"Rob" wrote in message
...
Ian Jackson wrote:
In the UK, I don't think that many homes use installed omnidirectional
antennas. You see some on caravans and mobile homes, and on boats, but
never on houses. Those living close to the transmitter might use
'rabbit's ears' set-top antennas (or some fancy variant) - especially
now that all TV is UHF (small antenna) and 'you can get away with
murder' digital - but you don't see any proper installations.

One big difference between the UK and many other countries (and in
particular the USA) is that we have generally received all our TV
signals from one direction (initially from closely-located transmitter
masts, and latterly from a single mast). It is only in outlying 'fringe'
areas where you used to see homes with two (or more) antennas pointing
in different directions - and as the TV signals were weak, these were
always high-gain yagis.

Here in the Netherlands, the original state TV programs were transmitted
from about 8 high towers spread around our (small, flat) country, and
yagis
were used by everyone. Closeby for the required directivity to avoid
ghost pictures, further away for the additional gain.

In the seventies and early eighties, all cities got cable TV.
Commercial TV and programmes from other countries were introduced only
on cable TV and later on direct-to-home satellite, they were not
transmitted on the analog network. Yagis disappeared from the rooftops.

Later a digital terrestrial TV network was deployed in the most densely
populated areas of the country and it includes both state and commercial
TV, but it operates using a dense network of lower powered and lower
height transmitters (usually on tall buildings) so the nearby transmitter
is often at most 10km away.
This means users can often employ small nondirective antennas typically
placed on the windowsill near the TV. It often does not work completely
satisfactorily, but the digital terrestrial TV network is inferior
in quality and channel repertoire to cable and satellite anyway, and
mainly used by those with low quality requirements and by mobile users.

When the analog network was shut down, the existing towers were fitted
with transmitters for the digital terrestrial network, to act as coverage
for less populated areas. People there would have to use yagis, but
they are seldomly seen as most had installed satellite dishes by then.

The programming and distribution companies are separate, so there is no
issue with receiving different programmes from different directions.
(all transmitters transmit all TV programmes available on the system)
This is probably the same as in the UK.

With the exception of regional "opt-outs", this is true.
--
;-)
..
73 de Frank Turner-Smith G3VKI - mine's a pint.
..
http://turner-smith.co.uk