Communal aerials in a seasonal town
Creixell goes from a quiet village in winter to a full one in summer, and that difference shows up in the communal aerials. Plenty of the systems in the beachfront blocks and on the estates spend months with nobody switching a television on, with no maintenance and exposed to the sea air. When the owners come back, the complaints all arrive at once.
Unlike an aerial serving one home, in an apartment block any fault in the head-end or the main run affects several flats. That is why we work on the whole building rather than a single socket. Everything the service covers is under communal TV aerials.
Common faults in Creixell blocks
These are the symptoms we find most often in the town’s apartment blocks:
- Channels missing in some flats but not others. Usually a tap-off with damp in it, or a badly terminated socket cutting the signal to the flats below.
- A picture that freezes for no obvious reason. Older head-ends with no filter against mobile phone signals, which have occupied the 700 MHz band since the second digital dividend.
- Low levels right across the block. A UHF aerial knocked out of line by the wind, or an amplifier at the end of its life.
- Individual dishes that move. Balcony dishes on corroded brackets that lose the satellite in any storm.
With a field meter we check every channel at the head-end and at sockets on different floors, so the quote covers what is actually wrong.
Renewing the head-end without rebuilding the block
In many Creixell buildings there is no need to strip the whole installation out. A typical job involves:
- Replacing the head-end unit with a programmable one with an LTE/5G filter, set for the channels received locally.
- Changing exposed connectors and boxes for weatherproof, corrosion-resistant parts.
- Checking the mast and its fixings after the easterly storms.
- Balancing the distribution so the first floor and the top floor get similar levels.
If the cable in the main run has deteriorated, or the building has been extended, we set that out separately so the owners can decide.
A communal dish for residents from abroad
The beach area has plenty of owners who want channels from home. A communal satellite dish with a multiswitch gives satellite to whoever wants it from a single dish on the roof, pointed at Astra 19.2° E or Hispasat 30° W. It is far more reliable than dozens of balcony dishes and keeps the facade clear. For houses with their own aerial, see TV aerials and satellite dishes.
A check before the summer
We suggest that Creixell buildings book a spring visit: measurements at the head-end and the sockets, a look at the state of the roof and the dish, and a report splitting the urgent work from what can wait. The free quote comes in writing, ready for the owners’ meeting.
We come along the coast from Salou and look after buildings in Torredembarra on the same run. There is more about the town on our Creixell page.