Category Archives: Blog


New TV aerial Chelmsford Essex www.andysaeriasl.com

Posted by in Blog | July 6, 2014

New TV aerial Chelmsford Essex www.andysaeriasl.com

New Tv Aerial Chelmsford Essex Www.andysaeriasl.com

We were luckily enough to be called out to the White Hart Inn Little Waltham Chelmsford, to install a new TV aerial, when we arrived we were greeted by friendly faces and provide us with HOT drinks instantly.  We looked at where the TV was situated and looked at running a new TV aerial coax lead to the TV.  We decided to install the TV aerial on the front stack as it was a nice square solid chimney stack, with easy access for us.  We decided to lash the stack, and use an extra-large heavy duty 18” chimney cradle, to support the aerial & mast, spreading the load of the aerial mast across 6 brick courses of the chimney stack, making the installation incredibly strong for years and years to come.  We took some test reading for signal quality & signal strength and we decided to use an 8ft 1” ½ alloy mast for height and a Fracarro log-period w/b aerial which is of course our favourite TV aerial of choice.  The signal was good but I would have liked a few dB more, if you look at the picture of the TV aerial I have left a loop in the aerial coax cable for a masthead pre-amp or ready to receive a 2/4 or 6way masthead for future points.  I did not want to sell my customers a masthead unnecessary, but left the loop in the coax cable so it could be added easily at a future date if need be.

New TV aerial Chelmsford Essex www.andysaeriasl.com

We fixed the Fracarro log-periodic w/b aerial to the aerial mast and neatly taped it down to the bottom (appearance is everything!) and took it up to the chimney and electronically aligned the aerial, squeezing every DB possible.  We used the remainder of the lashing wire to pin the aerial coax cable down the roof keeping it neat, straight and secure preventing it moving causing damage to the cable. Once we had the cable down to the guttering we used the down pipe to transport the cable to the floor without being seen, and then we only had a few inches to go across the brickwork to our entry point.  Once inside we ran our cable to the TV and fitted a coax plug and connected it to the TV.  We re-tuned our customer’s TV and admired the pictures.

The food in the restaurant looked so good we ordered some, and sat down and enjoyed every mouthful!  We can defiantly recommend the food there it was fantastic!

We packed away our kit and loaded our ladders on the van and left well fed Thank You.

Go to our Services page  http://andysaerial.wpengine.com/services/

New Satellite Dish www.andysaerials.com

Posted by in Blog | May 26, 2014

New Satellite Dish www.andysaerials.com

We were called and asked if we could fit a new satellite dish to static caravan, which was being used as temporary accommodation while project managing another building, and why not have the little luxuries such as Sky TV?  When we arrived we looked for south with our compass and we were horrified to see the conifer hedge and house behind obstructing getting a clear line of site from our new satellite dish installation.  We assembled a zone 1 sky mini dish and temporary fitted it to an 8ft 1” ½ alloy mast to see if we could get a satellite signal and when I raised the 8ft mast our meter bleeped, indicating we had a lock on the satellite. We took the zone 1 mini dish off of the 8ft mast and attached it to a 12ft 2”mast giving us a further 4ft of height, which we knew was needed to get the satellite dish aligned.  Sure enough we once aging locked our dish on the satellite and now needed to secure the mast to support the new satellite dish.

New Satellite Dish www.andysaerials.com

With the 12ft aluminium mast having a 2” diameter we decided we could use the corner of the wooded stairs up to the front door, it would not be in the way there, reasonably secure and we would be able to run the new satellite dish cable in to the sitting room, and to the TV without a problem and not creating any trip hazards.  We braced the stair hand rail with angle iron, giving the satellite dish further support and used an assortment of cable ties to pull the satellite and mast tight into the corner of the stairs; although the dish would only be temporary we wanted to ensure our customer would receive a good satellite signal for the duration of their stay.

New Satellite Dish www.andysaerials.com

We had trouble adjusting the vertical alignment of the satellite dish but persistence always pays, we were very happy with the readings of the satellite meter and locked off the satellite dish and started neatly taping the satellite twin cable down the 12ft mast.  We were able to cable under the stairs and under the static caravan to where the TV and satellite receiver we located, as the twin satellite cable was coming up from under the static caravan through the floor we had no worries of water issues from the cable.  We connected our dish to our customer’s satellite receiver and checked the signal using the receiver’s signal strength menu, both strength and quality of the new satellite dish was fantastic.  As always happy customers of www.andysaerials.com.

 

TV Aerial Installer Essex http://andysaerial.wpengine.com

Posted by in Blog | May 26, 2014

TV Aerial Installer Essex

At long last the sun and hot weather is with us, on Tuesday we had a new TV aerial install along with a Sky dish installation, to a newly built house.  All part of being a TV aerial installer Essex.  When we arrived we chatted to our customer’s and listened to their needs, and gave some options and prices.  We noticed upon arrival our customer’s house had a false chimney stack, it looked real but was made of fiberglass, so we could not use it, luckily our customer’s house was detached and had a incredibly high gable end wall, which we suggested fixing the new TV aerials and satellite dish to, which our customer was happy for us to do.  We fetched our large set of ladders from the van and set them up at the top of our customer’s gable end wall.  We used a small pair of T&K wall brackets as they provide outstanding support for the new TV aerial and satellite dish, a great choice of any TV aerial installer Essex.

TV Aerial Installer Essex

New satellite installation www.andysaerials.com Essex

Posted by in Blog | April 20, 2014

New satellite installation www.andysaerials.com Essex

 

 

We are proud to work alongside a bespoke builder who like us puts a lot of effort into their work, dotting their I’s and t’s knowing getting all the little things perfect make a huge difference on the big picture.  We have previously designed a new satellite installation using an 80cm satellite dish and a quattro L.N.B supplies all sub-bands at once from 4outputs Vertical High, Vertical Low, Horizontal High and Horizontal Low.  We ran the 4 satellite dish cables from the L.N.B into our launch room along with our aerial feed coax cable.  We needed to supply 6 Sky+HD satellite receiver boxes each taking two feeds of the satellite switch, 6×2 =12 and me being me I fitted a 16way switch to ensure it was more future proof, offering a further 4 free connection for any future connection.  We fitted our 16way satellite switch high in the launch room giving easy access to the outlet ports, for us to connect the satellite Sky box’s to.  As the builder had ran H.D.M.I cables and cat6 throughout the house we had no need to combine our aerial into the satellite switch, so we fitted and independent 12v 100m/a remote power supply to power the aerials ‘s masthead pre-amp and then fed a 6way distribution amplifier from the power supply unit.

New satellite installation www.andysaerials.com Essex

The idea is each Sky box will have its own aerial feed and each room feed with the H.D.M.I will also have a coax cable fed from the Sky box to the TV point powering a Sky-eye to remote the Sky box, while connected by H.D.M.I providing outstanding high definition pictures.  As the aerial is connected to each Sky box the Sky-eye has 2 purposes:  1) it serves as a remote to operate the Sky+HD box and 2) it is carrying all the Free-View channels for the TV’s digital tuner.  Install a N.A.S. drive and each and every room has a complete cinema at the fingertips of the Remote control, add Sonos or apple and that’s all your music needs taken care of too.  The system is extremely comprehensive but incredibly easy for the user to use.

New satellite installation www.andysaerials.com Essex

Of all the satellite installations we have installed this particular dish is my favourite and we are incredibly proud to say we installed it.  Not only is the dish hidden but everything is 100% perfect!  Our large chimney cradles as 100% along with each of the lashing wires, completely straight and level giving a symmetrical appearance, looking extremely professional!

Flat Screen TV Wall mounting www.andysaerials.com

Posted by in Blog | April 20, 2014

Flat Screen TV Wall mounting www.andysaerials.com              

Our 1st call Thursday morning was for a flat screen TV wall mounting, we had previously looked at the job the week before, and I gave myself a few days to think about the installation, as there was central heating radiator pipes in the wall along with electricity, and I wanted to allocate the job a generous time frame so we could carefully get the TV wall bracket up and hung, checking every fixing for pipes and cables.  It is far better to spend time carefully getting a hole for a fixing than it is just drilling and hoping.  As the TV was a 32” we only needed to use a small flat screen TV wall mounting bracket, and we decided 8 fixings would be perfect, taking into account the central heating radiator below.  I carefully started to make the holes for the fixing and out of the 8 there was only 1, I was not happy with and did not proceed, we re-marked the wall using the TV wall mounting bracket and selected another fixing location for the 8th fixing.

Flat Screen TV Wall mounting www.andysaerials.com

Once we had our TV wall bracket firmly fixed to our customer’s wall we need to run a cable from our customer’s Sky+ HD box to our new point, which was fairly easy as we disconnected the twin satellite feed cable form the Sky box and pushed the cable back out.  We then drilled the 10mm hole with a 14mm drill bit making the existing satellite cable entry point 4mm larger to accommodate our uplink feed cable to our new TV.  We ran our cable alongside the satellite dish feed cable, keeping the appearance of the cable neat and tidy, effectively one cable visible.  Once we had our new cable into our customer’s loft all we had to do was to run it down the inside of our customer’s internal wall.

New TV Aerial Ingatestone Essex www.andysaerials.com

Posted by in Blog | April 20, 2014

New TV Aerial Ingatestone Essex www.andysaerials.com

We love local work and you can’t better than on your doorstep; as our first call of the day is for a new TV aerial Ingatestone Essex.  We have work for our customer before and appreciate the repeat work, a new build and having previously discussed the system requirements we knew exactly what we were to do.  We fitted a small pair (12”) of T&K wall brackets on the gable end of our customer’s property and delighted to have scaffolding to access the gable end.  We took some test reading with our test aerial and we were delighted with our signal reading, both signal strength and signal quality.  We assembled our favourite Fracarro log-periodic w/b aerial and mounted it to an 8ft 1” ½ alloy mast, ready to drop in the T&K wall brackets.  We were not too happy with the line of sight, due to trees, but as we had already taken signal readings, we knew the signal would be perfect.  Once we had electronically aligned the new TV aerial we tightened the large U’ bolts securing the TV aerial mast to the wall brackets.  The builder / sparks had already run high quality TV coaxial (wf100) cable and all we had to do was to run the cable up the aerial mast and connect the cable to our aerial, leaving no joins and a neat and tidy cable run.

New TV Aerial www.andysaerials.com

Posted by in Blog | April 1, 2014

  New TV Aerial www.andysaerials.com

At last were starting to think the summer has begun, and as you will see from the pictures they are taken with a beautiful blue sky background.  We have been involved with one of our customers for a new TV aerial system with a satellite dish to run several Sky boxes.  We discussed various options and our customer wanted a perfect Free-View signal and a 16way multi satellite switch fitting so they could use more than one Sky+ HD boxes and have the choice of viewing free-view if they so wished.  We need to fix an 80cm satellite dish for this so after looking at the available line of sight from our customer’s chimney stack, we decided the best location for the satellite dish would be the chimney stack.  I wanted to ensure both the new TV aerial and satellite dish would be secure and stay aligned for some years to come, so we used 2 x heavy duty chimney cradles each taking up 5 brick courses of the chimney stack, 10 brick courses in total, providing fantastic support for the 12ft 2” alloy mast.  We need to use a 12ft mast so we could spread the load of the new TV aerial and satellite dish through the chimney stack, probable 4ft or so was chimney height and the remaining 8ft was above the chimney stack, providing the necessary height for the new TV aerial and allowing us to mount the 80cm satellite dish between the 2 heavy duty large chimney cradles, providing an incredibly secure fix for our customer’s satellite dish.

New Aerial Installation Essex www.andysaerials.com

Posted by in Blog | March 15, 2014

New Aerial Installation Essex www.andysaerials.com

 

 

 

 

 

New Aerial Installation Essex www.andysaerials.com

Friday the 14th and what a peach of a day, blue sky and the sun is finally shining through.  The view from our customer’s roof was absolutely spectacular, so good I took a picture for my blog as the sun was shining on the church and the view was simply stunning.  We were there for a new aerial installation, and we soon realised our roof climber would not be long enough for our customer’s huge roof.  Plan B was to put our ladders on top of the small dormer and between two of us manhandle our roof climber on the roof for us to get to the chimney stack.  We took some signal readings as we were not too sure of the signal the surrounding properties had massive masts, pre-amps and one property had two pre-maps cascaded.  We took up a Fracarro log-periodic and took some signal readings using our trusted spectrum analyser and we were very surprized and pleased to see that Sand Heath was coming in perfectly, no need for any amplification at all.

New Aerial Essex www.andysaerials.com

Posted by in Blog | March 15, 2014

New Aerial Harlow Essex Www.andysaerials.com

New Aerial Essex www.andysaerials.com

Hope you all like the picture?  Never a dull moment installing aerials & satellites, you have a different view every time, and we can never guess what we will see next.  But these guys just made a perfect picture!  If you look closely at the large house beneath you will have a good idea just how high these guys actually are.  I’m guessing at that height if things go wrong game over!  We were called by our customer for a new aerial installation Harlow Essex and we were incredibly pleased to see the house with scaffolding all the way to the gable end where we wanted to attach our new aerial.  The sun was breaking through, getting warmer and we had scaffolding swish!

New Aerial Essex www.andysaerials.com

We took up a Fracarro w/b log-periodic and using our spectrum analyser we rotated the aerials 360 degrees looking at all the available signals in Harlow.  The London signal was hideous, spiked and all over the place, Anglia was a no go but good old Sandy Heath Beds & Cambridge was a winner winner chicken dinner!  Now having a workable signal we neatly taped down the aerial coax cable to the 8ft 1” ½ alloy mast and fitted a small pair of T&K wall brackets, 6 brick courses down from the top of our customer’s gable end, ensuring the fixings will last for years and years to come, and withstanding the wild and windy winters we are now experiencing.

New aerial installation Ingatestone www.andysaerials.com

Posted by in Blog | March 14, 2014

New aerial installation Ingatestone www.andysaerials.com

New Aerial Installation Ingatestone Www.andysaerials.com New Aerial Installation Ingatestone Www.andysaerials.com Photo

Friday morning 1st call a new aerial installation Ingatestone, on my doorstep and not too far to travel perfect.  When we arrived we were delighted to see a new build with scaffolding all the way to the chimney stack.  Knowing the signal strengths of Ingatestone we made up a Fracarro w/b log-periodic and took up a heavy duty large 5 brick course chimney cradle, the idea was to get the aerial up and aligned and then mount a zone 1 Sky mini dish on our 8ft 1” ½ alloy mast but the roof in front had a hip and the dish had to go a little higher than I originally wanted.  I like my dishes to sit on the chimney cradle, giving extra strength and support to the dish, keeping it grabbing every dB our meter has squeezed out of it, but given the choice of putting the aerial and dish on the front of the stack and having the dish low, or raising the dish slightly and having the installation at the back of the stack, we decided the back of the stack was best.