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Old 30th Oct 2013, 10:20 pm   #73
emeritus
Dekatron
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
Posts: 5,316
Default Re: 405-Line VHF Aerials in 2013

You can indeed get away with very little when you are in a strong signal area and there are no metal structures to cause multi-path reflections. My mother, who lives in Dagenham, East London, is still using the set-top aerial that came with her first dual standard (405/625) TV in 1969, connected by the old small diameter coax feeder. It has two square loops, and simply rests on a joist in the loft pointing in the general direction of Crystal Palace.

I originally installed it as a temporary measure when they first moved in, but as it gave an excellent picture, never found it necessary to fit the sort of multi-element Yagi aerial that her neighbours now have. She used to get ghost- and noise-free analogue reception, and now gets a stong noise-free digital signal on two TVs that are fed via a passive splitter, with no sign of pixellation or freezing.

The 405 line VHF aerial (two telescopic arms in a VEE) is still in use, but for FM reception, the 75 ohm coax feeder being connected to the 300ohm balanced aerial sockets without a balun. It too simply rests on a joist.

You would have been unlikely to see many 405 line VHF aerials in Dagenham as the council prohibited external roof-mounted aerials in their council houses without a permit. No doubt there are still some mouldering away in lofts. My late aunt, who only lived 2 miles from my mother, had good VHF reception from her loft aerial, but noisy UHF reception. When I went up in her loft to investigate, I found that the UHF aerial was pointing through the party wall, which was coke breeze. Moving the aerial a few yards sideways so it was pointing through the tiles, brought a dramatic improvement.

Last edited by emeritus; 30th Oct 2013 at 10:27 pm.
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