[tchelseat]

Calling all Wellington dwellers that don't have cable:

We currently have an outdoor antenna and have noticed that once the wind starts blowin' (harder than usual.. what is usual anyway?) our TV reception gets worse. Does anyone here use an indoor antenna with good results?! I've also noticed that we don't get the same basic channels here in Hataitai that we got in Brooklyn. No Maori public television and no Prime. Any thoughts on that one? I'm getting frustrated watching Family Guy sometimes with perfect reception, sometimes with none whatsoever.

[sarahw]

Hi,

We have found that where you live in Welly depends on what channels you get!! We had Prime in Whitby but not here in Paremata - we have an outside antenna - I think we're also missing TV2 or TV3 here in Paremata as well!

Because we brought our main TV's from the UK we also have SKY - so a Sky dish outside but do find that in certain weather 'atmospheric pressure' and 'rain fade' that the channels interrupt, or disappear completely, or the Sky box switches itself off!!

Sorry can't help with the internal antenna (we have no loft space - vaulted ceiling so couldn't have that!)

[tchelseat]

Thanks for your help Sarah. As for the indoor antenna, I was referring to something small that might just sit on top of the TV. Nothing too involved. Anyone else use that sort of indoor antenna with good results?!

Cheers! :)

[clg]

Couple of comments for you. Wellington is windiest in Spring so while this is normal for spring, it is not like this year round. Don't have any suggestions for the antena except checking the fastners on the outdoor atnenna to see if you can tighten it down at all, it if has been up for a while it may have loosened up.

Sarah, as to you comments about rain fade, the new sattelite, launched last week and going on line in about 3 weeks, is supposed to reduce that quite a bit. Hope they are right! We are supposed to get about 25% more channels that they will be rolling out over the next few years.

Chris

[jess]

Hi Chelsea. We didn't have Prime at the rental, and I was told by my neighbors that it's because my antenna on the roof only picked up VHF, and Prime is on UHF (everywhere but Gisborne). They pointed to the long spokes on my antenna and said if I could get UHF I would have some short spokes as well. So maybe if you buy an indoor antenna, ask if it gets UHF. Prime has a page about getting their channel here (http://www.primetv.co.nz/default.asp?t=5).

[Questor]

We couldn't get everything on our aerial here either (before we got Sky) so I wouldn't worry, and just get Sky - even if it ties you in to a 12 month contract, it's worth it just to have the channels with reasonable reception (except of course, for the dreaded rain fade!) :D

[katandbob]

We had the same problem when we moved to Greenhills, I got an Aerial guy to come out = it was an old VHF aerial and we now have a new one - $220 and he was here a few hrs, and we now get perfect tv even when its blowing a gale.

I found that set top ones were not great, you have to fiddle with them everytime you change channels.

hope that helps

Kat

[Moorf]

When it's windy here the rabbit ears sat on our bedroom telly are useless for Prime, but 1 - 4 are usually not too bad.