Which digital TV aerial is best out of these three?

[Daniel]

The Bongo is coming along nicely having fitted the kitchen and fitted a double battery setup, loads of power! For my entertainment I am using an old laptop that has a dvd drive fitted with a plug in USB digital tv tuner (both free, bargain!). Works great in Cardiff with the pathetically small (15cm) straight aerial so I want to get a good size amplified aerial for when Im out and about. £50 is my budget, dont see the point of spending any more, and I have narrowed it down to three aerials all from Maplins. Which do you think would be best? I think I will get the best picture from the 2nd more standard aerial. It is a good size, has a built in amplifier and is relatively flat for easy storage, its about 75cm long so not small but not big wither. The other two are more streamline and more fancy but purely from a performance point of view would they be any better or are you paying for the sleek design?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=46230

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=47022

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=221242

Cheers

Dan

[scanner]

This may help.

http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/best_aerial.htm

[haydn callow]

I would go for the 2nd one....A good friend of mine who knows these things..once said....for best reception ..go for as much metal as possible and get it as high as possible....This advice has always worked for me . Whenever we have been Bongoin' we have had a decent picture (including freeview) whilst others have not with their fancy disc/mushroom thingy's

[Daniel]

I would go for the 2nd one....A good friend of mine who knows these things..once said....for best reception ..go for as much metal as possible and get it as high as possible....This advice has always worked for me . Whenever we have been Bongoin' we have had a decent whilst others have not with their fancy disc/mushroom thingy's

I was thinking the same thing. It’s a good size, flat, all metal and amplified. I guess I was just looking for confirmation on my thoughts. I will mount it on the pop top front under bracket like I have seen done on this forum. Not sure who it was but it’s a great idea.
Cheers

[welsh winger]

Hi Dan,
I bought an image 530/18, the second one down on the link.
http://www.gradeuk.co.uk/products/antennas/vpimage.asp

Under £24 from a caravan shop here in swansea, you wil need poles or another method of fixing them, i have a had a search, as Some one I forget who, secured one of these to the front of his AFT.

We are more than happy with the reception.

Nick
Welsh Winger

[Bin Bongoed]

I've just bought an indoor one from Maplin. which I have tried out in house. We can see the SW mast from here, but it beams over the town, so oddly enough we do not get good reception. The aerial just works.
The best sites, places we all want to go, tend to be in bad reception areas. This will not therefore be enough. So I'd like to know how you get on. My suspicion is that satellite would be better, you could pop a small suitcase type dish in the loft of the AFT, if you're not using it for sleeping.

Keep us posted!

[Daniel]

Fitted the aerial. Its a great bit of kit and a good size, was smaller than i thought at about 50-55cm. It comes with all the brackets you need and a main amplifier. All i needed to get were two bolds. The bracket fits the support bar on the free top but you need to be accurate with its location so the top can close correctly. You only get about 5mm either way. Anyway here it is:

[Bin Bongoed]

Looks good, u didn't hang around. Did you feed it with the 12volt supply from your van?

[Daniel]

Life’s to short to hang around, learning that lately. You will never have time if you don’t take time
It comes with an amplifier but its a mains one, i plug it into my inverter and it can be run from the battery fine. Consumption is tiny, so many milli amps cant remember how many. I will mostly use it with power hook up anyways so its not that important. I have shortened the tube that is in the bottom pic. I took that pic after first fix then tweaked everything to make it neater. The aerial being flat means it can go under the bench seat out of the way when in transit, i also think it may fit in the pop top when down but i have to check this out. All in all for £39 you get everything you need. Now i have to try it done the Gower in SW Wales

[Bin Bongoed]

Really like to hear how it works in practice. The accuracy of fittiing worries me. Have you drilled through the roof top? Certainly seems good value, I spent a similar amount for my indoor aerial, wonder if they will take it back.

[Daniel]

Will take some close up pics on the weekend and measurements for people.

[Bin Bongoed]

Brill

[haydn callow]

What do you do if the signal is comong from behind and it's not practicable to turn the van round ???

[Bin Bongoed]

Perhaps that's the "in practice" bit, Haydn.

[Daniel]

Why wouldn’t you be able to turn the van around? Cant think of a situation like that? Even so I did think about it and the solution is simple. All you need is an extender pole, 50cm long with a 90degree bend at each end. The aerial then fixes to the end of that and can turn through 360 degrees. The free top in the way shouldn’t cause a problem after all the aerial is designed to be fitted in a loft and I the signal can get through heavy slate and timber I don’t think it will have much trouble with a plastic free top.

Dan