Elddis TV aerial

[Grahamh]

What to do with this useless TV aerial? How can I test the aerial? Should I just buy a mast aerial and fix it to the jockey wheel? Don't want to put a hole in the roof and where the present aerial is there is not enough room under it to put a directional aerial in. Sometimes the Elddis whip aerial works and most times it does not. Don't watch enough TV to warrant the expense of a sat dish but would like the option to watch occasionally. At the last site we visited there was a caravan with the mast attached to the side with pads which looked ok.

 

[Martin24]

When we had a useless arial on the van we got a mast one and had the side pads and brackets as we found that way was easier than the jockey wheel brackets that we initially had. Luckily the van one now is okay so less to carry.

 

[Woodentop]

What to do with this useless TV aerial? How can I test the aerial? Should I just buy a mast aerial and fix it to the jockey wheel? Don't want to put a hole in the roof and where the present aerial is there is not enough room under it to put a directional aerial in. Sometimes the Elddis whip aerial works and most times it does not. Don't watch enough TV to warrant the expense of a sat dish but would like the option to watch occasionally. At the last site we visited there was a caravan with the mast attached to the side with pads which looked ok.

Since cost seems to be an issue, a pole attached to the jockey with a log periodic aerial on top is the easiest solution - shouldn't cost more than £20 the lot (including cable.)

Otherwise satellite is the next best solution. I will explain all to the OP if he wishes to PM me..

 

[Raywood]

Before we bought a caravan with a fitted aerial we had one that stuck to the side of the caravan with rubber suckers. If you can still find one I think that would be the cheapest option.

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

Before we bought a caravan with a fitted aerial we had one that stuck to the side of the caravan with rubber suckers. If you can still find one I think that would be the cheapest option.

We had one on an older caravan which had 'hooks' that clamped into the awning rail at the top and the window hinge rail for the lower fitting. Very quick fit and removal.

See here

 

[Grahamh]

I did see that plus there is a clamp that attaches to the awning rail. Don't necessarily want the cheapest option but don't want to cut another hole in the van and where the present aerial is doesn't have room beneath it to put a directional aerial which you manoeuvre from the inside. I am told that omnidirectional aerials are not very good. Active log periodic seems the best option. I already have a sat dish and freesat box but it's a palaver to set up each time and, like I said we don't watch a lot of TV.

 

[Raywood]

We have had the omnidirectional aerial before and they do work well although the latest directional ones are far better. You will sometimes get more than one list of channels with the omnidirectional ones where you are on the boundary between transmitters and I have even had three sets on one site but it is fairly easy to work out the best reception from them.

 

[waffler]

The aerial probably only works when the signal is vertically polarised. The main transmitters are horizontally polarised and your aerial theoretically works by using the roof in some way. The only time yours will be OK is when there is a small local transmitter which are usually vertically polarised. We had the same problem and solved the problem by installing a Status directional. (I did a lot of research on this topic because we couldn't get a picture on a number of sites where we could see the transmitter but did with an old indoor aerial!,,)

 

[Woodentop]

The aerial probably only works when the signal is vertically polarised. The main transmitters are horizontally polarised and your aerial theoretically works by using the roof in some way. The only time yours will be OK is when there is a small local transmitter which are usually vertically polarised. We had the same problem and solved the problem by installing a Status directional. (I did a lot of research on this topic because we couldn't get a picture on a number of sites where we could see the transmitter but did with an old indoor aerial!,,)

More often than not failure of the TV tuning system to select a local transmitter is down to the (stupid one could argue) way that TVs self tune. They always start at the lowest channel and tune upwards so may find a weaker signal in lower channels than a stronger signal in higher channels. On up-to-date TVs it should select the strongest signal but as caravan aerials have a high gain amp on them the amp could be overloaded by the strong local signal enough that it is corrupted and the TV cannot decode it.

There are two solutions to this paradox: if you prefer to use auto tuning (or indeed your TV does not have manual tuning) then get a variable attenuator from Screwfix and tune with the attenuator at maximum and repeat using slightly less attenuation each time until your TV gets a 'valid' set of channels, then remove the attenuator. The preferred method is to do some homework before you leave home.

Go to www.wolfbane.com and enter the postcode of where you are going. This will show you the strongest transmitter serving that location, its direction, its polarity, and the channels that it uses. When you get to site first do an auto tune with no aerial connected to wipe the existing memory, then do a manual tune using the channels indicated by Wolfbane. Don't bother with the channels marked as PSB3 or Com 7 or Com 8 unless your TV has a Freeview HD tuner.

Incidently it does not follow that because you can see a tower with a white candle on the top it is a TV transmitter. Some FM radio transmitters use white candles as well!