ColinM50 Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 Yes, I know strictly speaking aerial is the wrong word, it should be antenna, but everyone calls it an aerial so I'll stick with that for the moment. We've got a Teleco TeleplusX2 "aerial" on our Elddis 196 POS motorhome and the cranking mechanism seems to be broken. I can rotate the "aerial" round to point in the right direction but the unit itself is canted over 90 degrees and won't go back to flat, it just clicks and won't move. I'll probably take it off and knowing how short tempered I get with stupid things these days will then no doubt end up binning it and buy a new one, but at £130 ish maybe, just maybe, I'll look to repair it. (^) Anybody got any tips as to what it might be or best way to fix it? Alternatively any suggestions as to what "aerial" to replace it with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artheytrate Posted September 22, 2018 Share Posted September 22, 2018 I’m using one of these on our PVC and the reception is very good £35 Necvox ANT-536 Digital FreeView TV Aerial Antenna Free f type Connector There are some a lot cheaper but I wouldn’t risk the quality of reception. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keninpalamos Posted September 24, 2018 Share Posted September 24, 2018 Try getting someone to rotate the cranking collar (for want of a better name) while you give the aerial a helping hand into the horizontal position up on the roof Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alanf1 Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Sorry I can't really help with the above, although the above suggestion sounds like it would be worth a go. On another note, what's the purpose of canting over the antennae/aerial from horizontal and what benefits does it give? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebishbus Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Main transmitter signals are horizontally polarised , local relay transmitters are vertically polarised. Hence a mobile aerial needs to be horizontal or vertical. Brian B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinM50 Posted September 28, 2018 Author Share Posted September 28, 2018 Well it gets curiouser. I spoke with Teleco's UK agent and they can't/won't help and put me on to one of their dealers. He tells me that this is quite common with people over cranking the twist handle and snapping the mechanism and the only fix is to replace the mast at a cost of £105 for the parts alone, plus labour and recommends I buy a new one for £140 or so. Having taken it apart I've worked out that in reality I can lock it into a horizontal attitude by drilling a couple of v. small holes in the casing and screwing in a self tapper. This means I won't be able to skew it to the vertical but from what I've read on the web it seem that most, not all but most transmitters are horizontal oriented and if I do need a vertical orientation, the app on my phone will show me an alternate transmitter. So I've put it back on and we'll see if it works, if not then I'll have a look round at the NEC next month And thanks v. much to everyone who's replied Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulletguy Posted September 28, 2018 Share Posted September 28, 2018 ColinM50 - 2018-09-28 10:07 AM Well it gets curiouser. I spoke with Teleco's UK agent and they can't/won't help and put me on to one of their dealers. He tells me that this is quite common with people over cranking the twist handle and snapping the mechanism and the only fix is to replace the mast at a cost of £105 for the parts alone, plus labour and recommends I buy a new one for £140 or so. Having taken it apart I've worked out that in reality I can lock it into a horizontal attitude by drilling a couple of v. small holes in the casing and screwing in a self tapper. This means I won't be able to skew it to the vertical but from what I've read on the web it seem that most, not all but most transmitters are horizontal oriented and if I do need a vertical orientation, the app on my phone will show me an alternate transmitter. So I've put it back on and we'll see if it works, if not then I'll have a look round at the NEC next month And thanks v. much to everyone who's replied Colin......it seems the Teleco agent was being a bit too honest for their own good to me! If as they said it's, "quite common with people over cranking the twist handle and snapping the mechanism", you would have thought they'd have addressed that issue to ensure it wasn't possible to do! I had a Status directional aerial on an old van which cranked in a similar way and that worked fine. No idea how old it was but expect it was an original fitment. It was a very good aerial regards reception....the Status omni-directional (flying saucer shape) is complete rubbish by comparison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_richardson Posted September 30, 2018 Share Posted September 30, 2018 artheytrate - 2018-09-22 2:25 PM I’m using one of these on our PVC and the reception is very good £35 Necvox ANT-536 Digital FreeView TV Aerial Antenna Free f type Connector There are some a lot cheaper but I wouldn’t risk the quality of reception. John. Hi John, I've got one of those, but I can only get reception when there is a very strong signal. Regards, Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aandncaravan Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 The Necvox ANT-536 Digital FreeView TV Aerial is sort of compared here against the Moonraker DTV100, which isn't always perfect, but apparently better than the Necvox, see : What is nice about the Moonraker is that all the parts are available as spares, like a new antenna at £10 and mounting hardware, etc. from the manufacturer : https://www.moonraker.eu/leisure/tv-and-fm-radio/dtv-1000 Suggest you carefully cable tie the cables so they don't move in the wind as the way they plug in makes them prone to movement and signal interference. Something the 'reviewer' in the video refers to. Here is a map of UK TV stations for setting up a directional indoor/outdoor antenna or https://ukfree.tv/maps/freeview However, both the Moonraker and Necvox are quite low power (around 20 Db gain'ish) which, to give you an example of what that means, the Indoor based One For All SV9420 Amplified Indoor TV Aerial (£20) claims 42 Db, but even then only a 9 mile range. The more expensive, £55, OFA SV9395 model claims a very respectable 51 Db but like it's cheaper cousin the sv9420 it is a directional indoor antenna so will lose some signal strength from being inside a motorhome/caravan. I am no TV antenna expert, but asking around, the directional Moonraker can be set up to give better overall reception in weaker signal strength areas than the omnidirectional Necvox. Height is key to a good signal in all instances, so a decent extending mast can make a big difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1951Pete Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 We have the normal Visionplus Status directional aerial which works well most of the time. But we have an Avtex aerial as a back up. It has worked everywhere even when the Status failed. Only downsides are the lead needs to be fed into the van via a window and it needs a power source. Avtex TVs have the power source option so we are ok and just need to change a menu setting. Links to the aerial is https://www.capitaloutdoors.co.uk/products/avtex-sth3000?variant=5833698181152&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2b-L6Y3m3QIVw_hRCh0LMAJSEAQYAiABEgLyNPD_BwE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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