TV Antennas for Different Areas

In many countries there are regional variations in the transmission bands used for television which results in different antennas being needed. Here are some of the regional variations.

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In many countries, different sections of the television broadcast different bands are used in different regions. Often the transmissions are grouped together so that the same antenna can be used, but in some cases this may result in antennas with different characteristics being required in some areas.

It may also be that in some countries, different antennas are needed for different stations or television transmissions (if they carry more than one TV channel). These groupings may affect the antennas needed.

UK television antenna groups

Group Colour identification Channel Coverage Frequency Coverage (MHz)
A Red 21 - 37 470 - 606
B Yellow 35 - 53 582 - 734
C/D Green 448 - 68 686 - 854
Wideband (Old) Black 21 - 69 470 - 854
E Brown 35 - 68 582 - 854
K Grey 21 - 48 470 - 696
Wideband (current) Black 21 - 60 470 - 790

Large sections of the television spectrum have now been allocated to mobile communications as a result of the "digital dividend" which was brought about by the change to digital forms of television transmission that are far more efficient in terms of the spectrum usage. This has meant that the many of the old television antenna classifications are now redundant, and no longer are television transmissions made at the upper end of the old bands.

Accordingly Group C/D as well as Group E and the old Wideband classifications are now redundant, leaving only Group A, and B antennas as well as the wideband TV antennas covering the whole UHF television allocation.

As television antennas tend to only be replaced when absolutely necessary, it means that there are many of the old Group C/D and Group E antennas still in action. Although they will work, their performance may not be as good as the modern antennas designed and installed for the new frequency groupings.

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