer as you have something to fall back on

Well, according to the Action Aerials website, they are a CAI member. But on the CAI website, they're not listed. Curious.

[Nedkelly]

I would report them as they might of been but had it revoked .My mate had to do tests and they came out and checked his work before they gave him cai approved status

[Hornet]

They are on CAI under Skyforce Ltd.

He did all the tests in the loft and said you will 100% get same signal in here as out there. Outside would be smaller aerial, inside larger 52 element one. I have mast amplifier, about 2 metres below aerial (4 way box on loft floor) and then box in bedroom plugged into aerial sending the powere up...he said?

The aerial is facing same way as others on estate and I have a very high pitched roof so it is right up high. It has roof felt and tiles in front of it and inner walls about two metres away each side.

They are now coming Wednesday to discuss my problems!!! If same man he isn't going to change it is he?!

I take it I then complain to CAI.

As I said it is held on rafters with two cable ties and actual end two prongs (if thats what they are called) actually touch roof felt!

[Nedkelly]

Not many installers put them in the loft now and should have a bracket not tie raps i would take pics incase you have to get cai involved .

[nffc]

Hmm well I get all freeview channels fine from Belmont, 50 miles away, off an telecam aerial on top of my bookcase. I suppose it depends where you are, but a roof aerial is always preferable. If we had one, I might be able to get local broadcasts from Waltham, instead...

[grabbi]

Itd be better if you could loft the aerials, but if you did, I guess many engineers would go bust!

[Hornet]

The bent aerial tied on with cable ties and touching the felt....a typical 3.30pm Friday installation. They are coming back Wednesday to discuss. Not holding out much hope, have emailed complaint to CAI and copied Action Aerials in, surely this is so bad they should come back Wednesday and just fit it outside???

[Matt D]

£200? For a loft aerial?


Back at my parents' house, in an area which wasn't covered by Freeview according to the postcode checker, I paid about £100 to have a new aerial put up, nice outdoors high gain aerial on a mast...perfect reception.

[Hornet]

So this national company are taking the p? Although did include 4 point head amp and plug in amp thing next to point.