Australian Made TV Antennas
Is anything made in Australia anymore? Yep, Matchmaster a brand synonymous with Australia has been around for 80 years. They sell and manufacture a range of Australian made TV antennas from Australian Aluminium. The construction of these TV antennas is unsurpassed by the thick 10 mm elements and powder-coated booms making them the only TV antenna with a lifetime replacement guarantee. Sure they have some made in china too but these are also superior quality and outperform any of the try-hards that flood the shelves.
Coaxial Cable
So often overlooked in many installations, coaxial cable is the missing link and lifeline to good quality TV reception. RG6 Quad is the term used but is blatantly taken out of contexed and misrepresented in many situations. The cable should be industry approved and have specifications to match its claim the only cable The Antenna Company sells for TV antenna installations is Foxtel Optus approved RG6 Quad cable. The other thing to mention is that the cable needs to be user-friendly. A lot of the cheap cables are bonded and make it near impossible to use for crimp or compression connectors making it virtually unusable. Retail stores are a contributor to this, providing fancy packaging with gold ends OOOHH gold ends! This means nothing. The centre core of the cable is the conduit, and most of the off the shelf cables are so thin internally that simply removing them from the packet can break the internal wire. Yes, this is true and I have had people spend $20 on a 1.5 meters lead and still have bad results. I come along plug in a real quality fairly priced RG6 quad prefab lead and the TV starts working. I have seen by using my test meter a 40% increase in overall signal strength simply by using a good piece of coax.
Plugs & Connectors
Another weak link is the connectors. Compression or crimp is the only way to go, when you are in a strong reception area you tend to be able to get away with a lot as the signal still passes but struggles. As soon as there is a little bit of interference or a light switch turning on, a lawnmower down the road, then this is the time you wish you spent the extra money to get the right gear. every time a connection is made or added it depletes the signal by 1.5 DB which may not sound like much, but four connections could be the difference between success or failure. Your TV has a working threshold and once the level drops below what’s required the cracks start appearing. 38 dbuv to 90 dbuv anything under it will fail anything over it will fail. The quality of connectors is a minefield as well, there is tin, copper, brass, and nickel. The tin is the cheapest and nastiest, then followed by copper which is too soft. Nickel coated brass is the best, of coarse its a whisker more but it’s quality the cheap ones break, collapse, fold, snap, bend, disintegrate.
Mounting Hardware
Once again the big warehouse that sells everything is profit-based and the mounts you buy from there are atrocious, flimsy rustworthy tin that wouldn’t last 3 years. GALVANISED is the only way to go and all my poles and tripods are AUSTRALIAN made galvanised steel. J brackets are a true 90deg bend, not 70, 0r, 110- TRUE 90, the cheap tin ones allow you to bend them but, they snap if bent straight. How frustrating, time-consuming and a waste of money.
TV Wall Mounts
This is a world of its own, so many on the market, once again its profit-driven, but this time it’s different. You pay for a good bracket and the cheaps ones are online on some eBay stores for half the price of what one cost me to buy. Why? Well, they are nasty thin flimsy mounts. A quality mount is expensive 20 – 30 inch @$40 30 – 55 @$65 55 55 up $85 to $200 plus the good ones are heavy and powder coated not painted, so be diligent with your money quality does last longer.
If you want to buy quality Australian made TV Antennas that last, then check out our website where you can shop online: https://theantennacompany.com.au/shop/
If you still not 100% on what to buy, get in touch with me, John, at The Antenna Company and I’ll happily provide you with the right advice from my 30+ years of industry experience.
