Neaerialinstallation Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com

 Wednesday morning first call for a new aerial installation Chelmsford Essex, nice and local and traffic not too bad, just wish the sun would shine.  I arrived at my customer’s house and looked at their aerial system and I was horrified to see such a poor installation, by the company who installed the aerial a couple of years ago.  Firstly the chimney cradle kit was one of those ratchet strap devices for those who can not lash a stack, it was thrown on and the chimney cradle did not fit the chimney stack.  The plastic strap went up the chimney stack by 3ft as opposed to being level, and was tightened around the cement course and not the brick course causing unnecessary damage to the chimney stack.  The ¾ mast was steel and a contract 10 element aerial.  The aerial coax cable was thrown across a flat roof and dangled down the side of the house.  I counted only 1 tack securing the aerial cable.  Just to add insult to injury the aerial cable was not one piece and had a join in, and no effort had been made to seal it, knowing it would let water in.

New aerial installation Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com

As the stack had been damaged by the previous aerial installation I decided to put my aerial on the gable end nearest to the sitting room, I disused this with my customers who were happy for me to go ahead and fit the aerial to the gable end.  I fitted T&K wall brackets and though I would make up a Blake DMX5 aerial and take some signal strength reading as did not want to burden the house with a DMX10 if it was not needed.  The gable end did not have enough brick courses for me to be able to spread out the brackets as I would have liked due to a window.  The signal was good and I was pleased I was able to go with the smaller aerial and keep the load on my brackets minimal.  I took down the Blake DMX5 and neatly taped the aerial coax to my 1” ½ alloy mast.  I once again lowered the aerial into the T&K wall brackets and aligned the aerial to Anglia (Sudbury), when I had secured the aerial I fitted a mast head pre-amp to guarantee perfect signal.  Using a Televe`s w/b mast head I turned down the gain ensuring no noise would interfere with my lovely signal.

New aerial installation Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com

I made a start on tacking my aerial coax cable along the gable end and I was soon to learn the cement was poor so I unpicked what I had tacked and changed route to the soffit board which looked much neater as you couldn’t see it conspicuous by its absence.  Once I had turned from the gable end to the side of the house I quickly tacked along and then run the cable to the ground, I hammered my tacks through the bricks as apposed the brick courses knowing it would never come out, good and secure.  I re-used the hole the previous cable entered the house, only this time creating a rain loop and sealing the hole!

New aerial installation Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com

Lucky Andy my customer had prepared me lunch, and I have to say after coming in from the cold hot food was very much appreciated.  I fitted an Antiference 12v 100m/a remote power unit to supply my Televe`s mast head pre-amp and fitted a new fly lead between the power supply unit and my customer’s PVR.  I re-tuned the PVR and then the telly; I started to pack away and clear up the mess left from taking down3 disused aerials which were waiting to fall down.  Neatly broken down the all fitted into the box which my Blake aerial came in.

New aerial installation Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com

After putting my ladder and kit back on the van, I wrote out the agreed bill and thanked a smashing couple for looking after me so well with a fantastic lunch.  Next job Gallywood.