Hello John, glad you got sorted ok. Your tempting me to start waffling on one of my pet hobbies. Atleast I know that you of all people would understand when I say its all a matter of mathematics. When we say am it stands for amplitude modulation which is the manner in which the intelligence is applied to the carrier wave. what we really mean is HF (high frequency) between 3000Khz (3Mgz) to 30 mgz previously referred to as Medium wave within which range most of the old broadcast stations were situated. From 30 to 300 mgz is vhf where most broadcast stastions can be found between 96 to 108 mhz. These are usually FM or frequencey modulated. Above 300 is uhf or ultra high frequency. The formula for the calculation for the length of antenna element for any given frquency is frequency in kilohertz divided by the speed of light. .ie 300,000 this can be condensed to Mhz/300. The result being the 'wavelength' in metres. A normal antenna would be a half wavelength minus 10% to allow for the Q factor which I am certainly not going into here. Many of the half waves are so large that for practicality they can be reduced to 1/4 or even 1/8 wave length. So what happens then, as they become smaller they become also resonant on other frequencies as well as the one they are designed for, and of course the same is true in reverse. This is the reason that on ocassions you would get a reasonable signal from a station on an antenna which is in theory far to small to pick it up. All this is of course totally useless information to the majority of caravanners and I apologise to the ladies from whom I'm sure there will be some sarky comments. This was why I was reluctant to post on the subject in the first place...........Rgds Mick
Quote: Originally posted by championsom on 18/2/2006
They can not be any worse ,as the status omni aerial is a total waste of space. I removed mine and fitted a blanking plate over the hole.I now use a vision plus directional made by the same company,It doesn't look as cool but it picks up everything without any ghosting.
You can get an 18 element wide-band TV aerial from B&Q for about £14. It's way better than any aerial purpose made for caravans.
Actually I am an TV engineer by trade although I have been out of it for the past 10 years so I know exactly what mickey is on about, however there are aerials and there are aerials hence the question regaridng the status aerial. Agreed that a stand alone aerial is much better but it is a real fag carrying one about. We normally use the sky dish but there are the odd occasions when analogue is required.