ive tried most "mobile " sorts for use with laptop and not impressed . does anyone use a "home outdoor"aerial like the smaller ones argos and b&q sell for about £10. are the any good and whats the best way of fixing one (i have a cf superspace cab thats all plastic top and not allowed to drill any holes)
how easy is it to tune in i.e. getting a good signal whilst its searching for progs, i use a lappy with a dvbt stick and magmount arieal at the mo
thanks
wot no advice 
Well, getz, when i used to travel the length and breadth of the country in the 70’s I made up a mount using a small exhaust clamp with a piece of round bar fitted into it and clamped permanently onto the offside mirror arm at the top with the bar pointing vertically. I then had a small version of the domestic outside aerial, (intended for internal use, with a plastic base and a square section vertical support to the element section). This was a reasonably tight fit over the bar mounted on the mirror arm when the plastic base was removed from the vertical support of the aerial to keep it from rotating easily in the wind. When I parked up I would look at the surrounding buildings to see which direction their aerials were pointing and if they were vertical or horizontally polarised, ie are the elements horizontal or vertical (very important this as if you get it wrong your received signal will be severely attenuated) and point my aerial in the same direction, feeding the lead into the cab through the window. This was usually good enough to allow me to tune in my telly to the local frequencies and then fine tune the direction of the aerial to get the best reception. I feel certain that this system would still be usable today. To facilitate tuning the aerial easier nowadays Maplin Electronics sell a terrestrial analogue/digital signal strength meter, which you can use to orientate your aerial for the best reception, for around £12.95. This would be very useful if parked up in a place nowhere near any property with a domestic aerial to see which direction to start looking for the best signal.
I hope that the above description of my set-up makes sense to you and feel that it might be the best solution to your problem as it would not need any holes drilled in your unit’s bodywork and is easily transferable between vehicles.
that was one helpful post. i did think of doing something similar but at the back of the cab thereby making it difficult to see screen whilst aligning up. thanks for that i will explore that idea with some zest and let you know how it goes. may take a week or two cos hols is looming 
Glad to have been some help, it’s amazing what you can do with some ingenuity and a bit of bodging. 
just bought this seem best of both worlds. i will be able to position it wheres best and when ness move from truck to truck
thanks for the tipshttp://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI. … 0312406951
kickstart:
Well, getz, when i used to travel the length and breadth of the country in the 70’s I made up a mount using a small exhaust clamp with a piece of round bar fitted into it and clamped permanently onto the offside mirror arm at the top with the bar pointing vertically. I then had a small version of the domestic outside aerial, (intended for internal use, with a plastic base and a square section vertical support to the element section). This was a reasonably tight fit over the bar mounted on the mirror arm when the plastic base was removed from the vertical support of the aerial to keep it from rotating easily in the wind. When I parked up I would look at the surrounding buildings to see which direction their aerials were pointing and if they were vertical or horizontally polarised, ie are the elements horizontal or vertical (very important this as if you get it wrong your received signal will be severely attenuated) and point my aerial in the same direction, feeding the lead into the cab through the window. This was usually good enough to allow me to tune in my telly to the local frequencies and then fine tune the direction of the aerial to get the best reception. I feel certain that this system would still be usable today. To facilitate tuning the aerial easier nowadays Maplin Electronics sell a terrestrial analogue/digital signal strength meter, which you can use to orientate your aerial for the best reception, for around £12.95. This would be very useful if parked up in a place nowhere near any property with a domestic aerial to see which direction to start looking for the best signal.
I hope that the above description of my set-up makes sense to you and feel that it might be the best solution to your problem as it would not need any holes drilled in your unit’s bodywork and is easily transferable between vehicles.
This kind of system seems quite popular with the foreigners, i c them alot parked up with a house aerial attached to the mirror, i have a mobile digital aerial, cant remember what its called but it looks like a bundle of coathangers, its on bottom of rear of cab with a mag mount base, but tbh u’d b cheaper with the above idea and i dare say it’l b just as good, if not better.
TONY5301 was talking about an aerial which looks like a bunch of coathangers, these type of aerial and the Status aerials used on caravans are “omni-directional” aerials, ie they receive signals from all directions, but they can never hold a candle to the “yagi” type (like domestic aerials) as these are highly directional and pull in a much stronger signal, which leads to a far better picture. Also, a little known fact is that you need a far stronger signal to resolve a digital channel than you do for an analogue one, which is why most aerial riggers try to sell you a “High Gain” aerial with many more elements (30+) than the usual 10 element type in use for many years now.
The link about what you have bought getz doesn’t seem to work for some reason, so unable to comment on it.
its an aerial with suckers so i can put it where ever
small compact and seems ok . will let you know when i have tested it
gezt:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120312406951
maybe this link will work kickstart
Not exactly the best when digital is coming in fast 
well i tried a basic home aerial plugged into dongle and lappy and got loads of channels and it wasnt even a digital aerial. so im hoping this will get a few channels more than the magmount im using at the moment. i will post the result when i get it and test it
cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-Caravan-Lorry … 286.c0.m14
This is what I use mind digi only , bolted to wind deflector with a digibox from asda and a colour reversing moniter 
looks good but i would end up catching it on summat 
i keep forgetting stuff like that
That’s the kind of thing getz, only cut the upright support near the bottom above the 90 degree bend, remove the horizontal bar with the suckers, and mount it on the piece of bar (which is a reasonably tight fit inside the square section tubing) clamped to the mirror arm and Robert’s your uncle as they say. Or just leave it as it is and mount it on one of the cab windows if that works for you.
Re Crispy’s aerial, that’s great, but again it’s omni-directional which is why it needs the pre-amp. It won’t be as good as a yagi pointing at the transmitter. Also, it advertises the fact that you have a telly (or better still, perhaps a laptop) in your cab to the light-fingered brigade, whereas the bracket on the mirror arm would mean nothing to the average Scroat (I always removed the aerial after switching off the telly for just this reason)
kickstart:
That’s the kind of thing getz, only cut the upright support near the bottom above the 90 degree bend, remove the horizontal bar with the suckers, and mount it on the piece of bar (which is a reasonably tight fit inside the square section tubing) clamped to the mirror arm and Robert’s your uncle as they say. Or just leave it as it is and mount it on one of the cab windows if that works for you.
Re Crispy’s aerial, that’s great, but again it’s omni-directional which is why it needs the pre-amp. It won’t be as good as a yagi pointing at the transmitter. Also, it advertises the fact that you have a telly (or better still, perhaps a laptop) in your cab to the light-fingered brigade, whereas the bracket on the mirror arm would mean nothing to the average Scroat (I always removed the aerial after switching off the telly for just this reason)
well i was going to use the aerial with the suckers so i could take it off when not in use (trying to avoid light finger brigade) and also be able to reposition it easily to get the best signal depending on where main transmitter is and which way im parked with a curtain sider.
I have seen some ingenious ideas used by the Eastern Bloc drivers to fasten huge satelite dishes and aerials to the trucks. A driver at Van den Bosch had built a tripod attatched by bungees to the roof of the truck and it had an omnimax aerial and a DVBT stick attached. He could then adjust it by pulling a cord through the sunroof.
I was in Ashford the other night, a Hungarian pulled up alongside, unpacked his sat dish and simply clamped it to the truck using those vacuum handles that glass fitters use
It reminded me of my early days of trucking when I built a car radio and speakers into a family choice biscuit tin, couple of crocodile clips to the interior lamp, and a magnetic aerial on the dash of my TK Bedford.
It was like a boom box with crumbs
i had a tk as a removal wagon and fitted an 8 track tape player,whilst the music played wisps of smoke would come from the player. it scared the life out of passengers i was never sure whether i wired a bit dodgy like or if it was a mood feature of the unit:lol:
well i got said aerial and it seems to work a treat,loads of channels ,all clear as a bell.
its easy to erect and move about cos its swivels and rotates whilst been stuck to truck. and it does stick ,i have left it on the back for 3 days and its not moved.
im happy an all for £20
I have just read this and I have got a Digi aeriel the sort that is used on a house, it is fixed to a golf brolley holder that is permantly fixed to the mirror arm, so I can rotate it and remove it when i’ve finished watching tv.
This works great it has never let me down anywhere and i get at least 80 channels every night!!. This all cost …£15.