Demise of the TV aerial.

[Jolly 7]

Originally Posted by stevehertz

Being (what looks like) a combined Bands 1 & 3 aerial it could be late 50s or 60s.

That's really old. It looks vertically polarised too.

[slidertogrid]

Originally Posted by electronicskip

When i moved into a new house many years ago , the local council actually forbade rooftop aerials and also white front doors!!!
Anyway my aerial is in the roof and works just fine but gradually more and more rooftop aerials appeared (and white front doors) so im guessing it was very difficult to police or enforce.
.

When Peterborough council built the Westwood estate in the '60s they tried really hard to make it a nice place to live. Garages around the back of the houses, fronts were pedestrianised 'gardens'. Outside aerials were not permitted and in the '70s I worked for a rental firm that would rent customers an aerial. All of the loft installations needed a amplifier in the loft fed from a power supply behind the tv up the co-ax. Sometimes it was a real challenge to get a decent signal. In retrospect knowing how some councils can operate I wonder if they were getting a bung from a certain rental firm that provided wired / "piped" TV....
looking at how the estate has been let go now an outside aerial ban is almost laughable.

[dglcomp]

Originally Posted by electronicskip

When i moved into a new house many years ago , the local council actually forbade rooftop aerials and also white front doors!!!
It wasnt as if we were in a sensitive conservation area or a listed building as it was a brand new build.
Anyway my aerial is in the roof and works just fine but gradually more and more rooftop aerials appeared (and white front doors) so im guessing it was very difficult to police or enforce.
Nowadays it seems to be all rusty old sky dishes.

Poundbury near here is also a place where no aerials are allowed, they use a few master aerial/dish setups around the outside of the town similar to the old relay services. I know they were thinking of moving the offices for the council department my dad worked in there but it got shelved as they needed a dish and weren't allowed one.
It's a bit of a joke really as there isn't really separated from Dorchester and there's no restrictions there.

[samjmann]

Around the East Midlands, those that have aerials only are 70+, below that down to about 40 it's mainly Sky/Virgin. Below 40 virtually no one has terrestrial TV, they all stream. So called linear TV is for old people they say. For many the aerial shows that you have a traditional TV, and therefore should be paying the license... Sadly, UHF TV days are numbered. SJM.

[cliff2903]

I wonder what the average age of the TV aerials you see everyday is. We had a new one fitted before Christmas due to poor signal and bits hanging off, the engineer said it was at least 30 yrs old

[winston_1]

Originally Posted by Jolly 7

Digital and old analogue TV aerials side by side on top of a local house. I am not sure if the old antenna is from the 80s or 90s.

No such thing as a digital aerial. They are all analogue.

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by cliff2903

I wonder what the average age of the tv aerials you see everyday is. We had a new one fitted before Christmas due to poor signal and bits hanging off, the engineer said it was at least 30 yrs old

The J-Beam aerial on my parents fell down about 15 years ago, & the rigger who fitted the new one reckoned it was over 20 years since he last had seen one like it. The house was built in 1973 & it was probably put up soon after it was built. I remember it was quite brittle after 35 years.

[jamesperrett]

Originally Posted by Jolly 7

Digital and old analog TV aerials side by side on top of a local house. I am not sure if the old antenna is from the 80s or 90s.

There would have been very few Band 1/Band 3 aerials installed after all the channels became available on UHF in 1969. I guess there would have been some locations where UHF signals were poor which would have continued to use VHF but most of the country would have been covered by UHF by the mid 70s.

[Wendymott]

Being of the "Dinasoar" demographic, and a child of the 60's, as a TV apprentice, I was well versed in Band 1 multi rods and Band 3 8 / 8 and the like, Wharfedale was TV reception nightmare until the "Big mast" went up at Emley.
Now living in Huddersfield, with Emley mast virtually on the doorstep, about 5 miles as the crow flies, I need a 48 Ele. beam, and even that struggles in the summer rains, with dispersal on the tree leaves. My front chimney, with its double lashing kit, is holding well, with 3 band white stick and my half 5RV end. I cannot help thinking that.. if we get rid of all the ether borne RF, and someone sticks it to the Tinternet, we are ALL DOOMED Capt Mainwairing, DOOMED. Talk of Killer satellites, ... best not

[John123]

Originally Posted by dglcomp

Poundbury near here is also a place where no aerials are allowed, they use a few master aerial/dish setups around the outside of the town similar to the old relay services.

Indeed, the planners for new housing in Milton Keynes at the time did not permit installation of external/ rooftop antennas. Instead, households could opt for 'British Telecom SelecTV'. All seems so quaint, nowadays ..but the same time, quite familiar!

Another good watch, here.

[dave walsh]

Take a look at my HD only thread which seems to cross-reference this one. When we moved to the Bexhill house 20 years ago, I paid for a new external aerial to serve the lounge from Hastings but stripped out a pre-amp distributor which didn't seem to work very well and was more trouble than it what worth! Various other rooms have direct feeds to indiscriminate, odds and sods of Yagi's in the roof space, including set top aerials, that all seem to work very well. How long this may be of value though, given my concerns in the thread, it's really anybody's guess. No digital aerial signal-no Industry!

Dave W

[hamid_1]

I believe Ofcom has guaranteed that some of the UHF band will be allocated to terrestrial TV until some time in the 2030s, so Freeview isn't going to disappear in a hurry. However, Ofcom decided to reallocate the temporary COM7 and COM8 Freeview HD multiplexes to mobile phones instead, due to the small number of viewers using them.

The DigitalUK website has relaunched as EveryoneTV

It now includes Freesat as well as Freeview information. According to them, Freeview is in 18 million homes ( and on 10 million main TV sets); Freesat is in 2 million homes. That's a lot of people. Broadcast TV certainly isn't dead yet. It will take quite a long time for those numbers to drop to the point where a shutdown could be considered. I predict there will be a long 'transition period' with just a small number of basic public service channels being broadcast, as in Freeview Lite areas at the moment, with the rest moving online, either ad-supported or subscription or both. This is already the situation in a number of countries.

[dave walsh]

Thanks Hamid that's all very encouraging and informative from my point of view but technology speeds up so fast around us that we don't really notice. Look how quickly FS TV's took over! Some of it is very advantageous indeed but social media and algorithmic control

Dave W

[tritone]

I can only recieve tree view on my yagi's,

[PaulR]

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

OTOH, we still listen to a lot of live FM radio and the signal's weak inside the house, so I can see an external FM aerial taking the place of the TV one on our house at some point

I have tried several aerial riggers to replace the FM aerials here, which get used far more than the TV one. One is a halo type which is pretty useless and an element has fallen off the other. I thought that a nice new Antiference 4 element one would replace them both and feed the rooms previously fed by the two. The conversation goes something like "we don't stock FM aerials" "CPC sell them" "ok we will get back to you" Nothing more heard from them.

PS Talking of odd rules for council houses, my daughter bought an ex-council flat dating from the 1920s. She was given an old document stating the rules one of which was that a duster must not be shaken out of the window.

[DrStrangelove]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

The J-Beam aerial on my parents fell down about 15 years ago, & the rigger who fitted the new one reckoned it was over 20 years since he last had seen one like it. The house was built in 1973 & it was probably put up soon after it was built. I remember it was quite brittle after 35 years.

I'm still using a J-Beam Parabeam from the mid 60s.

It's been on 3 houses so far and even managed to survive the kind attentions of the scaffolders & roofers a couple of years ago with some running repairs.

It's a bit like Trigger's broom in places though.

More uselessly there's a Group E contract 18 element in the box room that was used back in the day to receive signals from across the Bristol Channel when BBC 2 Wales did its usual opt outs of things I wanted to watch in favour of the oval ball obsession.

My late father erected aerials in the 50s, just as well he was a big strong man (much stronger than me) with those Ch5 double H for receiving Wenvoe.

[Andrew2]

I've noticed a thinning-out of TV aerials around here. When out on my morning walks, I tend to look up at people's TV aerials to get my bearings, as around here they all point NW to Winter Hill. I find that these days I have to look harder to find one.
Our contract 11 ele is still in place after 38 years with its original brown 'low loss' coax, and it is working fine even though we rarely watch Freeview (we use FreeSat and streaming services).

[CambridgeWorks]

Aged a little over 14, mid 1960s on my Saturday job, I occasionally assisted the boss on erecting tv aerials.
My part was to make up the pole, aerials, diplexer and cable and carry it up to the top of the ladder and pass it to him where he was waiting on the roof ladder.
While I was making my part up, he was fitting the lashings to the chimney.
One occasion I well remember was a job in Market Place, Market Deeping, Lincs.
Maybe this building or one very near? Certainly 3 storeys and a scary height from what I was normally used to!

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...umF9A&usqp=CAU

On reaching almost the top of the ladder, my assembled pole and aerial that I was carrying touched the bare telephone wires. I started getting shocks which I think must have been from back emf on a phone circuit? Most unpleasant. I think the shocks made my muscles contract and grip harder, as I did not drop it.
To reach this height, my boss had used some rope to tie a third section onto the extending 2 section aluminium ladder that we normally used. Quite scary for me, but having seen him climb it carrying a roof ladder, I felt a little more at ease....I think!

Not long after this time, Belmont mast on Lincolnshire Wolds opened up with ITV on Channel 7 and BBC on channel 13, I think?? We used special wide band aerials vertically polarised. Both gave very good reception in the village and surrounding area.
Prior to Belmont, BBC came from Morborne, near Peterborough on band 1 channel 5. ITV was from Mendlesham, Near Norwich on band 3 channel 11. Both with horizontal polarisation. Channel 11 was never too good a signal, despite using 8 element yagis. Channel 5 just needed a simple dipole.
Back in the early 60s, there was a tv interference phenomenon named "The Peterborough Effect".
This was something like the second harmonic of the tv tuned to channel 5 could cause patterning interference to nearby tv tuned to channel 11, due to poor screening of the channel 5 tv allowing excessive second harmonic local oscillator radiation.
This kept the post Office interference teams locally extremely busy.
So, Belmont was a relief when it went on air. However, by then, a lot of the ancient tv sets that caused the radiation problem were disappearing very fast due to age.
Even back then, we sometimes removed old 3 element H shape band 1 aerial systems and converted to Belmont. Not a clue where they pointed to originally. Maybe Birmingham area?
Morborne for BBC with Sandy Heath ITV on channel 6 was another option, prior to the arrival of Belmont transmitter.

Aged 11, my Saturday job was in Yaxley, near Peterborough, a tv and electrical shop owned by J H Rowell, who was also the officer in charge at the part time fire station.
One Saturday, after tea and biscuits, we set off on the rounds of some local villages. Normal routine was returning or collecting small item repairs, changing batteries in radios or delivering new items. Selling bulbs etc. Looking after mostly elderly people. My boss was himself in his 60s.
One day, we went to Morborne village and as a treat he took me up to the mast site, ignoring the no admittance sign, we entered the site. We went in the building and there was a chap on duty that we talked to. He showed us around as well.
When we left, I asked how come we were allowed in?
He explained, that as part of his Fire Service job he was allowed to inspect fire safety in buildings. Not that we needed to use it as an excuse, as the engineer seemed to know my boss.
Rob

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by winston_1

No such thing as a digital aerial. They are all analogue.

Oh? I (and millions of others) always thought that there was such a thing as a digital aerial - at least, an aerial designed for use with digital televisions. Seems ok to refer to that as a digital aerial , as opposed to the previous type that was for use with analogue TVs.

[Cathovisor]

Originally Posted by robinshack

Aged 11, my Saturday job was in Yaxley, near Peterborough, a tv and electrical shop owned by J H Rowell, who was also the officer in charge at the part time fire station.

Did you know Brian Scotney, who took over the shop? I lived in the next village - Farcet. It's a florists now.