Can i put aerial in loft

Firstly, poor reception might be down to poor coverage, so it is best to check you are in a DAB coverage area. Use our transmitter tool , which will tell you what national and local DAB services are available in your locality.

Secondly, If you are in a good coverage area, and are still receiving poor DAB reception please try our Problem Assistant for further advice. DAB reception is rarely disrupted by high-pressure weather conditions, but under some circumstances, signals from very distant transmitters can cause reception to break up, or be lost for periods of time. If you suspect this - particularly if you are also getting interference on FM - wait until the weather changes.

The 5 Live Sports Extra schedule is available online. For more information on finding and storing these services, see our Help guide on DAB secondary services. This is because the power used is lower, and is forced to work outside of its normal operating parameters, resulting in electrical impulse interference.

For more information on interference, please see our RTIS site. Coverage and location. If you live in a basement flat, or your building is steel-framed or reinforced concrete, coverage may be affected. Most DAB radios can be tuned easily at the touch of a button. Sometimes a full scan is required. Portable radios should be tuned in a location in your home where the best possible signal is received.

Most DAB radios come with built in signal strength meters which can be helpful. From time to time radios should be re-tuned in order to discover new stations. Telescopic aerials. Telescopic aerials on portable radios should be fully extended to receive a good signal. Tilting and swivelling the aerial will help to get the best signal. Broken aerials may affect reception. An externally mounted aerial can be attached to many types of DAB portable radio and hi-fi systems.

An indoor aerial may be good enough, but for the best reception use an outdoor one. Ideally, this should be on the roof or high up on the outside of the building, though it may also give good results in the loft. Cables and Connectors. If you have an external aerial, a radio signal will always lose some of its strength as it passes along the cable and through the connectors. It is important to minimise the loss by using good quality cable and connectors. DAB uses different frequencies from FM radio.

We advise you check that your antenna is able to receive DAB, in the majority of cases you will need a new antenna. An exception is "helically wound" FM aerials. See our guide on DAB radio in cars. The BBC cannot recommend individual Installers. The CAI Confederation of Aerial Industries is a recognised trade body which will can put you in touch with one of their members in your area. By using our Transmitter Checker , you can check which DAB radio services are available at your location.

It will also show you any transmitter faults. Works and Warnings. Check whether there are any known works or warnings that might be causing the problem. DAB uses multiplexes to group services together. The BBC network stations, e. Nations and Local radio services are carried on a mix of commercial multiplexes. Try switching your radio on and off. If this does not work, a full re-scan might be needed.

Check your radio manual for specific instructions on doing a full re-scan. Portable Radios. Try moving the radio around to see if you can find a better position where you get good reception of all the stations you want to listen to. In most circumstances the supplied telescopic aerial should be perfectly adequate, and as a rule of thumb DAB aerials tend to work best when vertical and extended at least 35 cm.

If your radio reception is poor then you could consider an external aerial for best reception quality. Even in good areas an external aerial will guarantee optimum performance and will also ensure consistent listening quality.

Many Digital radios have a signal strength display which enables you to position the Radio for the best reception usually a number of blocks as a guide of reception quality. Unfortunately, some radios are less sensitive than others and need careful positioning to work reliably. If your radio displays signal strength, use this as a guide to ensure the best position.

Our DAB installation guide provides further information. External aerials. It is important to check the cables and the aerial for damage and that they are operating correctly.

Make sure any cables between your radio equipment and aerial are connected securely. For further information see our DAB installation guide. Damaged Cables. Water can get into external cables and can cause reception problems.

To rule this out see our guide on water damage to cables. Car Radios. Radio reception can drop out when on the move due to changes in topography.

See our car radio guide for more information. Radio signals can be affected by fine weather including high pressure.

The only solution is to wait for the weather to change, you should not re-tune during this time. Our information on h ow clear skies and fine weather can affect your radio reception may be useful, please see our weather guide.

If all other stations are working ok and you have just lost one station. The problem could be due to a number of reasons, the station may have stopped broadcasting or have moved multiplexes rather than a radio fault. All of the stations in one multiplex should be behaving the same way. If you are still having problems, it is possible an unwanted signal is the cause.

For information on the symptoms of interference see our sister website RTIS. The BBC cannot recommend individual installers.

The CAI Confederation of Aerial Industries is a recognised trade body which will be able to put you in touch with one of their members in your area. You may need to contact your car manufacturer to check. The best place to put a DAB aerial is on the roof of the car and as far from the engine as possible, to avoid any interference.

If your car radio is showing no signal or no service for a station you usually receive, this could be down to one of the following things:.

DAB Transmitter Fault. If you know your location, you can use our transmitter checker to see whether there is a problem. If not, then check the radio and the aerial to confirm they are working correctly. Poor DAB reception can also be caused by equipment used in the vehicle. For example, phone chargers or dash cams sometimes cause interference and affect your radio signal.

Try unplugging the items to see if one of them is causing any interference. Delete the presets and re-tune to the services in your area. When travelling in the car, your signal can be affected by natural features of the land, for example, hills, valleys, rivers, etc.

The signal should return once you move away from these features. Where can I find them? When Radio 5 Live Sports Extra is on air, you should find it right next to 5 Live on the list of stations on your digital radio.

It can be found next to Radio 4 on the list of stations. When do they broadcast? Radio 5 Live Sports Extra has a dynamic schedule. To see what is available when, the BBC keeps a schedule on the sport website. How to find these services. It is best to re-tune your radio when they are broadcasting, so it will store the station in its memory. It is worth first checking to see whether the problem is with your own equipment, or the local transmitter. If neighbours are having the same problem it may be that the aerial itself is at fault, or there may be an interfering signal.

In either case, you will need to ask your landlord or management committee to solve the problem. Checking for problems. Check cables and leads within your property to ensure the problem is not a simple installation fault. Please see our Freeview Installation guide for further details. This will help you to see if there are, or have been recently, transmitter faults in your local area.

Electrical interference. There are differences between a reception problem and one caused by electrical interference. See our help guides which explain the differences. If it is potentially interference, your landlord or management committee can contact the regulator, Ofcom, for help with solving the problem, using their contact web form. Since it is a communal aerial, you will not be able to contact Ofcom directly. Your television can sometimes receive signals from more than one transmitter, which may be transmitting different regional news.

This is more likely to occur following a retune of your television. To ensure you are receiving the correct regional news programmes from the transmitter your aerial is pointing towards, you will need to do a manual retune.

Please see our help guide on a manual retune. Please be aware most local news is not currently broadcast in HD at this time so will not be available on HD channels. Please use our Transmitter tool to see if you are in coverage. Following a decision by the Government, some channels used by Freeview, are being reallocated to allow for the future development of new mobile broadband services.

This may be due to two reasons. Firstly, you may have a poor aerial system, so we recommend you checking over your installation by reading our Good installation help guide. Secondly, you may be on the edge of Freeview coverage, and likely have a weak signal. This may be fine during the day, but in the evening, signals from distant transmitters can travel further, and can cause reception problems for those at the very edge of coverage.

September 18, September 6, A warm welcome from Tom Smart Thanks for stopping by, click play for a brief introduction to our company. Your Free Guide is on it's way, please check your e-mail now! Advertise your business to nearly , people per month. What our customers are saying DIY Guides - How to do it all yourself! Click below to see all of our DIY guides. Trees - The path to the TV transmitter is directly through nearby tall trees.

In this case, TV reception problems may only become apparent during high winds and stormy weather when the trees move around more, causing large TV signal fluctuations.

This can happen even if you live near the transmitter! Junk in the Attic - Your loft aerial installation points through a neighbour's roof space and they have a junk filled attic or your loft has lots of metallic items close to the aerial installation position, which can de-tune the aerial. Water Tanks - The aerial has to be installed behind water tanks or close to pipes which will de-tune it and reduce its performance.

High UHF Channels - The TV transmitter serving your area transmits on high number UHF channels channel numbers above 40 which suffer much greater signal loss through roof tiles and walls.

TV channels or DVB-T multiplexes on high UHF frequencies Ch50 - 68 can suffer higher levels of signal attenuation if you install a loft aerial, often leading to picture break-up blocky images.

Impulse Noise Interference - Loft aerials often suffer problems from impulse noise problems leading to break-up of the Freeview digital TV picture. This is often seen as an occasional, momentary freezing of the picture. A Log Periodic TV Aerial can really help to reduce this kind of interference due to its inherent design and improved polar diagram - rejecting interference from the side and back of the antenna.

Above all, always ensure you are using satellite grade double screened coaxial cable for all downleads to reduce interference pickup and minimise signal loss. Digital Coaxial Cable. Solving Indoor Aerial Interference Problems Impulse interference is much more likely to be a problem where TV signal is weak or where amplifiers boosters are needed.

Always use satellite grade coaxial cable between your aerial and TV as this is much less susceptible to interference pick up and has much lower signal loss than older single screened cables. Also try to avoid running the TV downlead close to mains wiring. If a masthead amplifier is fitted to your aerial, also use satellite cable on all amplifier connections.

Mounting your indoor aerial as high as possible in the attic and well away from house wiring will also help reduce picture break up blocking due to impulse interference. Improve TV Reception. Loft Aerial Installation Checklist Loft Signal Test - Install a portable digital compatible TV in the attic to accurately align the loft aerial for the best digital signal quality on all channels.

Feed the aerial with a temporary piece of double screened CT coaxial cable. Concentrate on improving the signal quality on the weakest digital channel first whilst ensuring that all digital multiplexes have reasonably consistent signal quality. Our list of test channels should be used when installing loft aerials to get the best reception on all Freeview channels. When aerial alignment is complete, disconnect the portable TV and temporary cable and remove it from the loft.

Aerial Alignment Tips - In strong signal areas, buy a 12dB Signal Attenuator and use it to assist in aligning the indoor aerial for least picture noise and ghosting on analogue TV channels. The attenuator will make the TV picture noisy, making it easier to find the best install position for the TV aerial in the attic.

In some very strong signal areas close to a transmitter, a 6dB attenuator and 12dB attenuator may be needed in series making 18dB of attenuation to reduce signal quality sufficiently. Always disconnect the attenuator when loft aerial alignment is completed.

If you don't want to buy attenuators, one crude but effective way of lowering the received signal to assist in optimising the aerial is by partly removing the TV plug from the television aerial socket until the picture starts breaking up. Then make sure the plug can't move or completely fall out or move whilst you find the best location for the aerial in the attic with the best signal quality reading.

Freeview Signal Quality - If you have an existing Freeview installation, temporarily place your Freeview compatible TV in the loft feeding the portable TV and align indoor aerials for the best Freeview signal quality indication on the weakest digital multiplex.

Bearing in mind the loss in signal caused by the roof it may be advisable to go for a slightly higher gain antenna than normally recommended for an outside aerial in your location. Remember that if your aerial is mounted outside but pointing back through the roof, or with insufficient clearance over it , then it may actually be preferable to install it in your roof space! Just as with the cable the attenuation level experienced by the signal as it passes through the slates is proportional to the frequency.

The higher the frequency the higher the loss. UHF TV signals will be more affected by the roof. One interesting point revealed by the above graphic is that the signals at the bottom end of the TV band i. A group frequencies should suffer less attenuation through the roof than signals at the top end i.

Different roofing materials will attenuate the signal by differing amounts, though as far as I know no one has published any data on this, contact us if you know different! During tests inside a Welsh slate roof the TV signal was 8dB down on that from an aerial on the chimney, though the latter was installed 9ft higher.

When installing an aerial in the loft, try to do it in the autumn or spring! Being in a loft when the weather is warm can be unpleasant to put it mildly. Aerial positioning and alignment It goes without saying that the aerial alignment should normally be through the slates and not through the end wall s , and this is particularly important if the house is a terrace and there are even more walls beyond the first!

It is very important to remember that signal levels in lofts can vary significantly between locations within the roof space and the best location can vary even for different models of antenna. Furthermore the signal level can be markedly different for different frequencies i. This variation in signal level can be particularly marked if there are metal objects in the loft, e.

If the latter is in line with the transmitter then it would normally have a very negative effect on the received signal. It is also advisable to try and keep the aerial away from mains cables, at least 3ft, or more if possible.