TV Aerial Installation in Preston & Why I Bolt My Brackets to the Chimney

Recently we went to a call out in Prestonto see about re attaching an aerial to a chimney. The existing aerial was a large high gain version on a tall mast bolted to a bracket which had been attached to the chimney with a lashing kit. The lashing kit is a basic way of attaching the bracket to the chimney using a steel wire that goes around the breadth of the cimney and secured to either end of the bracket. What had happened during the years it had been up there, is that the cable had cut into the mortar and eventually after a storm, it had brought part of the cimney down

This had resulted in damage to not just the chimney, but also to the roof slates where the bricks fell on to, but also it smashed a velux  window. This is one of the main reasons why we dont use lashing kits, since the end results sometimes end up in damaging the property. At Digitec we use a stand off galvanised bracket that is bolted to the chimney ensuring a more secure aerial installation. Not only that, we only use log periodic TV Aerials since they do not use a big back balun or reflector like most aerials and it therefore has less wind load, which is better during windy conditions.

When an aerial is installed correctly it should bring in the strongest signal available with the best quality and it shoulde be fitted in a way that will last for the lifetime of the product. It should never be installed in such a way that after a few yers is starting to cause damage to the property. Below are images of the aerial installation in Preston where we changed the big aerial on a lashing kit to a log periodic version fixed to a stand off bracket that had been securly bolted to the chimney.

The signal quality and strength was so good with this aerial installation that it was possible to split the signal 4 ways with each TV Point in the propertyreceiving a good strong signal.