All posts by Avon tv Aerials of Bath
Below are all of Avon tv Aerials of Bath's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Yes if you need the work, simple short regular adds in the clasified section.
Thats a blast from the past
Regards
Dave
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Hi
Tom Fletcher, A wall bracket is designed to fit on a wall hence why they call them wall brackets
A chimney lashing assembly is designed to be installed on the chimney hence why its called a chimney mounting
Far as the brackets wearing through the corners of the stacks your quite correct, and its due to the rigger not installing the correct brackets for the type of stone.
With bath stone which is soft you should always use a cradle type bracket min 8" using a stub for the mast anything after that up to 6ft use a 12" cradle mount, Anything over 6ft double up on your cradle mounts with twin lashing.
If you were working for me and I caught you drilling holes into a single skin chimney stack you would be sacked on the spot because its not only a bodge its also dangrous.
Far as pricing £150 is very reasonable providing the customer is getting top spec equipment Ie CT100 (solid) downlead which is at least twice the price of cable alot of companys are using, min 1.1/2"16gauge mast depending on hight which alot of companys are using 1"22gauge steel which rust out, 8" galvanized cradle lashing assembly, which again alot of companys are using 6" painted corner mounts or painted wall brackets, and a good quality aerial not like the crap that you see in the shops or contract aerials alot of the companys are using.
The type of aerial used varys on what is required but all are very well made hence the 3 year parts and labour cover we give on full installs.
Most of you that have done your homework on pricing will know that at the very least my kit had doubled in cost price to what is commonly been used out there, but the diffrence is I get zero call back and look/performs the business although a lot less profit im always busy and have been since the early 80s
Regards.
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Hi Adam
I dont take jobs in at your location so cannot comment on what the signal quality to exspect but the errors within the signals your receving are way to high even for standard TV reception your bit error rates need to be zero or at very least close to for best performance.
You need to talk to a local engineer and go from there.
Regards
Dave
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What happened to the days of reading books and of course the radio if you can get reception lol
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Hi
Not been on here for along time now as we been so busy with work, Just looking through the comments on here.
Earlier someone mentioned water ingress within coaxal cable.... Well if the proper cable which is designed for outside installations had been used it would be impossable for water to travel through it, as its a solid construction.
Many riggers are still using airspace type cables which basicaly act as a hose pipe if coming into contact with water.
You may well ask why they use it, the answer is either because its very cheap infact about 75% cheaper than solids we use or they dont know the difference, my guess 50-50.
There are good specification airspaced cables around, but should only be used internally as just one pin prick through the body of the cable will allow water ingress to the point you will be seeing pools of water by your TV etc, worse cases destroying your equipment.
Far as garantees everyone should be giving 2 years parts and labour on full installations, if companys dont offer this it should be ringing alarm bells to the clients to what there actually getting for there money.
We been giving 2 years parts and labour since the year dot, its no problem because we dont get call backs, which says it all.
Ive said this before on here, the aerial trade since going digital is easer than its ever been, all thats needed is commomon sence the right tools and not skimp on the products your supplying even if it costs that little bit more to the customer and you make that little bit less profit.
I still get a giggle now and then and often wonder were alot of these riggers came from, did they actually traine in the field or just gone on one of these 3 day courses and got the tick or what ever, or walked out of sky or telewest and desided they know it all.
Just look around the chimney pots and count the wall brackets thats been used where as they should have been chimney mounting brackets using a strap to even the load.
Go back 20 years ago you would not have seen that at all, why.... because chimneys are quite fragile, there single skin, normally very high, open to all winds and wether, and we were trained the correct way.
Wall brackets are designed for walls, and chimney mounts are for chimneys
No matter how you look at it those stacks are getting damaged and will be lucky to last 10years before the lot comes down, or the very least will need major work.
What suprises me is why local councils etc havent picked up on it because they stick out like sore thumbs, and doesnt take rocket science to see the fucture problems that will arise.
Anyway hope everyone sleeps well tonight lol.
Regards
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Ron Lake:
I have noticed over the last 12 months theres less and less of the out of town boys coming to my neck of the woods.
In my opinion it was the biggest con of the decade.
The media in general can take all the brownie points for putting it on the plate for all the sharks of this world to have a good old feed.
My phones at the change over period were going non stop from customers so worried that they wouldnt be able to receive TV reception on there old equipment.
It wasnt just the shady aerial riggers that were taking advantage of the situation it was also retailers, both large and small, some not that well known and others that have been on the go for years.
Thinking about it quite seriously, if I had personaly took advantage of all the work offered to me directly through my workshops I would have had to employ and train six maybe more aerial installers, which together with public employers liabilty, extra vans ladders, meters, and tools, and together having to make extra profits on top run into alot of money which has to come from somewhere (The customer).
The point im trying to make is, its easy for me to be honest and up front to a customer far as works required because ive always got more work coming in than I can handle.
If I didnt have the work to cover my exspenses then I would proberly be making a rod for my own back.
I won't mention business by name but theres a few that I know actually ceased contracting aerial and satellite work out and then employed staff to do the job after sending them on one of those tick tick courses lol, sorry I always have a giggle when thinking about some poor old customer who gets drawn in by the tick.Theres another one but dont want to get drawn into size does matter politics
Love to know what hands on experience the teachers there have had and have givin to there pupils, because what ive seen, a few of them should be on watch dog, not for ripping people off, but for dangerous installations and over all bad workmanship.
You cant blame the lads because they have never had the chance to be properly trained working along side riggers thats been in the game for years
Its a bit like the sparky saying.... Anyone with a little common sense can make a bulb switch on/off, but wether its safe and done correctly is another story.
Alot will say, ahh but things are different now what with digital reception.
I totaly agree with them, things have never been so easy as what they are now, what with the terestrial transmitters kicking out 100kw instead of 10kw,and alot more of them. Didnt have repeaters in them days,also you now have Satellites kicking out 50watts and upwards up against the 5watts that we old ones were used to back in the mirror vision days needing a 1.6-2m dishs, yes maxwell was in the satellite market years before murdoc, he was feeding cable TV in parts of London.
After saying that the mechs of fixing still should remain the same, its just on a smaller scale.
I know my spelling is poor haha
Regards
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Hi
This is another good example by where a spectrum analyzer is required to do the job correctly, where as by using a ordinary terrestrial meter which gives a read out of signal to noise ratio plus bit rate errors because although the meter will show there is a problem it wont indicate what it is and if infact you have completely erased the fault before leaving your customer.
The spectrum analyzer measures magnitude of signal versus frequency and displays the wanted/unwanted signals so the unwanted signals can be more easily filtered out instead of trial and error/guess work .
Again this is nothing new, especially envolving SMATV TV systems back in the 70s/90s, to set up one of those systems correctly you had to have a spectrum analyzer otherwise you were open to all sorts of problems due to unwanted signals.
Back in them days companies were booking my services to set there gear up for this very reason.
Bare in mind that a spectrum analyzer to do are job was around £3,500 upwards which the £ was worth allot more then,a meter today to do the job will cost you half that so not to bad far as test equipment goes.
Regards
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Hi
To be honest I think it would be very wise to just wait and see, If any of you here are effected and then in the future if you do experience problems don't worry because for most of you we will be able to sort the problem out. If you over react you may end up having work done that was never required, Similar to all the people that rushed a head having new so called digital aerials erected when in most cases there old aerial systems would have worked just fine.
So just wait and keep your money in your pocket.
If there's going to be any problems the bulk of it is going to be due to inferior coaxial cables which allot of contractors have been using.
Don't be mislead that if its twin screen its ok, you cannot go much further from the truth because allot of cables that have and are been used are copper clad, which means its steel or alloy that been very finely coated with a copper layer and the second shield is thin foil which the cable price is a fraction to that of the cable required which which consists of a solid copper core together with the copper braid and copper foil such as Triax TX100 LSF or eq,which is what I use so my own personal customers will be ok.
Ive just quickly worked out that I can buy 1,250 meters of copper clad cable up against a 250 meter drum of TX100, so you can see why allot of riggers have used the copper clad.
Also my opinion been a dealer
I can see some unhappy customers if there getting substituted FreeSat in replacment of Terrestrial where they have been getting reception from a main transmitter because although theres a few different programs available theres programs like Yesterday which is a history channel thats not free via satellite, the only way you can receive it at the moment is subscribing to Sky.
Hopefully that will change In the future. Most of my customers that we have supplied and installed Freesat to are people due to there location could only receive Terrestrial reception via a repeater transmitter where the program choice was and still is very limited.
Regards
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Good comment Andrew
Problem is most customers dont know the difference between good coaxial cable and the inferior type.
And aerial wise just because something is bench marked, doesn't mean its the best
All it means is the manufacture paid CIA to have there stamp put on it which in turn the customers paying for.
Brackets, I use all fully galvanized, but the average customer wouldnt know the difference between brushed galvanized, or even bog standard painted until it started to rust out.
What I would advise to any public here is make sure the dealer is local, IE you know for sure where his premises are because these days you cannot go by just a phone code, make sure they are well established.
Recommendation is excellent as long as the person who is giving it is well known to you.
Lastly but certainly not the least make sure you get at least a 2 year guarantee parts and labour in writing.
If they cant give you 2 years then alarm bells should be ringing because a good quality outside aerial system should last 35-40 years.
Regards
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Saturday 28 May 2011 8:55AM
Ref Elaine
Does make me and the lads grin when we here satellite grade cable quoted, whats all that about?
Its like saying how long is a bit of string.
They should be quoting cable reference numbers, but of course if they did it would open up a different ball game, because half the riggers dont know the difference in grade cables let alone the customers lol.