Indoor Tv Aerial

[Biccylova]

can anyone advise me on whether indoor aerials are worth trying please? my sister is having trouble getting an aerial fitted, I think maybe the job is not big enough for anyone to bother with as some firms say they will come out but never turn up, she is elderly and watches TV a lot, or would like to.

[bookbinder]

Google 'indoor tv aerial'. That might give you a start.

[KARL]

They definitely are provided you get a good one. In my experience an active (meaning amplified) indoor aerial from Hirschmann (German) is the best but no doubt there are other good ones.

[-Talbot-]

I bought this and it works perfectly.

Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

[TonyV]

Personally I've not had much luck using indoor Ariel but that could just be location. Try one from Argos, at least you can return it if it doesn't work.

https://www.argos.co.uk/search/indoor-tv-aerial/

[Buenchico]

There can be no 'one-size-fits-all' answer to this question.

TV transmitter powers are set on the assumption that all viewers in the relevant area will have good quality external aerials. They always have and they always will be. It has NEVER been the aim of broadcasters to provide a usable signal to people who've only got indoor aerials. However people who live reasonably close to a transmitter might be able to use an indoor aerial.

Where I live half the houses have external aerials pointing in one direction (to the Tacolneston transmitter in Norfolk) and half of the houses have them pointing in another direction (to the Sudbury transmitter on the Suffolk/Essex border). All of them though are set very high up (often atop of long poles) and are expensive multi-element types. The chances of getting a signal using a standard indoor aerial here (even if it's an amplified model) are absolutely NIL.

I've actually managed to get a loft aerial to work (after my rooftop one fell down and I couldn't afford to pay someone to put a new one up for me) but that was only after doing a lot of research to find a multi-element aerial (designed for rooftop use) with the maximum possible gain and then installing no fewer than three amplifiers between the aerial and my TV. If I'd have purchased a normal indoor aerial I wouldn't have been able to receive anything at all.

So, unlike some others above, I won't rush to say that your sister could get away with using an indoor aerial; only a small minority of TV viewers can do so.

The vast majority of aerial fitters (I'd estimate at least 70%, and possibly far more) are absolute cowboys who know nothing about the job and who couldn't tell a Yagi antenna from a patch one, yet alone calculate their gain figures. Anyone with a ladder, a drill and a screwdriver can do the job, albeit often extremely badly.

Your sister should seek out an installer who's CAI-certified, which will vastly increase her chances of getting someone who turns up to do the job and who then does it professionally:
https://www.getmeviewing.org.uk/

[naomi24]

We bought one a couple of weeks ago for a spare room. It's called 'One for All' and we got it in Tesco. Abut £30. It works perfectly.

[diddlydo]

We've got 2 cheapo indoor ones in the loft (one for the living room and one for the kitchen)- after a bit of tweaking and moving their orientation with me downstairs and OH in the loft with phone communication they both work perfectly.

[snags]

RG Tech Monarch 50.

[Biccylova]

Many thanks all of you, I will try one from Argos and see what happens, as tonyV says I can always take it back and exchange it for a better one.