Choosing the right Antenna for the Job

Choosing the correct antenna for your area is one of the most important decisions of getting great results for your television system. Matchmaster has a full range of Antennas to help you receive television pictures for Analogue and Digital TV. Before you make a selection there are some basics about TV receiving antennas you need to know.

Antenna Basics

It may come as no surprise that outdoors antennas are much better than indoor antennas for providing the best results; however outdoor antennas come in a number of different types. We identify types of antennas in “Bands”, there are a number of bands that cover Television Services in Australia. Bands are broken into two segments, the VHF and UHF band

VHF segment

• Band I cover channels 0 to 2
  
• Band II cover channels 3 to 5A
  
• Band III cover channels 6 to 12
  
• Multichannel VHF – Antennas for channels 0 to 12

UHF segment

• Band IV cover channels 21 to 35
  
• Band V cover channels 36 to 69
  
• Band IV/ V cover channels 21 to 69

Another Factor to be considered is the “Polarity” of the Antenna, the antenna can be horizontal/flat to the ground or perpendicular/verticle to the ground depending on the orientation of the TV transmitters. In almost all capital cities the polarity is horizontal as displayed in this picture.

Ghosting or blurry pictures is caused by the antenna receiving two or more signals that are not taking the same time to arrive to your antenna, this is called Multipathing. To Minimise Ghosting you can move your antenna location and/or use a Anti-Ghosting antenna. Matchmaster has a number of antennas that will reduce ghosting.

Location, Location, Location

Just like real estate choosing the best location on your roof will make an incredible difference to picture clarity and quality. Choosing your location will depend on the direction of your local TV stations and minimizing obstructions, you want to achieve a line of sight situation is possible as this will result in the best chance of receiving the strongest and clearest pictures. You will also want to consider the mount type and this depends on the type of house construction and your skill level. We will talk more about mounts latter in this article. To find your TV transmitters you go to the ACMA Web site. Use this link and insert your postcode to find out your local stations

Choosing the Mount

There are many types of mounts available for you to choose from, however one of the simplest mounts is the “J” mount or sometimes referred to as the “hockey stick” pictured left can be used on most house construction types.

What is the best Cable to use?

In today’s modern homes the most common cable is coaxial cable, the type used for Television is different from other coaxial cables so you need to be careful and ask for the right type of cable.

For a better understanding of where the cable is used and a overview of the installation the drawing below gives a good indication of a typical installation and its components,

note the dotted lines in the drawing depicting the cable run for a two outlet system.