Is that the future for every roof? flickr © shioshvili

In these days of satellite dishes, you may be surprised to hear that over half of people in the UK still use a good old fashioned tv aerial. In most areas, you can get excellent digital tv reception with your old analogue tv aerial and I for one don’t want my house wall cluttered up with an unsightly satellite dish.

TV aerial © Labgear

If you want satellite or cable for the paid services, or you want the BBC’s HD service which is available on free satellite, then your choice is made for you. You don’t need an aerial.

But if like me you prefer terrestrial digital tv, then there really is no substitute for a quality external high gain digital tv aerial firmly mounted high up on your wall. Aerials with 32 or 52 elements are the norm, depending on the strength of signal in your area. Cost is likely to be around £20 for the smaller one, £40 for the larger.

If you’re not handy with the Black and Decker up a ladder, then get a proper tradesman to fix it for you. Remember poor Rod Hull (and Emu) who fell off his roof while doing it himself.

The other thing you could try is an indoor aerial in your loft. I’ve seen many a good product review of indoor tv aerials, but never yet had one that’s given me a satisfactory picture. And really for the few pounds you’d save, to me it’s not worth the hassle of trying an indoor tv aerial. That said, I’ve got a mate who swears by them. But then I’ve got some odd mates!

Rob

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