Yearly Archives: 2013


New TV Aerial Chelmsford www.andysaerials.com

Posted by in Blog | December 29, 2013

New TV Aerial Chelmsford www.andysaerials.com

After sorting some of my pictures, I came across this one, and thought what a smashing picture and how long before summer arrives here with its lovely warmth and light and long days.  I think the picture was taken in Chelmsford where we fitted a new TV aerial and satellite dish.  The dish had to be high up the mast due to a large tree blocking the satellite signal, so on my sturdy 1” ½ alloy mast it was. Looking at the picture I can see the chimney stack was big enough to accommodate the large 5 brick course chimney cradle, which gives heavy duty support to the aerial for years and years to come.  Cheap isn’t the best way forward and in the long term spending a few extra quid on heavy duty bracket pays dividends as the aerial stay where it is fitted and with stands our weather.  A lot of aerial company’s still use the cheap and cheerful 6” chimney cradle which only takes up 2 brick courses of the chimney stack and with a 6ft steel pole fitted with an aerial at the top acting as a weight and the pole acting as a lever, it is guaranteed to damage the chimney stack as time goes on wearing the bricks away until the aerial comes down.  Which is why I choose to use heavy duty brackets and know I have done everything I can for my customers?

New TV Aerial Chelmsford www.andysaerials.com

I always use aluminium masts for 3 reasons:  1) they look nicer than steel, and they become a part of our customer’s properties.  2) Aluminium mast are lighter in weight and minimise weight to the chimney cradle and chimney stack.  3) Aluminium masts are lighter for us to carry up to the roof, why would we use anything else?  The aerial in the picture is a Fracarro Log-Periodic w/b aerial which is my favourite choice of Aerials, as its construction and performance is fantastic!

Fracarro code 216150

Band UHF

Channel Europe E21-E69

Technical characteristics

Bandwidth MHz 470 – 862

Maximum gain dBi 11.5

Front to back ratio dB 36

Return loss dB – 15

Beamwidth (-3dB) ° +/- 25

Impedance Ohm 75

Mechanical characteristics

Dimensions (L x W) cm 115.5 x 86

Maximum mast Ø mm 60

Wind load at 120 Km/h (720 N/m2) kg (N) 3.0 (29.43 )

Connector Type F

Accessories

Horizontal polarisation Included

Horizontal polarisation with tilt adj. PV10

Vertical polarisation Included

Vertical polarisation with tilt adj. PV10

Auxiliary boom N/A

 

FREQUENCY PERFORMANCE:

Gain:

New Tv Aerial Chelmsford Www.andysaerials.com

 

DIRECTIVITY:

New Tv Aerial Chelmsford Www.andysaerials.com

 The above information is one of the many reasons I choose to use Fracarro Log-periodic aerial, all aerials have a set gain and they all have dips, the Fracarro has a good constant gain, which in my opinion is a great aerial for my customers, and with its superior waterproofing we happy to guarantee it for 5years.

New TV Aerial Chelmsford www.andysaerials.com

We still come across some of our customers who believe they need and ultra-high gain aerial and insist on having a monster put up when they are in a good signal area; too much signal can be as much of a pain as to little.  If the signal requires a little lift a masthead pre-amp is our choice rather than heading down the 16ft 2” mast for height and an ultra-high gain aerial, but every engineer has different methods of getting signal.

 

Aerial Repairs www.andysaerials.com

Posted by in Blog | December 29, 2013

Aerial Repairs www.andysaerials.com

   I was called out yesterday by one of my customers who I have worked for in the past and look after their TV system.  They had suffered a massive power surge and lost their system all 3 sky boxes were not working and the aerial for free-view was down too.  The type of system my customer has is not something  I generally get involved with, but of the summer of 2012 I had some time and took on the challenge of getting it working as it did not function very well,  and the company who installed it did not appear to want to return.  As a rule I do not work with sound and do not wish to but I enjoyed connecting it up and getting the TV’s around the house working.  It took my hours alone getting all the cables the same length and fitting connections to them and making it possible to wheel out the cabinet which houses the equipment so cables can be accessed.   With the heat generated by the unit air-con would be a good idea keeping the environment temperature correct.  I never understand why installers choose to install a system in the middle of the house where running new cables (replacement or additional) is extremely difficult or near impossible as the system is housed in the middle of the house, not by an external wall where entry and exit of anything additional or any replacement cables can be done easily.

Aerial Repairs www.andysaerials.com

TV Aerial Fitter Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com

Posted by in Blog | December 26, 2013

TV Aerial Fitter Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com

Tv Aerial Fitter Chelmsford Essex Www.andysaerials.com

It’s getting close to Christmas and everyone wants the perfect picture on their TV’s, our 2nd call of the day was for a pair of aerials to be fitted to a property in Chelmsford Essex where our customers wanted a TV aerial for London and another for Anglia.  Why just have one?  We had quoted our customer the week before and they booked us in while we quoting to get it done for the following week.  We removed their old aerial system and re-lashed their stack with our favourite heavy duty chimney cradle taking up 5 brick courses of the chimney stack.

New Aerial Installation Writtle www.andysaerials.com

Posted by in Blog | December 4, 2013

New Aerial Installation Hatfield Broad Oak Www.andysaerials.com

New Aerial Installation Writtle www.andysaerials.com

Saturday morning and were off to Hatfield Broad oak for a new aerial installation, when we arrived we were met by our customer who wanted an aerial fitting to their cottage, but keeping discreet to keeping their beautiful cottage looking natural and without aerial cables etc. on display.  Our first challenge was the thatched roof, over the past 19years of me installing aerials to various properties I knew I could extend my triple ladders up to the chimney stack and get to it without treading on the thatched roof, which our customer was very happy about.  We took some test reading with our test aerial connected to our spectrum analyser, and we were happy to use a log-periodic w/b aerial.  We at that time believed the aerial was only feeding one point so having taken signal reading I decided to fit a 10db masthead pre-amp to ensure our customers received a perfect signal.

New Digital TV Aerial www.andysaerials.com Essex

Posted by in Blog | November 28, 2013

New Digital TV Aerial www.andysaerials.com Essex

Wednesday afternoon and we are off to Hutton Brentwood Essex for a new digital TV aerial installation.  Our customer’s property is a bungalow and their old TV aerial has lost channels and other channels are breaking up making their TV viewing frustrating.  When we climbed up the roof of the property to take some test reading with our testing digital TV aerial we were happy with the signal form Sudbury Anglia but was concerned with the condition of our customer’s chimney stack, so we decided the best option was to lash the chimney stack at the bottom of the chimney stack as the top half did not look to clever, we advised our customer of the condition of their chimney stack and they were already aware of it, and happy for us to fit their new digital TV aerial lower down the chimney offering a safer option and not disturbing the top half.

New Digital Tv Aerial Www.andysaerials.com Essex

New Digital TV Aerial www.andysaerials.com Essex

With the chimney stack in mind we decided to use a light weight log-periodic digital TV aerial, although the signal results from the signal test indicated we should use an ultra high gain aerial, such as my favourite Antiference X

Satellite dish relocation www.andysaerialscom Essex

Posted by in Blog | November 18, 2013

Satellite dish relocation www.andysaerialscom Essex

Satellite Dish Relocation Www.andysaerialscom Essex

Satellite dish relocation is very common when properties are having an extension built, either the scaffolding is blocking the line of sight of the satellite dish or the new extension is blocking the line of sight of either the property where the satellite dish is located or the neighbour’s dish.

Satellite dish relocation www.andysaerialscom Essex

Easiest solution is to temporary re-site the dish, and the scaffolding makes the perfect fix.  Fitting a pole mount to the dish allows the dish to be securely fixed to the scaffolding often offering a good line of sight for a good signal and trouble free pictures due to the added height of the scaffolding.  If the dish had originally been installed by Sky, the dish would have been installed low level and have other buildings, trees etc., shading the signal.  Where possible the chimney stack is the best site to locate the satellite dish, giving maximum chance of a quality satellite signal, which can only improve your chance of a keeping your favourite channels trouble free.  We move dishes to the scaffolding and when the building work has finished we return to the property and either re-locate the dish back to its original place or relocate the dish to the best possible position for receiving a signal.  It’s always nice to return to our customers and see the building work finished a before and after type thing, we always offer a return deal with a new dish and L.N.B if the dish we have moved is extremely old.  The life expectancy of a L.N.B is 8yrs is as a rule.  Some shorter others a lot longer, we believe it’s a good opportunity for our customers to replace their old dish for a new one.

New TV Aerial Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com Essex

Posted by in Blog | November 18, 2013

New TV Aerial Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com Essex

New Tv Aerial Chelmsford Essex Www.andysaerials.com Essex

Essex Trading Standards 1st Approved Installer Andy’s Aerials Essex

Saturday afternoon and what a dream… New TV Aerial Chelmsford Essex with scaffolding up and around the chimney stack!  We had been to our customer’s property a couple of weeks before and cut down the old aerial read for the master builder to re-build the chimney stack.  I say master builder as I was extremely impressed with the quality of the finish perfect 10/10.  We strolled up the scaffolding and sat admiring the views comfortably from the scaffolding platform, no hurry at all we lashed the chimney stack with one of our heavy duty chimney cradles, as you can see from the picture attached it covers 5 brick courses of the chimney stack providing heavy duty support for our new TV aerial for years and years to come, which we think is the way forward for our customers.

New aerial installation Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com Essex

Posted by in Blog | November 9, 2013

New aerial installation Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com Essex

New Aerial Installation South Benfleet Essex Www.andysaerials.com Essex

A damp and cold Thursday morning and our 1st call of the day Chelmsford, when we arrived our customers had Sky in their sitting room which was working fine but the TV’s around the house was not getting good pictures, and suffering picture freezing and break-up. I connected my spectrum analyser and looked at the signal; I instantly knew their distribution amplifier was faulty as I could see the fault on my screen.  I went up into my customer’s loft and looked at their distribution amplifier which was feeding 6 TV points.  I disconnected the main aerial feed and took some signal readings with my spectrum analyser and was not too happy with the base signal my customer’s aerial was providing to the broken distribution amplifier.

New aerial installation Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com Essex

I reported back to my customer they needed their distribution amp replacing and stated the signal form the aerial could be improved, they told me their aerial was extremely old and was happy to have it replaced along with the distribution amp.  I climbed on their roof and cut-down their old aerial along with their chimney cradle, I took up a heavy duty 13” 5 brick course chimney cradle and lashed the chimney stack getting a fantastic fitting.  Knowing the signal strengths we put a log-periodic w/b aerial onto an 8ft 1” ½ alloy mast which will support the aerial for years and years to come.  I was delighted with the performance of the log aerial and run the new coax cable into my customer’s loft.

New aerial installation Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com Essex

Once in the loft we removed the old distribution amp and replaced it with one of our 8ways giving our customers a couple of extra ports, just in case they require extra TV points in the future.  We changed our customer’s coax ends going into our new amp from coax to F’ which is more of a modern connection, and easier to fit.  We checked our customer’s TV points and re-tuned their TV’s and in every case our customer was over the moon with the brilliant TV pictures.  We packed away and made sure we had cleared up every tac, cable tie and every piece of rubbish leaving our customer’s property how we found it when we arrived.  We wrote our bill and programmed the sat-nav to our next call.

Satellite dish installation Essex www.andysaerials.com Essex

Posted by in Blog | November 9, 2013

Satellite dish installation Essex www.andysaerials.com Essex

Satellite Dish Installation Essex Www.andysaerials.com Essex

Satellite dish installation Essex www.andysaerials.com Essex

 

 

One of the rare days when the sky was blue, and not a cloud to be seen and dry!  Our 1st call of the day was for a satellite dish installation and when we arrived our customer wanted a D.A.B aerial too.  Our customer’s chimney stack was ideal to access and lash but their neighbour’s aerial and lashing restricted the size of chimney bracket we could use. We went with a medium 8” chimney cradle and a 6ft 1” ¼ alloy mast to support the light weight contract aerial and zone 1 satellite mini dish.  We took up the D.A.B radio aerial and electronically aligned and went back down to the van to assemble a Sky mini dish.

New TV aerial Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com Essex

Posted by in Blog | November 9, 2013

New Tv Aerial Chelmsford Essex Www.andysaerials.com Essex

New TV aerial Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com Essex

Well after the recent storms and extremely high winds I’m sure we all know someone who has had their aerial blown down and either laying on their roofs or gardens waiting to fall.  When we arrived at this lovely building we set-up our ladders to get to the 1st climb and took a look at the twisted aerial mast supporting an aerial and a 60cm satellite dish.  The walls were rendered and not surprizing the fitted T&K wall brackets were fitted to the cement course and not the bricks.  One of the T&K wall brackets had been ripped out of the wall and the other although damaged prevented the aerial and satellite crashing down.