Tv With No Aerial Connection

[237SJ]

I`m thinking of binning a micro system and replacing it with a TV but there is no aerial connection in the room. If I get an indoor aerial, would I get as good reception as I would via the aerial on the roof?

[Postdog]

Maybe, maybe not. Impossible to answer. Too many variables, not enough info.

[rockyracoon]

Not on my experience.

[Yorky Lass]

Depends how good the signal is. We have a perfect picture in the bedrooms using an indoor aerial but we can clearly see the transmitter from our house.

[Buenchico]

The standard that broadcast engineers work to is that they aim to provide a usable signal to all homes that have a good quality external aerial. There has never been any intention to provide a usable signal for people who only use indoor aerials.

However if you're only just down the road from a principal (high-powered) transmitter you'll almost certainly get a good enough signal indoors. Equally, if you're in a fringe reception area you won't get any signal at all indoors. (Where I live half the houses have external aerials pointing at one major transmitter, with the other half pointing at a different transmitter, because it's difficult to get a signal from either of them. All of them have big, multi-element aerials because smaller external aerial simply won't work well. Indoor aerials simply produce no signal whatsoever).

As a VERY rough guide, I'd suggest that if you live within 5 miles of a high-powered transmitter (not a local repeater) you'd get a decent signal indoors. If you live further away, but within 10 miles, you might well get a reasonable signal upstairs (but possibly not downstairs). Beyond 10 miles you'd probably struggle to get any form of reception.

[237SJ]

Thanks for the replies. It looks like we are not too far from the Crystal Palace transmitter but when I used to live in a flat eons ago and I had an indoor aerial, I remember that the reception used to become fuzzy on stormy nights when there was a lot of wind. It seems like things haven`t progressed that much. Maybe I`ll forget the TV idea and just get a DAB/fm radio