“He has a free field up front on the side, crosses through the middle, tries to hit with his head…” . Damn it! The picture on your TV has become completely grainy and you can no longer see or hear anything: we really didn’t want that! Your TV always throws tantrums at inopportune moments: during your favorite team’s matches, in key scenes of your favorite series, and so on.
It may be time to do a little system overhaul and possibly install a newer antenna that is better suited to your situation. You don’t want those problems to keep coming and ruin all your relaxing moments, do you? Here, as I expected. So go ahead and read this guide.
In today’s tutorial, by the way, I’m going to explain how to assemble a TV antenna, illustrating the different possibilities that are available to you and guiding you in choosing the most suitable solution for you. If you can’t wait to fix your TV signal, dedicate yourself to reading the next paragraphs and try to put into practice the instructions you are about to read. I have nothing left but to wish you a good reading and good luck in everything!
To begin with, a general and comprehensive introduction to the subject is required on my part. You should know that if you live in a condominium, you are certainly in the best situation, as the system is completely managed by the condominium installer: you just need to connect a coaxial cable from one of the wall antenna sockets to the antenna socket of your TV.
However, if, as is often the case, you have an independent house, need to install the television in a motorhome or, perhaps you also live in a condominium but your television is too far from the sockets available in your accommodation, you should consider some different solutions, or that is, you need to mount a TV antenna.
However, you must bear in mind that no antenna has the power to create the signal where it does not reach: the positioning of the antenna, following the specific suggestions that you will find in the next chapters, must in any case be such as to fully capture even the minor sign.
How to assemble terrestrial digital TV antenna
The simplest and least invasive solution to be able to receive the terrestrial digital signal is to use an indoor antenna. Through an internal antenna, it is possible to “intercept” the radio and television signal that reaches the room, including high definition channels.
First you need to decide where to place the antenna. There are no hard and fast rules, but I can give some suggestions that should be tested and possibly refined after a few tries: the signal tends to get inside the house through openings and spread out by refraction in the walls, so you will need to place the antenna near a window and , if possible, away from other equipment that may cause interference.
As I was saying, accept these suggestions with caution, as it can sometimes happen that, after several tests, an apparently covered and central point in the room is the best position for the reception. To find the ideal location, you will have to make several attempts, even turning the antenna 90 degrees, to understand which configuration guarantees you the reception of the greatest number of channels, in standard definition and in high definition, with the best quality.
All indoor antennas usually include a magnetic base or a small adhesive for attachment and a coaxial cable, which you must plug into the antenna input of your decoder or TV with a built-in decoder. Some models are also supplied with a power supply that, optionally, you can choose to connect to a socket to transform the antenna from passive to active, thus amplifying the received signal.
Now that you have connected the coaxial cable , all you have to do is start an automatic channel search , possibly following the instructions in my dedicated article , the TV or decoder you use and finally enjoy your TV.
How to mount outdoor TV antenna
If you want to develop a slightly more complex system, in exchange for better reception, you can opt for an external TV antenna: they are devices very similar to those described in the previous chapter, with the difference that they adopt some characteristic techniques that make them suitable for external placement.
Also in this case, the first thing to evaluate is the positioning: it is very important to try to place the external antenna in the highest possible position, away from metallic objects and appliances with high energy consumption and making sure that there are no buildings or other structures that can completely cover the reception range. External antennas can also be oriented horizontally or vertically: give it a try and see which placement guarantees the best reception.
Typically, outdoor antennas include a mast or wall bracket, depending on whether you want to mount them on your roof or balcony, and a weatherproof or at least rainproof coaxial cable. This is precisely the cable that you need to connect to the antenna input of your new generation TV or, possibly, to the decoder connected to it.
Personally, I advise you to direct your choice towards an external antenna equipped with protection against snow, rain and exposure to the sun and with a filter of interference due to the 3G/4G/wireless signal: in this way you avoid damage to the antenna due to weather conditions and you can get cleaner reception than the noise from mobile networks and wireless networks.
Don’t forget to carry out an automatic channel search to receive all the channels you can “pick up” with your new external antenna. If you have doubts about this operation, consult my article dedicated to channel tuning.
How to install TV antenna on motorhome
If you’re thinking about a television system onboard your trailer, your choice should probably be an omnidirectional antenna. This type of antenna, in fact, lends itself to being the most useful for receiving polarized signals , both vertically and horizontally, and is best suited for natural and artificial obstacles that may be encountered during travel.
Mounting this antenna is a bit of a laborious operation: the antenna must, in fact, be placed on the roof of the trailer, with the brackets and base found inside the packaging. For the purely “constructive” aspects, I can just refer you to the specific fixing instructions for the product you purchased.
As far as the technical part is concerned, once the antenna is positioned, you must connect it to the amplifier’s IN socket, using a coaxial cable long enough to reach the interior of the motorhome or, more precisely, the point where the television is located. Finally, just connect the amplifier to the mains, using the supplied power supply, and connect another antenna cable from the amplifier’s OUT jack to the TV’s input jack.
Depending on your needs, you can choose a model with adjustable amplification, using a small physical button, or with multiple outputs, to connect several televisions to the antenna. In conclusion, I would like to point out that, unlike TV at home, when you travel long distances in an RV, the frequencies and channels on which your favorite programs are present can vary significantly. Therefore, I invite you to retune your television or decoder every time you stop at a new location in a province or region different from the previous one, following the procedure illustrated in this article.
How to install a TV aerial amplifier
If you have already configured your antenna, but you notice that the signal is a little bad, if you notice any interruptions during the display or if some channels are a little irregular, you can think about using a signal amplifier . As I mentioned earlier, you must remember that an amplifier can only “boost” a signal that must already be present.
Setting up a signal booster is easier than you might think. First, disconnect the antenna cable from the TV’s or cable box’s input and connect that disconnected end to the amplifier’s input socket, usually labeled IN. Once this is done, connect a second antenna cable, from the amplifier’s OUT jack to the TV or decoder jack to which the antenna cable I told you to disconnect earlier was connected. Finally, connect the amplifier to the mains using the supplied power cable.
There are different types of signal amplifier: I advise you to choose one equipped with adjustable amplification, usually through a physical manual selector, with which you can vary the gain in decibels, and 4G /LTE/GSM filter, to reduce network interference mobile/ wireless. Depending on your needs, you might also consider purchasing a model with multiple output ports to distribute the television signal to multiple televisions and set-top boxes.
How to mount the satellite dish
If terrestrial digital TV is no longer enough for you and you want to enter the world of satellite TV, the matter gets a little more complicated. In fact, it is a question of abandoning the old antenna concept and moving on to the satellite dish.
The satellite dish is usually sold in the form of a kit, which includes: a metallic iron or steel disk, approximately 60 or 80 cm, the support, the mounting pins and the LNB, the low noise converter block, an active component which has the task of amplifying, converting and forwarding the satellite signal along the coaxial cable that reaches the receiver.
To use satellite TV, after following the assembly instructions provided in the manual that comes with the antenna, it is necessary to point it at the Hot Bird satellite, used both for Sky and Tivùsat transmissions, and connect the coaxial cable to the input from your decoder’s satellite dish.
If you have any doubts about how to point the antenna, do not hesitate to consult my guide on how to point the satellite dish in which I have explained in detail how to act.