Noisetieres Posted April 6, 2005 Share Posted April 6, 2005 Coming over to the house in about a week and am intending to buy a French TV. I have a spare TV aerial here in the UK and I thought that I would bring it with me and use it with the French TV.Does anyone know if it will work? If not, what sort of aerial will I need to pick up French Terrestrial TV?ThanksCarla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Avery Posted April 7, 2005 Share Posted April 7, 2005 An aerial is an aerial. Provided that the size of the aerial is sufficient for where you are, (there are large areas of rural SW France that need boosters to pick up any signal at al) there is no reason why it will not work OK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwynydd Posted April 7, 2005 Share Posted April 7, 2005 [quote]Coming over to the house in about a week and am intending to buy a French TV. I have a spare TV aerial here in the UK and I thought that I would bring it with me and use it with the French TV.Does an...[/quote]If the aerial is "wideband", you can take it with you. Wideband aerials cover the whole UHF band from channels 21 to 69.Usually, aerials are grouped into bands that only cover specific channels (21 to 38 for example) and they achieve slightly more gain than wideband types. This type of aerial will only work in France if your local transmitter there transmits the same group of channels as here in the UK.TV aerial amplifiers operate in exactly the same way ie they are specific to a particular group of channels.If you buy your aerial when you get to France, you will be sure of getting the right one for the area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noisetieres Posted April 7, 2005 Author Share Posted April 7, 2005 Many thanks for the advice. I'll check my aerial and if it isn't wideband I'll get one while I'm there.Do you know - are they very expensive?ThanksCarla Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnM Posted April 7, 2005 Share Posted April 7, 2005 The other thing to say is "Try It" even if not wideband, you might find that you are close enough to the transmitter that even a "wrong grouping" (or coat hanger) will work (which is when an aerial is an aerial) or by luck you might just have the right grouping. Getting boringly anoracky, an aerial works best when it is exactly the right length, oddly enough, that is not when it is the same length as the wavelength of the transmission, I think it's best when the length of the actual aerial bit is a quarter of the wave length, but I'm sure somebody with a better memory will correct me if I'm wrong. For what it's worth (and in even bigger anorack), most TV aerials are of a type called a Yagi, they have a few elements (pencil like bits in a line). Only one of these pencils is actually connected to your TV, most of those elements are directors (and reflectors) that help focus the signal onto the aerial. The weaker the signal, the more focusing is needed, so you need more elements giving (what is commonly /wrongly known as) a longer aerial - so, if you have a short yagi (wide or correct banding) but are a long way from the transmitter, you may find that you can improve the signal by getting a yagi with more elements, rather than by getting an amplifier. I need to get out more Now, ignore most of that and try it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyn_Paul Posted April 7, 2005 Share Posted April 7, 2005 Take it with you and try it.... What's to lose? Even if it's the wrong group, you'll still get something out of it. If it doesn't work then head off to a Brico. Have a look at the aerials your neighbours houses have. Are they quite compact? or are they l-o-n-g multi-element jobs? If the latter, then you're after a hi-gain one. In the order of 60 Euros for about 19dB gain.p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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