loft aerial for 3 storey house

[guitar9408]

Hi all,

Need some advice.

I need to install an aerial in a loft to receive freeview. Will run a wf100 coax from antenna to a 4 way splitter. From here will go to lounge and 3 bedrooms all clipped directly outside the house. Postcode is LE5 and apparently 11 miles from Waltham transmitter and 4 miles from Leicester transmitter.

What do I need to look out for with regards to positioning in loft space? And what sort of disadvantages am I looking at with a loft aerial as opposed to a roof mounted aerial?

Cheers

 

[ChrisFrost]

As long as there's enough space in the loft then the same kind of aerial you use outside can be used there too. Use the Wolfbane signal strength predictor. Make sure you change the antenna height. The default is 10m which might not be right for you.

Loft mounting knocks about 3-6dB off the signal strength. That might not sound like much, but -3dB means the signal level is only 50% compared to mounting outside. A 6dB loss means it has halved again to just 25%.

 

[Sam Gangee]

Read notes about loft aerials here:
http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/best_aerial.htm#loft