Monthly Archives: July 2013


TalkTalk youview

Posted by in Blog | July 26, 2013

TalkTalk youview

We are finding more and more of our customers calling asking for a new aerial for TalkTalk youview, people are simply fed-up with Sky continually putting their prices up and monthly subscription costs are just not affordable with today’s high prices of everything.  The monthly Sky subscription is pretty much a holiday a year and now the new TalkTalk youview and BT youview pauses and records people no longer need to keep their Sky as there is a real alternative.  More and more is now coming through broadband, net-flicks, BBCi player Apple TV to name just a few, the need for Sky subscriptions is slipping away.  Youview whether TalkTalk or BT is fantastic and although you still need broadband your good of TV aerial provides all the signals for the channels.

TalkTalk youview

As many of my customers have been with Sky for so long they have not replaced their TV aerial for some time and when changing over to either BT youview or TalkTalk youview they quickly discover they either do not have a TV aerial or their aerial has reached is life expectancy (25yrs to 40yrs) and in now in need of replacing or upgrading to deliver the digital signal to their new youview.  Obviously there is an initial charge for a new TV aerial installation but if you do the figures and divide the cost firstly by years and then months and again days it’s nothing!  Most houses (most) can receive a fantastic flawless free digital signal and yes there are still pockets of the country which struggle to get a full signal sadly, but don’t forget good old free-sat and free-sat free-time which is the youview in the free satellite range.

TalkTalk youview

How do I know if I can get youview through my aerial where I live?  Well contact a reputable aerial company and speak to them.  If its Essex or Herts you live in of course call andyaerials.com as we are always happy to visit you at your home and explain to you your options and give a price for either installing a new aerial system or simply modifying your aerial system to be able to receive the digital signal needed for your new Talk Talk youview.  With nearly 20years experience in the aerial and satellite industry we pretty much have a solution for virtually every customer’s viewing requirements.

Here is a link for TalkTalk youview

Here is a link for BT youview

And a link for free-sat free-time

We hope the information above is of use to you and don’t forget here at www.andysaeraisl.com we are always happy to help.

 

 

 

BT youview

Posted by in Blog | July 26, 2013

BT youview

Monday afternoon and the temperature is far too hot for us, 30degres on a roof is hard but knowing you have to go in to your customer’s loft isn’t something you look forward to!   When we arrive I spotted my customer’s aerial was a B Group aerial which was coming off of Sudbury Anglia, when the digital change over completed Sudbury moved from a B Group to a wide band transmitting 3 digital mux’s at the top band, my customer’s aerial could only see the ones in the B band and could not get the other half of the channels due to their aerial group.  After chatting to my customer I soon learned they wanted London, and I knew they needed a new aerial to receive London’s digital signal.

TV aerial installers Brentwood

Posted by in Blog | July 26, 2013

  TV aerial installers Brentwood

Yet another fantastic sunny day and of course far too hot to work in, our 3rd call of the day was to install a new TV aerial at Brentwood and we were hoping the house was in the shade, and of course when we arrived it was midday and baking hot, one slight bonus was the property was a bungalow which meant we did not have to carry our triple ladder only one section.  Not so!  Of course after taking on section of the ladder and having a look at the roof I soon realised the only place to install a new TV aerial was on the gable end, so back to the van for the remaining 2 sections.  I soon fixed the small T&K wall bracket to the end gable wall and was happy with the fix; I fitted the 2 large u` bolts ready for the aerial.

TV aerial installers Brentwood

We went back to the van and put a Facarro log-periodic w/b aerial on to an 8ft 1” ½ alloy mast and neatly taped it down 2/3 of the mast ready to drop into the T&K wall bracket.  At least we could run up the roof and drop the log into the brackets comfortably and tighten them up once I had electronically aligned the TV aerial.  The log as always performed very well, and I was pleased with the way it balanced all of the digital mux’s with good signal strength.  My customer now pleased with their new shinny aerial and mast asked I we could fit a satellite dish onto the aerial mast for their free-sat, “no problem at all” I replied and went to the van to make up a zone one mini dish.  We fixed the dish to the TV aerial mast and aligned it with my satellite meter and knowing I had a good line of sight I was extremely happy with the strength and quality readings of my satellite meter.

TV aerial installers Brentwood

 We connected the twin satellite cable to the quod L.N.B and ran the TV aerial cable on top of it keeping it nice and neat and just one line.  We cut up a lashing wire and made small strips u shape to put under every 3rd tile keeping our cable run neat and secure.  I drilled a 16mm hole just behind the sitting room TV and we brought the cables in there out of sight and by the TV and free-sat receiver, once we had put an aerial coax plug on to the aerial cable and 2f` plugs onto the satellite cable I re-tuned the TV and re-tuned the Humax HD free-sat receiver.  As always fantastic pictures which people expect with www.andysaerials.com  I was delighted.  My customer knew how to operate their AV equipment so we cleared up and packed away our tools and by now keen to get back to the air-con of the van.  Next call another new TV aerial install Brentwood Essex so not far to travel.

Tv Aerial Installers Brentwood Essex

Aerial replacement Essex

Posted by in Blog | July 23, 2013

Aerial replacement Essex

I thought I should write this blog on aerial replacement Essex http://andysaerial.wpengine.com/blog/ as I am replacing so many aerials hit by yesteryday’s thunder and lightening storms,  some of my customers are lucky enough to have had either a masthead distribution amplifier or a distribution amp, which in some cases has saved their cabling and TV’s.  Today I have replaced a few aerials which have been directly hit by last nights lightening storms, and have only replaced the aerial and amps,  fortunately my customer’s TV’s and PVR’s have survived the strike.  My customers who I have fitted 4g filters to, have been incredibly lucky as the 4g filter has taken the brunt of the strike and not gone any further, I have simply replace the the aerial and the 4g filter.

Aerial replacement Essex

If you are a previous customer of htttp://www.andysaerials.com , be assured we will make sure you have an urgent appointment in our diarys and get to you quickly.  In my 18years of being an aerial rigger and satellite engineer we have seen most lightening strikes, ranging from plaster being blown away from walls where the aerial cable has detonated inside the wall, and one lady who actually got struck while watching her TV in the comfort of her sitting room!  We carry on our vans virtually every replacement part our customers could need, which makes Andy’s Aerials service just one call, no running off for parts as our vans carry all our customer’s needs from a replacement aerial to a complete aerial system.

Aerial replacement Essex

we try extremely hard to reach our customer’s the same day offering same day service where possible, and to ensure we get out to all customer’s calls, we operate 7 days a week when required.  We never compromise quality for speed which we are incredibly proud of.  If you are searching the web due to your aerial system being struck by yesterdays lightening strike please call us on either 0800 77 97 047 or 07916 305 977 and we will try our best get to you the same day.  http://andysaerial.wpengine.com/blog/

Aerial Replacement Essex Www.andysaerials.com

 

Aerial Installer Shenfield Brentwood

Posted by in Blog | July 23, 2013

Aerial Installer Shenfield Brentwood  www.andysaerials.com

Aerial Installer Shenfield Brentwood Www.andysaerials.com

 

Yet   another scorching day, and I can’t wait for Autum and winter to hear my people say “we didn’t have a summer again this year”, just know people will complain.  Our customer who we had worked for some years ago, wanted a new aerial for their Mum, so we were happy to install a new TV aerial for them, we took some test readings first as we were a little unsure of the signals but once we got our ladders off and climbed up the roof with our test aerial we were delighted with the signal readings, both strength and quality. We decided to use the log-periodic w/b aerial, (Facarro) and for guaranteed strength and support we used an 8ft 1” ½ alloy mast.  We lashed the chimney stack using a heavy duty chimney cradle which spans 5 brick courses spreading the load of the aerial and mast around the chimney, we did not need the height for signal so we did not have to lash at the very top of the chimney stack.

Aerial Installer Shenfield Brentwood www.andysaerials.com

New TV Aerial Chelmsford

Posted by in Blog | July 21, 2013

New TV Aerial Chelmsford

Saturday afternoon and thankfully the weather has cooled off a little but very muggy and horrid to work in.  our last call was a new TV aerial in Chelmsford, when we arrived I chatted with our customers who wanted a new aerial and a couple of points, once I say they were subscribing to Sky I suggested putting an ir digital amp in the loft and distributing my digital aerial signal and the Sky signal so both Sky and Free-View could be viewed at any of the TV aerial points in the house.  We got out ladders off and set-up at the front of the house, roof climbing ladder had to be used to get to the chimney stack as the roof was slate, although you can walk on a slate roof it is not advised as it breaks easy and can be slippy under foot.  With the ladders in place I made my way to the chimney stack carrying a large chimney cradle and lashing kit while my collegue started assembling a log-periodic w/b aerial to an eight foot inch and a half alloy mast.

New TV Aerial Chelmsford

With the chimney now lashed with a substantial heavy duty chimney bracket we were read to insert the log-periodic w/b aerial, the log brought in all 6 digital mux’s evenly at 45db which is a lovely signal and we had no need for amplification.  We ran the aerial coax cable down to the sitting room Sky+ box and fitted a new fly-lead to the TV and reset the TV and re-tuned it admiring our flawless pictures.  We next ran an up-link cable from the Sky+ box to the loft where we fitted a remote powered Sky amp.  The loft was heavily insulated so it was time for suiting up and getting the face mask out as loft insulation is dusty and extremely itchy!

New TV Aerial Chelmsford

We ran our 1st cable from the loft to the kitchen and fitted a Sky eye so the Sky box could be remote controlled from the bedroom, we next moved our ladders to the gable end and neatly drilled a 10mm hole and ran our 2nd cable to the kitchen, again we fitted a Sky-eye so the kitchen TV could benefit from being able to remote control the Sky+ box in the sitting room.  We started packing away and we had a lot of kit out to put back on the van.  We cut the old aerial down into small pieces and bagged all the rubbish which had accumulated, mainly old aerial cable.  I wrote our bill and guarantee and thanked our customer’s for a constant supply of drinks and set off home eager to light the bbq!

New Tv Aerial Chelmsford Www.andysaerials.com New Tv Aerial Www.andysaerials.com Essex &Amp; Herts

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Aerial Installer Essex

Posted by in Blog | July 19, 2013

Aerial Installer Essex

If you think it’s been hot you don’t want to be working on a roof, the temperatures are too hot for an aerial installer in Essex.  We need to install an aerial and fit a zone 1 Sky mine dish for our customer earlier this week and we can’t say we wanted to install aerials or dishes in the scorching hot weather, however like everyone else we need to work, so after taking some test reading with our test aerial we were happy to put up a log w/b aerial and as there was no chimney we had no choice other than to choose T&K wall bracket as we intended siting the satellite dish on the aerial mast too.

Aerial Installation Chelmsford

Posted by in Blog | July 17, 2013

Aerial Installation Chelmsford

Wednesday 17th July and our 2nd call is an aerial installation Chelmsford, when we arrived the temperature was a blistering 30 degrees!  I chatted to my customer who wanted an Anglia signal for free-view and also wanted their dish upgrading from a single output L.N.B to a quod so they could use their PVR, (one cable is used for viewing while the other is used for recording).

Aerial Installation Chelmsford

We decided to use a log-periodic w/b aerial and if it did not perform in the way I wanted I would have changed it to the Antiference XG10 which is an ultra-high gain aerial drawing in more signal when you’re in need of every db.  As I had hoped the log was drawing in all 6 digital mux’s nice and even and in a nice format all at 30db.  With the log now aligned we fitted a low noise variable gain masthead pre-amp and using the spectrum analyser we set all the mux’s at 50db with little noise.

Aerial Installation Chelmsford

For fixings I used a small pair of T&K wall bracket providing double support to the aerial and property spreading the light load of the log-periodic aerial ensuring it will be there for years and years to come.  We used an 8ft 1” ½ alloy mast to guarantee support for the aerial, why use ¾” or 1” when a 1” ½ will give fantastic support?  Once we had the aerial installed we ran our cable at the top of the gable end by the roof line and came down the left hand side of the house where we had just changed the Sky mini dish and needed to run the twin cable (shotgun) to the sitting room TV.  We tacked down the twin cable every 6 brick courses as always and cable tied the aerial coax cable on top keeping our cable run as neat as possible, straight and clipped evenly.

Aerial Installation Chelmsford

There was already a 10mm hole where the old satellite cable came in so I ran a 16mm drill bit through making the original hole 6mm larger to accommodate the twin satellite cable and the single aerial coax cable, keeping the cable’s entry in to the property neat.  We sealed the hole with brown mastic and once inside I replaced the cables from the two way power unit to the TV and fitted the f` plugs to the twin satellite cable.  My customer had a HD sling box with built in free-sat and a drive to record on, I have never seen one before and I have to say after installing it I was very impressed with its appearance, easy menu navigation and picture quality.  We tidied up and wrote our bill and thanked our smashing customer for looking after us so well providing us with a constant supply of cold drinks while working in scorching temperatures.

Aerial Installation Chelmsford Www.andysaerials.com

Aerial Installer Essex www.andysaeraisl.com Essex

Posted by in Blog | July 7, 2013

Aerial Installer Essex

Thursday 4th July and were off to a new aerial install Essex CM7, upon arrival we found it difficult to get to the flats which were on the pedestrianized high street of Braintree.  Once we realised the pedestrian high street was except for access we were ok.  The flats had no rear access for our ladder and kit to go, so kindly a shop with access to the rear of the property kindly allowed us to take our kit through to be able to access the roof.  After surveying the roof we decided to take some test readings with our aerial and take a look at signal strength and best location to site the new aerial.

Aerial Installer Essex

Next time down we were kindly offered a cup of tea which was most welcomed, we carried through our drill, T&K wall brackets and fixings.  We soon had the T&k wall brackets up high in our chosen location and with the large U` bolts in ready to receive the new aerial.  I choose a log-periodic w/b aerial with the reading of the test aerial I knew it would perform very well with the given signal strength and quality of the signal available. Next task was to go back to our van and get a log periodic aerial along with an 8ft 1” ½ alloy mast and of course a reel of cable (black).  Feeling like pack horses we lumped all our gear through the shop and up the fire stairs to the roof top.  Hard work climbing up a fire ladder with a spectrum analyser, tool belt, 8ft mast and a heavy reel of cable.

Aerial Installer Essex

Once the aerial was dropped into the wall brackets I was delighted with the signal quality and strength, 48db on all six digital mux’s, with the aerial now aligned all we had to do was discreetly run the aerial cable down the floors to the distribution room.  Fortunately there was a lovely lead flashing where the flat roof met the walls of the building and we decided to put our cable under the lead, keeping it out of sunshine, extending the life of the aerial cable.  Next leg was to drop our aerial cable down a floor, which was made easy with the fixings of the fire ladders neatly placed between the top floor and the second floor.  With cable ties we soon had the cable to the rear of the distribution room where all we needed to do was drill a neat 10mm hole in to bring the aerial cable through.

Aerial Installer Essex Www.andysaeraisl.com Essex

With the aerial cable now in the distribution room we ran our cable to the twelve cable ends from the flats.  With good signal we used a digital tap to divide our signal in to 2 with a loss of -3.5db.  Fantastic now all we had to do was secure 2x 6way pro amps and were done.  Testing both amps we were delighted with a perfect signal of 55db on all six mux’s.  Job well done!

Satellite dish move

Posted by in Blog | July 4, 2013

Satellite dish move

Another satellite dish move today, there seems to be a lot of roofing or extensions being built where the satellite dish needs to be moved, which is good for us.  We always try and re-locate the satellite dish on the chimney stack once the roof is on, giving better reception, line of sight and signal quality.  We us a pole bracket which bolts on to the back of the satellite dish to attach it to the temporary scaffolding, securing the dish out of everyone’s way and of course keeping the cable secure and out the way of the work and workmen.  Our customers often comment on better picture quality with the satellite dish mounted higher than they had it, we always try and get the best possible line of sight for the satellite dish and it’s always high on the chimney stack.  It is nice with the recent weather we have had to have the luxury of scaffolding with all its safety features and easy access to the roof, we are sometimes amazed at the complex building and design of some of the scaffolding we climb up, it’s a work of art.  The dish only needs to be move just a few degrees and its off line all your favourite channels turned into a blue screen reading no satellite signal, it is at this point our customer’s ring andysaerials.com, and we try to get to them the same day where possible, 90% of the time is a good average.  Sky receivers sometimes get the hump once they have lost their signal and once the signal has been restored a software update generally does the trick and gets the box up and running again.  The Sky boxes do not travel either, we often get customers who have moved and their box has not wanted to work after the journey.

Moving a satellite dish is as easy as disconnecting the satellite arm from the wall bracket connecting the pole mounting bracket the dish, aligning and extending the satellite cable/ cables back to the original cables and waterproofing the connections with self-amalgamating tape.  Your favourite channels are restored and at least with the building work going on you can watch your favourite satellite channels again.

Satellite Dish Move Www.andysaerials.com