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Quote: Originally posted by birder99 on 17/5/2012

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Doesn't say much for the service engineer who told Tango to change the aerial does it.

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That's exactly what I'm thinking myself now after reading the replies and it goes to prove just how valuable this forum really is. I think I'm going to link up my existing 315 status aerial with new coax cable as advised as I'm now convinced that it's going to work okay.

The term "omnidirectional" is the clue.  It means that it does not have to be specially aligned towards the transmitter, but this design does loose out on being able to pick up a good signal in the weaker areas of the country.  The directional Status 530 is infinitely better at receiving signals, but even this can fail in the very weak signal areas.  Our last but one van had an omnidirectional aerial.  When we changed vans, and went to a Status 530, we could receive signals where the omnidirectional one could not.  Both vans had the Status onboard booster.

Bertie.

i was told some quite some time ago with the outdoor aerial depending on the transmittor.it had to be vertical or hosizontal.

Quote: Originally posted by The 2 Tops on 18/5/2012

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The term "omnidirectional" is the clue.  It means that it does not have to be specially aligned towards the transmitter, but this design does loose out on being able to pick up a good signal in the weaker areas of the country.  The directional Status 530 is infinitely better at receiving signals, but even this can fail in the very weak signal areas.  Our last but one van had an omnidirectional aerial.  When we changed vans, and went to a Status 530, we could receive signals where the omnidirectional one could not.  Both vans had the Status onboard booster.

Bertie.

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Quote: Originally posted by littlebasher on 18/5/2012

Quote: Originally posted by The 2 Tops on 18/5/2012

The term "omnidirectional" is the clue.  It means that it does not have to be specially aligned towards the transmitter, but this design does loose out on being able to pick up a good signal in the weaker areas of the country.  The directional Status 530 is infinitely better at receiving signals, but even this can fail in the very weak signal areas.  Our last but one van had an omnidirectional aerial.  When we changed vans, and went to a Status 530, we could receive signals where the omnidirectional one could not.  Both vans had the Status onboard booster.

Bertie.

If you look back at my original posts I described it as about as much use as a chocolate fireguard with analogue signal but recently it has come into its own. I rarely caravan in areas where there is a good signal and in fact the first place that I tried and succeed with the status was way down on the Mull of Galloway where the signal ould be described as close o non existent I failed to be able to tune my Tv with the external directional aerial despite having the details of direction and polarity for all the possible transmitters on which Galloway is the fringe. In desperation I tried the staus and low and behold I got a tuned signal yes the directional aerial improved on it slightly but without the status I would not have found the signal. At a Cl in mid Wales where in previous years the ignal using the external aerial was a bit hit and miss, last year the Status tuned into the same transmitter and gave a signal quality that was as good as the external aerial gave. This has been my experience with it. Over the last two years since the analogue signal has been turned off. I still carry the external aerial but have not needed it.

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You may have tried it previously and discarded it as useless but these days it is very much worth a try.

Quote: Originally posted by michael on 18/5/2012

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i was told some quite some time ago with the outdoor aerial depending on the transmittor.it had to be vertical or hosizontal.

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Well just to let everyone know that I did go to the caravan storage yesterday to try and fix the omni-directional aerial but apparently some previous owner has glued the saucer dish to the base so I can't separate the two parts. You can see where there was a split but rather than replace the complete aerial they decided to bodge it up in order to save money so the existing Status aerial is in fact totally unuseable. I have also found out since that you cannot connect the coaxial cable to the internal dish as the cable is fitted when manufactured and it can't be dismantled, so if there is no coax cable fitted to the inside of aerial basically it can't be repaired. This means that I now have two choices and that is to either remove the existing status aerial and re-fit and seal a permanent blanking plate and use an external pole aerial such as the 'Image' or 'Vision Plus' or try to obtain a second hand Status 315 or 330 as a replacement. If I replace the status aerial then I will also have to change the booster as well to either the orange or purple but they will have to be a matching set if purchased independently. After reading the comments on this thread I would rather opt for the status replacement but as I am going on holiday to Devon in about 3 weeks time it restricts me time wise to search for a used one and get it fitted and wired up so I am looking for the cheapest option at the moment so we can at least receive a signal to watch the TV. Thanks to you all for initially taking the time to repond to my question as I have certainly gained some knowledge about status aerials in general but further to my post, can anyone advise if removing the existing booster and re-wiring up a new is a difficult task at all? I do have DIY skills but not much of an expert where electrics are concerned.

The aerial shouldn't be too much of a problem to remove apart from needing a stubby screwdriver to remove the 4 base mounting screws on the caravan roof due to not being able to dismantle the saucer from it's base mounting otherwise a standard screwdriver would have done the job quite easily. I was more concerned about changing the booster over regarding re-wiring the electrics really especially if it's second hand with no instructions.  

Thanks Paul, I was considering one of those aerials actually as I said in my original post that I have the chance of buying a second hand 'Image' 620 if I can't get hold of a second hand status aerial. The existing status can't be repaired because it has been glued right around the diameter of the saucer spigot that fits into the mounting base mounting so it's definitely a new aerial that is needed.