Digital TV antenna options

**Matchmaster or Hills. Forget the rest. Building a decent antenna is not rocket science. Trouble is, the cheapies tend to use poor quality plastics and they don't last very long. Given the hassle of climbing around a roof, I don't see the point in buying the cheapest product available. Dunno if they still do it, but Hills used to provide the best antenna for a specific location (within a few Metres).

-- Trevor Wilson

**Update. I just checked the Matchmaster site:

Use their antenna selection guide. Quick and easy.

-- Trevor Wilson

es,

There is still a page there to enter your address and other details and it tells you everything you need for the install, as well as the location of your transmitter.

Agree on the quality, put up a Hills antenna in 1990, its gotten rusty in recent years, but still gave an adequate signal even for digital. Replaced it with new Hills one earlier this year (as well as new cable etc) to make sure that all is OK and ready for digital switchover, and noticed that the quality of the construction and materials still looks to be good.

Haymans locally carry them, and they are just about everywhere, so probably as easy to get as something at Bunnings.

Thanks, got one. Way more solid than the ones at the big B.

Neat the way it gives you your closeby stockists.

"Trevor Wilson"

** When I try the guide, it tells me to buy a "Squarial" - an 11 inch square plastic box with god knows what inside.

It also tells me DSE sells them, which is not true while John R. Turks have them at a mere $381 each.

The " Squarial " is claimed to have 21 dB gain at VHF and 27 dB gain at HF - it uses an internal amplifier.

This is a highly misleading claim as there is NO substitute for the antenna itself having gain and the corresponding directionality that goes with it.

Technical details of this " Squarial " seem impossible to find and it is NOT the same as the famous BSB version once used in the UK for satellite TV reception - cos that one operated at 10GHz and was substantially BIGGER !!

Something here is fishy ....

... Phil

Only if you live in urban areas, by the looks of it:

"Unable to locate a suburb with the value you have entered. Please choose one from the list"... there is no list for my area.

remove the last letter of the Suburb, and type it in again, a pulldown list will open showing your suburb and postcode, and you click on that one