Status aerial

[davedart]

Hi all
Just got a new to us caravan. It has a status 315 aerial. It will not pick up a signal at all. Spoke to a caravan dealer and he said that because it is old (purple writing) it will not pick up a digital signal. Is this true.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Damian]

The dealer does not know what he is talking about !
There is NO difference in the type of aerial needed to pick up digital signals as opposed to analogue signals.

The first thing I am assuming you have done is retune your television ? You have to do this every time you change location, but many people do not realise this.
If that fails to cure the problem then you need to fault find.
Have you got power to the aerial power pack?
If you have, then most likely there is a fault with the power pack or with the aerial connection.

However, the 315 was never a very good aerial in the first place as it is omnidirectional and you need to be in a very good signal area to get anything.

Rather than paying out lots of money for a new Status, pop down to Screwfix or B&Q and get a cheap directional aerial, a couple of clamps to clamp it to your jockey wheel and a lead into the van.

 

[davedart]

Cheers Damian
I had a status on my older van (not sure which one) and worked fine until recently so I got a high gain aerial and pole for the jockey wheel that worked fine.
The wife doesn't want to carry the big aerial with us.
I have power to the booster and have checked all the connections. I take it that its had it.
What are the new extendable status aerials like. Are they easy to fit.

 

[swpostie]

I've got a Status omni-directional aerial and it's absolutely dreadful!

It's almost always refused to receive a signal and has never produced a watchable picture.

this website will tell you why they're bad and what you should use instead:

http://www.aerialsandtv.com/touringaerials.html
I ordered the aerial they recommended and now have a cracking picture!

 

[Damian]

The 5 series aerials are really good as you can turn them to get the best signal , but you need the room inside the van to accomodate the aerial pole, so you need, preferably,the pole to come into the wardrobe or with some you can get shorter pole to fit inside a cupboard.
http://www.visionplus.co.uk/shop/the-new-status-580-directional-tv-radio-antenna-system.html

Location will depend on where your current aerial is and whether you can utilise the current hole through the roof, enlarging it to accommodate the new pole, or whether you need to cut a new one.
When removing the old aerial you can get a blanking plate to cover the original hole and screw locations, use a good bead of soudall fixall to seal the blanking plate to the roof.

 

[JTQ]

As you have the one with Purple writing it works differently to those with red writing. Yours has the amplifier in the aerial itself, the red ones it is placed in the "box". This means that with your unit you can't replace the amplifier box with a newer version either from Status or other suppliers, should you have an amplifier fault.
Therefore if the unit is defective, you have little option but to replace it, ideally with something that can perform better.