BOATS AND CANALS

8th June 2008

Well I've returned from the boat and probably have to hand back membership of the engineering council!

We had a vertical aerial, with a grid behind and set of 4 diamond shapes on the front. It as great for analogue TV and even worked when in the front cockpit on the move. No digital though.

I bought a huge pole in 4 bits and a high gain house aerial. We could barely lift it let alone put it on the pole. The pole was supposed to have a clip to clip to a caravan for support but that didn't work on the slopping deep boat roof.

We saw a better one at Crick from Roadpro. I tried it on a short pole and it still didn't work.

Maybe I needed the full height, so I bought some guy lines for tents, found a big bit of metal for the clip and two large clamps, now it would work!! Just to be on the safe side I bought an aerial meter (about £14). I tried the meter at home and got a score of 80 out of a hundred from the roof aerial.

Back to the boat, the pole is up, the roadpro aerial is on, the guy ropes are secure, the meter reads 80!!!! The TV doesn't work!!!!!!!


At last I read the instruction manual for the TV and realised I had misunderstood the logic of the controls. Tuned it in, it worked!! Then I tried the old aerial in the front of the boat, it worked too!!!!!!!!!!!!! Agggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

I had another problem with the MP3 player to radio connection again, at last, I read the manual.

Oh dear.

Cheers Graham