Hillsborough
Sheffield
S6 2LL
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R Ellis Winter Hill
Basically the aerial`s great! Some background. I'm a competent DIYer, but put a
new TV aerial up about 5 years ago which turned out to be a waste of money. I didn't
realise what a difference in quality there could be, and only looked at what was
available at DIY superstores. I used a good quality pole, good quality bracket, good
quality cable, but was taken in by the claims on the "Bacofoil” aerial`s box ! The
house in question is in a valley, next to the Peak Forest Canal, just a couple of
miles from the Romiley mast, but I would need to aim the aerial through the canal
bank to reach that mast ! We are about 36Km (or 22miles in real money) from Winter
Hill and use a cheap EchoStar Digibox. The mux carrying BBC1 etc showed a strength
of 7 or 8, but the other muxes only gave 3 or 4 and were blocky, and when I re-
D Moon Whitehawk Hill Transmitter
Before I bought any aerials from you I also tried a couple of other so-
A Huddleston Sandy Transmitter
Just a quick line to say thanks for your advice and help; I now have the new setup running.
We use a Humax PVR which has a signal %, using this with the DY14WB we seemed to have gained 1% over the existing DAT75 (this is a "Tri Boom aerial") although this could have been a number of things ; The DAT75 was approx 4 foot higher and we`ve reduced cable run by 10m due to new location. So overall things seem comparable but given the smaller size of the DY14 we were impressed with the performance. The installation is also rock solid which is a lot better.... just need to pluck up the courage to get up to the chimney and remove the old setup! Many thanks.
C Chatfield Mendip Transmitter
Firstly a big thank you to you or whoever wrote your website. So much useful information.
I never knew that despite having line-
J Scott Ridge Hill Transmitter
Placed my order for the DY14 wideband aerial on Friday 15th May, it arrived by TNT
on Monday 18th May 2009. Was installed in my loftby 3.00 pm the same day. I live
18 miles from the Ridge Hill transmitter which is South East of Hereford. I had agonised
over putting the aerial in the loft, but having carefully read your excellent web
page, I decided to give it a go, with your recommended DY14WB aerial. I also went
for this aerial as it is relatively short in physical length for fitting in my loft.
Also it covered the current digital aerial configuration and would accommodate the
revised configuration once the digital switchover takes place late 2011.
I assembled
the aerial as per the instructions on the aerial box -
receiving its signal directly through the gable end wall of the
house. However, it still worked fine. Using an amplifier it feeds Freeview to three
TV's in the house, all having very good pictures. Kind regards.
Mr Davis Heathfield Transmitter
The new aerial works significantly better than the old one (which I think was an XB10 wideband) though I did change the cable and the Mast Head amp at the same time,
so we cannot be sure about the relative impact of each !
Mr Meredith Ridge Hill Transmitter
We are in a pretty poor reception area. The XB10WB we had before was an improvement on our old aerial but the signal was still glitching every now and again, worse on some channels. We then then swapped the XB10WB for the XB22WB and did experience an improvement, but it`s still not perfect.
P Coombs Sudbury Transmitter
I live in Woodbridge in Suffolk, OK it's not Yorkshire, but it is a lovely part of the world. The closest (digital) transmitter is Sudbury some 23 miles away. Prior to yesterday`s upgrade the STB only received Digital Muxes 1, 3, 5 and 6. The TV received all 5 analogue channels, although BBC2 suffered from over banding and C5 was noisy. When channel 5 was launched I employed a well thought of local aerial company to upgrade the aerial. He installed a 14 element crappie Contract aerial[TM] and used my twin screen cable. As you can imagine, this provided limited improvement. I decided that a further upgrade was necessary. As GSI (Get Someone In) had cost me over a £100 with limited success I decided DIY was the way to go. I did some (limited) research and visited the local DIY barn for a tin foil special. Although the aerial was obviously a wideband it didn't receive Muxes 2 or 4 and still provided the poor reception on BBC2 and C5. I started to do more research as the harassment from my wife and children grew. Then one Saturday the shower died which required immediate replacement, so off to the local Screwfix shop (It's like Argos, but with geekier catalogues). Whilst there I saw a special offer on a Lab Gear rip off of the DAT45 (this is a "Tri Boom aerial"), and it was cheaper. I bought one. Now I don't normally do impulse buying as I like to know what I'm spending my money on. It turns out that this was for a reason. The Labgear DAT45 copy (LAB450W ?) was a very minor improvement over the existing tinfoil special. Oh, and the shower has been crap as well !]
So an aerial upgrade was still necessary even if only to save me from an ear bashing from my wife. Given the history of my incompetence to date I decided more research was necessary and fortunately I found the ATV website.
I started reading the website, and much knowledge was gained. With my newly gained
know how I knew what to order and more importantly I understood why. A DY14WB and
mast head amp was ordered on Wednesday lunchtime and arrived Thursday afternoon.
I put the aerial together and replaced the tri-
The DY14WB picked up mux5 (on CH54) which neither of the other
aerials would but didn`t show sufficient improvement to make a significant difference
on the other 5 muxes. With the Masthead Amplifier installed it is now possible
to receive all channels from 35 (C5) all the way through to 68 (Mux 2). So all in
all money and time well spent. Only one regret. I wish I'd found the ATV website
a lot sooner as it would have saved me time and money.
Sudbury can be problematic for digital reception due to its restricted radiation pattern.
N Stainforth Waltham Transmitter
Ordered a new DY14WB (for my Dad) from you on Monday, it arrived Tues, and was fitted Wed. Wall fixing kit superb, aerial awesome. We put the new aerial on the end of the house because this neatly allows a line of sight past the neighbouring trees and somewhere out in the distance is Waltham SE about 25 miles away. I went with the DY14WB because even though we`ve line of sight to the transmitter, and ought to be great in the area, everyone around my parents has had some problems. Lots of people around my parents have had new aerials fitted but the prices are mostly in excess of £200. I though most of the aerials fitted round here were similar to the DY14, but when I had it up (the aerial that is) you could see the difference in quality even from the ground. It`s a much more solid looking piece of kit. I think it will probably be overkill in the long term but until late 2011 when changeover is complete it is what is needed. My Dad is 82, so the end of 2011 is a long wait when you’re his age!! Finally he can press the red button and get a picture ! Also found that there are about 25 other digital channels he has never seen before. Thank you for great information and products and service. My own aerial was replaced a couple of years back with one of your Log40s, I get an awesome picture and I’m picking up Emley Moor from York.
A Palmer Hannington Transmitter
Thank you for your prompt delivery of the two aerials that I ordered at the end of
July . The aerials have now been installed and I can report that they are working
well. The original aerials for Hannington was a 20 element Group C/D Yagi (18 directors,
a folded dipole without balun and a plate reflector) of 1984 vintage.This has been
replaced by your DY14WB aerial.
The signal received from the DY (measured with a spectrum
analyser on the vision carriers) increased by an average of 2.2dB over the five Hannington
analogue
frequencies, with a range of +1 to +3dB. I have to use Crystal Palace for DTT because Hannington doesn't provide much Digital signal to the East in my direction as it would interfere with some of the channels used by the relay at Guildford. The build quality of both aerials was good and the bracketry etc looked like it will stand the test of time.
Also see the aerial report for the XB10A (on Crystal Palace) at the same site.
Mr Webb Hannington Transmitter
Our old aerial was a Contract 18, possibly a wideband, though to be fair the installation has to point through trees. Not all the digital could be received and the analogue was very poor.
Having replaced the contract with the DY14WB (and changed the cable) the digital is now good on all the channels. The analogue is much better but it`s still not perfect.
If you`ve found this site informative and, hopefully, interesting as well,
please help us increase the number of people reading it.
N Radford Waltham Transmitter
This is a poor reception area as demonstrated by the fact that the analogue picture is still a
bit snowy even with the XB22. The digital signal is now fine though, with very little freezing
or pixellation. The installer who I got in to fit the aerial didn`t change the cable, which I now
realise he should have done. Had he renewed the cable I may well have got a an even more
improved picture.
The cable should be always be changed when the aerial is replaced, unless it is good quality cable (i.e. satellite grade) and it`s definitely in perfect condition. Unless this
installer had a severe access problems, which the customer said he hadn`t, then I think we
can conclude he`s a bit of a bodger. At least we know that any signal improvement was just
down to the aerial, since it used the same cable as the old one !
S Wincott Sandy Transmitter
We live in a dip so have never had perfect signals despite having the aerial on a high mast.
The previous aerial was a 10 element A group and we got reasonable analogue but it didn`t
receive much in the way of the digital services.
With the XB22WB we now get good digital, MUX1 is the worst but it`s still watchable, and
the analogue is also slightly better than with the old aerial. The cable was changed at the
same time as the aerial, it was cheap stuff but still in reasonable condition, and we also
improved the quality of the splitter we were using.
I McColl Sudbury Transmitter
The reception in our low down locality has never been particularly good, possibly because
we`re 25 miles from Sudbury and the analogue transmitter is directly in line with the digital
one behind it !
Our old aerial was a Contract 10 B group on which the analogue was reasonable on BBC2,
ITV and C4 but poor on BBC1. C5 was bad, although it is on low power. Digital was
sometimes OK but mostly it was unwatchable.
With the XB22WB the analogue is now fine apart from C5 which is reasonable but not
perfect. Digital is fine.
One slight criticism, I wasn`t convinced by how waterproof the rubber boot over the F
connector connection into the aerial was/would remain, so I used self amalgamating tape
and silicone on it just to be sure. Belt and braces probably but I`d rather be sure.
I must confess that I also prefer the conventional connection within the dipole box, and
whenever the manufacturers give the option for either we specify that. This doesn`t apply to
Log Periodics where the F Conn is usually within a weatherproof cover. Unfortunately the
XB22WB aerial is only available with an F conn fitting.
We did change the cable at the same time as the aerial, but the old stuff was in reasonable
condition so whilst I think it will have made a bit of a difference I think most of the
improvement is down to the XB22WB aerial. Interestingly there was one cable run, of the
old cable, which we couldn`t change because it was buried in the wall. This became quite
significant when we realised that our central heating was causing interference on the digital
signal, because it only affects the TV on that run of cable. All the other TVs, where the
cable has been upgraded are fine ! It`s worth using decent quality cable, definitely.
I`m delighted with the aerial, it`s made a world of difference, and your website was so
useful I`ve put a few others onto it !
We are more than willing to give advice to those actually purchasing from us.
Could those only seeking information please just find the answer somewhere on this site,
or ring an aerial installer local to them, or call the reception advice phone numbers.