Hi,
I have question about Antenna installation, house has central TV antenna hub, all internally connected. Just need to put an antenna at the top. What is an approximate price for buying an antenna and putting it up? It is DIY thing?
What Is an Approximate Price for Buying an Antenna and Putting It up? It Is DIY Thing?
vaccant on 29/05/2017 - 12:46
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that's not very ozbargainy
this question isnt very ozbargainy
Yeah, where are the bargains???
lol true that
I think they're $50-$100 at Bunnings, probably want to pay an electrician or qualified person to attach it for you.
Did you already have an antenna up there before? Is there already a mounting pole for it and a cable running up to it?
I once did a DIY job on replacing a 30 year old broken antenna but the cable and pole were still fine. Cost like $150 from Bunnings for the antenna and a balun connector. I just used $2 side cutters to carefully strip the cable.
It worked okay. However I think the professionals have a special digital tool to fine tune the optimal position of the antenna? Actually, I think this is the DIY cheap version of the tool: https://www.bunnings.com.au/antsig-digital-tv-signal-meter-w…
How close are you to the TV transmission towers in your city? There's different size antennas depending on how strong a signal you get.
This guide might help you out too: https://www.digitaltvhelp.com.au/install-digital-tv-antenna/
The quotes I am getting from pro are are $300 mark, is it a reasonable price?
Did you read my comment?
So does $300 include a mounting pole and antenna? As altomic says, an antenna can cost as little as $75 at Bunnings. And look at the guide I linked to decide if you are willing to give it a go.
You can get this antenna for $22 delivered right now, it's normally $39…
https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/32-element-log-periodic-tv-hdtv…
To give you an I think we paid around $250 to have an antenna installed for our new house back in 2010. That price also included having a splitter box installed inside the roof space, connecting to multiple antenna outlets. We're based in Brisbane. Who knew newly built houses don't automatically come with antenna?!
Who knew newly built houses don't automatically come with antenna?!
You should have; you bought the place.
Have a look at the direction of the antennas on the houses around you and point it in the same direction.
Buy your antenna from bunnings. They usually have a map which suggests which antenna is best for which which area.
That's what I did when my antenna died.
I think I paid about $70.
As per the above.
If you're in a reasonable signal area a DIY will be fine.
If not then get a pro.
Don't forget to use UV resistant sealant if you're puncturing the roof.
Get a professional to do it please. How are you going to figure out what direction to point it to? If you're in a strong signal area then it may not matter as much. If you're in a weak signal area then that's when a pro will be worth his $$.
It is pretty easy to look around your neighbourhood to work out what the local antennas look like and which way they are pointing. You don't really have to guess.
Do agree that a pro is probably worth it for a weak signal area.
The quotes I am getting from pro are are $300 mark, is it a reasonable price?
I think that's about how much we paid for ours recently.. with about three separate wiring cables.
if you were in North Bris I'd install it for you for a 6pack of cold beer. it's a piece of cake to do.
put together antenna.
attach antenna to top of antenna pole (using the bracket that came with the new antenna)
attach 2 wires.
point antenna in direct of other antennas in your area.
yell out to someone in the house if the picture on the TV is good.
if the picture is meh then try a slightly different direction
if it's good then carefully exit the roof and have a cold drink.
Which band antenna? Multi band? High gain?
300 ohm ribbon or 75 ohm coax?
Does the antenna have an 'inbuilt' balun?
Is a mast head amplifier/Suppressor/filter required? What frequencies to boost/suppress/filter?
@Thatwey: multiband, used the existing coax, inbuilt balun, no mast head amp/sup/filter required. UHF.
Hes not exactly going to kill himself doing it. Even if he does it wrong or it takes ages he will learn something in the process.
Unless he falls off the roof.
Yeah I've spend thousands on professional services to get footballs off the roof it's so dangerous but you just gota bite the bullet and pay $200 every time one lands on it.
@Zondor:
The important part is that you're safe Zon, I don't know what I would do if you had the sweet taste of success reaching that football but then falling to your death. It would be a sad day for all.@manshrew: No, it would be a glorious day any my family would proceed to drink in my honor as my soul ascends to Valhalla.
@Zondor: Can't you just lean a ladder to the side of the roof, climb it and use a stick to knock the ball off?
As others have said look at neighbouring antennas. If you want to be exact do this:
1.) Enter your address here: https://myswitch.digitalready.gov.au/
2.) select 'Antenna setup guide' in 'Coverage summary'
3.) take bearing of transmitter and use a compass to orientate your antenna
Yup, I recently moved into a house. Paid the electric company $250 for installation along with 3 separate wiring cables. But again the same company did electrical work on rest of the house so might be $50 cheaper than someone coming one-off to install an antenna.
The price shocked me too! Another thing that I was shocked to hear was a wired door bell is $250 installed. It looked like a lot to me at that point.
electrictian price are always shocking…..
Ohm my God that's so bad it hertz.
Yeh i almost died when we got the intercom wired to the front gate… Just to run the 2 cables in conduit and a PowerPoint was $700°°and i dug the damn trench…
It's a chunk of metal. Have you ever done some roof fixings or fixed down a post before? If so you can do it yourself, if not, well, get someone else.
Simple diy job if you have safe roof access. Click it together, bolt up, plug in (matching what you previously had). Point in same direction as old one. If reception isn't good, adjust until good. Should cost you about $80 or so.
you can get apps that tell you which way the nearest tower is and then the compass helps you line it up.
disclaimer, used it to point my indoor antennae the right way
I'd put it as a med-hard DIY job… try to get a accredited tradie mate or you could create a leaking roof…
dont buy bulky antenna from Bunning…
Buy a Log Periodic antenna.
I have bought 3 on ebay and wired up my house, my sisters and our country farm house and they work really well in city and fringe areas.
They a smaller in size than normal antennas but really powerful and do not require an amplifier to boost the signal. The smaller size means that birds dont sit on them and cr@p all over your roof - good on the farm as we are on rain water.I was put onto Log Periodic Digital Antennas from the tv installer at our country farm. He said he wont install any other antenna now as these work really well especially in poor reception areas like our farm is in. Go figure. perfect signal and no amplifier.
the ones that are ~$22 delivered?
A Log Periodic is a good bench mark antenna for determining if you need a more specialized option but it is often not the best choice for certain areas. It will often not have more than 6db gain and most are UHF/VHF combinations, and the OP may need only VHF or UHF depending on location. Log Periodic models are the type sold as a generic option, as they are in most cases ok for most areas.
The below Kingray models from Jaycar are good options depending on where you live.
https://www.jaycar.com.au/4-element-vhf-yagi-digital-tv-ante…
https://www.jaycar.com.au/6-element-vhf-yagi-digital-tv-ante…
https://www.jaycar.com.au/heavy-duty-uhf-phased-array-tv-ant…
Had a new antenna installed about 6 months ago, on a single story roof, with new cable run to 2 existing F type wall sockets.
Also installed a masthead amplifier with mobile phone tower choke, as I didn't have direct line of sight to Mt Tambourine transmitter and the moble tower was directly in line with the tv transmitter.
Located on the northern Gold Coast and it cost just under $400.
Now have excellent clear reception.
I paid someone local $300 to supply an antenna, install it and run 2x back to back sockets on the wall. It's pretty easy to do on your own, but I hate going up on the roof and crawling in the ceiling.
Especially if you have blown in insulation.
Agree that in a bad reception area, certainly don't do it.
However Ensure you have the person who will get it right.
My Dad had bad reception for almost 25 years and several guys. Then found one that got it perfectly. The height required there was very high - and he was in top of a hill. Direction was very touchy too. Long antennas can be dangerous - he the neighbours once - didn't go well at all!
My husband will go sockets etc but inside but will not touch the antenna. He is not fond about to Ives but the ceiling space where the antenna is needed is very small.
Im a big OZ-B'nr. You can DIY but you need to risk hights and hospitals are full of men with broken ancles and bones from ladder and roof falls.
I have also done my own ariels and found out that I saved nothing and cost myself, good reception!
$300 sounds high to me though, Id shop around
The ariels installers use are better than most you have easy access too, even supplying your own ariel makes sod all differecne to instalelrs as its about TIME, travel and INSURANCE
If neighbours get good easy reception, maybe try to do it yourself but have a mate over to help hand things up and hold the ladder. its worth it, DIY and roofs are not EVER a saving!
Indeed. The last time I went I could barely open the hospital door because of the huge pile of men with broken ankles from roof falls filling the entrance hall. Open a cupboard and another one would fall out.
Everyone here's arguing about whether it's a DIY job or if the ridiculous prices pro's will charge is worth it, isn't the true ozbargain way to make OP question if an antenna is even worth it, will you even watch crappy FTA?, $300 is a lot of netflix and so on
This.
You're paying to put in an antenna to watch advertisements, sensationalized "news", and cut down versions of old movies.
The news gets a lot of their footage from, or footage ends up on, YouTube anyway.
You can watch the cut down old movies and TV shows on the free to air online catchup services anyway.
Replaced my old antenna on the weekend, went to Bunnings and got the mid-range one about $70. Works a treat, took ten minutes to change over using existing pole and cabling :)
Hop on myswitch gov website, find out the angle you need to point it to for your tower reception, jump on roof and use a compass app on your phone. Too easy
You can usually get supply and installs for around the $150-$200 mark - just look on google/gumtree. I just had my old one replaced for $160.
I don't have a ladder and couldn't justify buying one for the sake of just installing an antenna.
are you in syd? do you have the number of guy who did your job?
ThanksSorry mate, in QLD. I just found my through google though
Old homes: asbestos concerns.
It can be a DIY thing, if you are willing to DIY. If deciding to do it yourself (from scratch), I would get all the small parts from China (ebay or similar) and only get the uneconomical bits here. I'd try to find a helper on the first go.I read a few of you replacing old antenna. Does signal get weaker as antenna gets old? I need to know when so I can look out for a good deal.
Antennas do corrode after long periods so that is the usual reason for replacement. Often the antenna installed to a property will be one of the old Yagi designs (often not having the higher UHF arms as well) and a Phased Array is an often upgrade. Both available Bunnings, Jaycar, etc.
txaustralia.com.au will tell you where your nearest tower is, aim that way. Adjust until clear. If you are in a fringe area. Determine whether the signal is vertically or horizontally polarised at your local tower; if you are not sure check which way the others around your area are turned.
From memory the market is about $230-$280 for a basic one assuming you have the points wired up and a splitter already in the roof. Otherwise they'll try and charge you extra for everything. That'll inc. reasonable wiring, bracket, set up, antenna and labour.
If you can get your own antenna with all the correct parts and lucky enough to get labour only I'd be happy with anything under $100-120. It really does take them less than an hour if your roof inside and out is in good condition and everything wired up.
Problem with these things is sometimes you don't get the right antenna, don't have all the parts, don't know what's going on with the wiring or what's happening in the roof. For a few bucks and the right person I'd get one person to hook it all up and not run around too much.
Coincidentally,,a mate just told me he had a quote to replace his antenna, the guy quoted him $650 plus replace cables to 3 outlets,, I tried to convince him that was a complete and utter ripoff, but he had already accepted the quote and submitted his credit card no.!!! Conversation over!!! But I work as an occasional handyman/maintenance, and was pretty sure we could have done that for much much less than half of that price,, not my money but the cheapskate in me was completely p*ssed off about it. Just saying.
I bought my antenna and accessories from Wagner https://www.wagneronline.com.au/tv-antenna-and-satellite/av-…
SO MUCH BAD INFORMATION HERE!
People do NOT understand how antennas work, or that there's more to it than just sticking a cable up.
What about splitters? Masthead amplifiers? Sources of interference? How do you know what condition your existing cabling is in?
GET A PROFESSIONAL.
Which reminds me, I need a new antenna for my Nanna's house.
Sometimes, it just works connecting a cable to the antenna.
If it works, it works, if not, call the pros in. No big deal and you won't damage anything other than your ego.
That's fair… but why would there be everything in place bar the antenna? Seems odd is all!
Most of the time it's just a replacement of the external antenna.
Plus splitters and wall plates are cheap as chips.
but it's not the ozbargain way. It isn't that hard to cable up an antenna, or replace an existing. If you are in a poor reception area it pays to get some expert advice. Otherwise you'll need to know about signal amplifiers or if you need to run multiples outlets you will need to learn about splitters. You might need to know about sources of interference too if something has been going wrong.
I paid $290 for supply and install of a good quality antenna (we're in a bad area), wiring to 3 points, splitter, pole and testing all the points. I was happy to pay for piece of mind that my roof won't leak and all the parts were appropriate for my house.
The labour prices tradies charge in this country is a joke.
If you have the general know how, time and it's legal (don't think antenna needs any electrical cert stuff) then I'd definitely give it a crack.My roof access is crap though (looks a bit steep/dangerous) so I probably wouldn't DIY for my house.
Chromecast with Freeview FV app might be easier than doing the antenna installation or whinging about the cost of it.
If you're going to put up an antenna, get a few cable ties and put them on there with the long end facing up, it deters bigger birds from landing on it.
Chromecast and Freeview Fv app was locked out from streaming State of Origin last night, only displayed stats and a notice saying to tune in to 9 or 9HD
I had bad reception & used these guys Jims Antennas and found them to not be outrageously priced… was very happy with result
they also offer free quotes, so you could compare to what you already have ?
Hi shouldn't need to pay more than $50 if pre wired and $90 if double storey
$50 lol? kids at coles earn $21 an hour these days, no qualified tradesman is going to come out and install an antenna for $50.
What on earth are you basing this on? The antenna alone would run in the order of $70+, plus at least $150 for the installation service.
Installation cost only. Pre wired house. So trady just has to install antenna no wiring or buying the antenna.
We paid $90.
Me thinks its one of those indoor antennas
Hang on, I'll just google it for you
I used an app to see where my local transmitter was and used that against the antenna to make sure the correct orrientation. Cant remeber the app and that was with my old iphone.
Made getting the direction a breeze.Everyone making it sound so hard!
I bought an antenna from Aldi marked down to $30, bolted it to the eaves, drilled a hole for the cable through the cement sheeting, ran it inside and connected it to the prewired coax in the roof.
I got lucky and magically pointed it in the right direction, as we live in a poor coverage area.
I just moved into a new house with Coaxial cable already run to points and left in the roof cavity. I purchased this antenna (http://www.selby.com.au/32-element-tv-antenna-vhf-uhf-log-pe…). I also purchased 3 way splitter (I have 3 points in house) and some extra cable from Bunnings plus some f type connectors from Jaycar (all up extras cost under $30). I already purchased an antenna mount earlier in the year around $20. Took under 1 hour to install. Pointed it in the same direction as the other houses in the street and have no reception problems. If you have reception issues in your area you may need amplifier and may need help with correct placement.
I had the opposite problem. My antenna was fine but the cabling needed replacement as digital reception was poor. To the point whole channels were missing.
They put in quad shielded rg6.
Seemed that i was getting interference from the led lights. As well dishwasher and microwave. All good after that.
I had same experience. Pays to check if you already have quad shield coax in good condition before changing antenna.
Use rabbit ears. They work better than you'd expect.
Had used this in my old house. Just had to have it on the window sill and it worked fine (most of the time). Just used the $6 kmart type.
Yep what I used to do in my rental. Isn't the worst thing around, just looks a little ugly.
Paid $200 last month for a digital replacement (20 years old antenna) with a local antenna contractor. He tested (before and after) all the signals from each TV wall outlet to ensure the signal strength are good.
I put this one up myself, it works great, and was a third of the size of the one it replaced:
http://www.gregorysantennas.com.au/store/p7/lp35%2C34_%2C45_ _Poltec.html
You can get the exact location of the transmitters from the ABC site and work out the exact angle too. But usually it's sufficient to look at your neighbours'.
Had my antenna from the 1980s replaced 3 months ago for $170 installed. Received some quotes that went to $700 because the antenna was Australian made….note that a new mount wasn't needed so that kept the cost down by $75.
Use Hipages or classified to get quotes and go with the cheapest (as all ozbargainers should do) with reliable reviews.
Just buy a chrome cast and stream your TV.
I've had excellent results with attaching a coaxial cable from the television to a balun, and then making a loop of aluminium foil and sticking it to a (ground floor) window in a inner city street of terrace houses. Cost was about $12 for the balun.
Looks like you are a conspiracy theorist from the street, but can't get cheaper.
$6 Rabbit ears are a great option if they work in your area. But the aluminium foil and balun picked up more channels.
Watch out for old asbestos roofing material.
$150 -180 antenna + install by a tradie.
Anyone charging more is ripping you off.
I paid $320 with booster, install.
Mine was like the really ancient one back in the 1950's. I do live in Sydney but I prefer my health over it when my antenna was so dangerously hard to install. I even got scared with the tradie installing it because it was just perched so high.
He did all tests so it was working great plus warranty.
I believe you have internet connection, buy android tv box wifi on ebay,install kodi + mx-australian-live-tv-kodi addon, you can watch tv from all states.
wait a sec.. do you have a fiber optic connection for your internet? actually you don't need antenna.
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Call a TV antenna install company