Are you able to still do any new installation that may be required, or do you have to get a relative or friend, or a contractor to dot he work for you?

I have my TV aerial and radio aerial installed on the outside of the house, which I did around twenty years ago myself, but doubt if I would do it again now. Those cables come into the loft through the gable end wall, and plug into a six way amplifier splitter installed in the loft, which feeds a signal to the TV or Radio, depending on what is connect at the other end. Did get up into the loft this week and replace the Amplifier, as the old one had packed up after twenty years. From the checks I've since done, appears to be working again.

Shall probably get round to installing an Aerial point in the back bedroom that I use as my office at the moment. I still have a spare socket on the Aerial Amplifier that I have not yet used. I think I still have enough cable on the roll in the garage, so will need to find it and check the next time I go into the garage .

I was a TV/video recorder engineer in my working days, so I had an aerial erector contact. He put the aerial on the roof and the co-ax into the loft and I took it from there. Freeview reception was was rather marginal because analogue was still being transmitted at the time and digital was not on full power.

I live in a bungalow and the transmitter was in the direction of some huge oak trees just over the road from me. My aerial colleague wasn't too optimistic even though he put up a gain aerial on a 12' pole. Even so, by the time I'd put in a masthead amplifier and a distribution amplifier, the signal to each room was fairly OK with only the occasional drop-out. I say 'masthead' but I put it inside the loft and out of the weather, This meant it was about 13 to 14 feet away from the aerial head. I still thought that would be a better location though.

When analogue transmissions were eventually turned off, the digital signal improved markedly. HD channels can still drop out sometimes when there is high pressure in the atmosphere but SD stays good.

If there was any trouble on the roof, I would probably call out an aerial man. I'd have to pay the going rate now, the same as anyone else. My contact who put the aerial up died some years ago and would have retired by now even if he hadn't, so no more mate's favours for me.

There's a strong signal here and a small aerial in the loft gives a good picture in HD.

Our area never has been well served for signal. It's about 30 miles from London and that was the only direction to beam aerials at for many years. Hannington (Basingstoke) opened eventually and things got better but still not ideal for some spots. Swinging round to Hannington meant changing aerials from group A to group B, so it was quite a while before some people made the switch.

If driving around in our area, aerials can be seen pointing to Hannington on some houses, Crystal Palace on others. A few might even be seen pointing to the Guildford transmitter. Noticeable because these aerials are vertical polarisation rather than horizontal. Lots of people have Sky dishes because of difficult terrestrial signal conditions.