Baw Baw region antenna installation -Tall masts and why you HATE them

They sway in the wind. They whistle at night, keeping you up. They create a piece of modern graffiti artwork that stands out like the old proverbial. When they collapse they often create thousands of dollars of property damage.

So why are they so popular? There was an old saying “height is might”. This meant if I (the installer) can’t fix it. Maybe I need to go higher. Let me give you one example: a customer in drouin has a 20 foot mast. It has been installed to deliver stable television reception. It didn’t do that. What did it do? It provided tempramental television reception that would work some evenings and not others. Channels would drop in and out. A cusary review of the system showed that the wrong antenna was installed without a reflector on the gippsland (Latrobe valley antenna), reducing gain, it was also a wideband aerial again reducing gain. Melbourne signal was unusable anywhere on the roof regardless of height. A site test found suitable signal with a correctly installed 10 element narrow band yagi antenna. Following the relocation of the antenna, installation of a LTE filter and reusing the existing antenna signals still were less than anticipated. We found a secondary issue: a splitter was attenuating the signal far more than typical for a eight way splitter ~ 10dB. Splitter was replaced, mast removed, television retuned and all in one Saturday morning’s work.

My advise having dealt with many of these ‘height is might’ installations, a longer lever equals more force. Do not use a longer lever, if you have a tall mast and don’t fix your other issues first, explore other avenues first, you’re just burning through money. Better aerials, amplifiers and cabling can fix most issues. A bigger mast wil not fix cabling, amplifier or filter issues.

Andrew Lacey of Antenna IQ has been installing television aerials for over 17 years and has the answers to all your reception issues in the Drouin, Warragul, Neerim South, Buln Buln, Garfield, Longwarry, Darnum, Yarragon and Trafalgar area.

Call Andrew today on 0427004604[easingsliderlite]