1 -12/2012
www.TELE-satellite.com/12/11/castelo
68
TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 1 -12/2012
—
www.TELE-satellite.com
Terrestrial
Antenna In an
Elegant
Enclosure
TEST REPORT
DTT Antenna
TELE-satellite focuses usually on sat-
ellite dishes rather than terrestrial an-
tennas. However, as the digital switch-
over takes place almost everywhere in
the world, a new interest in terrestrial
reception arises. And it often entails a
need for a new terrestrial antenna. If
your old antenna is in good condition
and the new digital channels are trans-
mitted with high enough power from the
same direction as the analog ones were,
your system should be fine for new tech-
nology. But if not, you will need to re-
configure your reception system and a
new terrestrial antenna may well be a
part of this job.
AntenasCostelo (
www.antenascastelo
.
com.br) is a manufacturer in Brazil with
more than 40 years of experience. They
have introduced a remarkable little an-
tenna, which can be used both indoors
as outdoors. The M-1038 surprises with
its small size: 23 x 14 cm (9 x 5.5”).
Its black plastic enclosure matches the
shape and proportions of a modern flat
screen TV-set. Upon a closer look, it
turns out it can be installed both hori-
zontally as well as vertically. So, if in
your particular location the vertical po-
sition yields better results, M-1038 can
be assembled in the vertical configura-
tion. If so, it will correspond not to a
modern TV screen but to a loudspeaker
of a home cinema system. If you think
of keeping this antenna outdoors rather
than indoors – no problem. There is a
special holder attached in the kit allow-
ing you to mount the M-1038 on a pole
of 25 - 34 mm diameter (1 through 1-3/8
inches). Our big compliments for the
mechanical design as well as esthetics
to the designers of this product.
The M-1038 is a passive device, mean-
ing it does not have any amplifier built
in. As every TV fan knows, small passive
antennae can not achieve the perfor-
mance of full size systems, like multi-el-
ement yagi antennas installed on a roof
of a building. So, we were hesitating in
what way we should test the M-1038. It
would not be fair to compare it with a
full size outdoor antenna. Finally, we de-
cided to take as our reference the sim-
plest form of an improvised antenna – a
metal rod. After all, many people use
such a solution if TV signals are strong
in their location: Just a segment of wire
connected to the inner wire of the co-
axial cable hooked up to your TV-set’s
antenna input at its other end.
Our improvised rod antenna was 170
AntenasCastelo M-1038
Highly elegantly styled antenna
for in and outdoors