Digital aerial repair Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com

Digital aerial repair Chelmsford Essex andysaerials.com

As you will see from the picture this is not one of my aerials.  It’s a Televes dat45 which looks the part but is a heavy head and not designed for a ¾ mast, which they are often fitted to.  The aerial had twisted the flimsy 6” chimney cradle and came crashing down.

Digital aerial repair Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com

Me being me I decided not to have a join in the cable and brought the aerial down to re-cable it. Once on the ground I removed the old aerial cable and re-connected new cable and opted for an 8ft 1” ½ alloy mast which would happily support the aerial.  Having heavy duty mast requires heavy duty support at the chimney stack, so I fitted my favourite 13” 5 brick course large chimney cradle.

Digital aerial repair Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com

When I went to lash the stack I was applauded with the installation!  The more I looked the further I was disgusted.  The chimney corners were stuck to the stack with glue?  And the lashing wire was not wrapped around the j’ bolts enough to hold the lashing wire around the stack yet alone tighten. The aerial cable was not tacked to the stack the whole job was an amateur bodge.

Digital aerial repair Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com

My customer shouted to me tea and biscuits were served, I went down and explained how terrible the job was and told him I had repaired the roof where the aerial had struck and he told me he had fitted the aerial a week or two ago.  I was surprized it had stayed up for 2wks!

Digital aerial repair Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com

He was a nice guy and made a lovely cup of tea and very generous with the biscuits, so I put his DIY right and aligned his aerial to Sudbury.  His signal was marginal just sitting on 35db and could have done with a mast head pre-amp but didn’t have the budget for that and was happy with his pictures,

Digital aerial repair Chelmsford Essex www.andysaerials.com

I fitted his chimney cowl to prevent the birds falling down his chimney, then put my ladders away wrote a bill and set off home.