Neil,
You're area is a known reception blackspot in Bristol. Due to the hills and tall building it makes getting decent reception quite tricky.
I did an aerial install not too far from you the other week, up near the train station.
I found it impossible to get decent analogue reception. I had the choice of three transmitters as well.
* Mendip, the transmitter is at Priddy, it's the main transmitter and most of Bristol are on it. It transmits 1-5Analogue and all Digital stations.
* There is a transmitter on station road, you may of noticed it. Near the arches. It's named Montpelier. It only transmits analogue and was built to cover your area. AFAIK it's being decommissioned with digital switch over.
* There is also a transmitter up at Blaise Castle, called King's Weston (after the hill it's on). This covers the north of Bristol and transmits Analogue 1-4 and All Digital services.
The install I did I had to use the Mendip transmitter. Digital came through perfectly clean but analogue was hopeless. As the customer had Freeview boxes for every TV they were not interested in analogue, they were also not expecting it as they knew the area was very poor for reception.
Chucking an aerial on top of a wardrobe will not really work. The amplitude of a wave measured from lowest to highest is around 1m so ideally you want at least that, unobstructed either side of the aerial.
If you use Mendip then the signal is what's called, vertically polarised. That means that it travels through the air like looking like a wave on the sea.
King's Weston is horizontally polarised so it's wave travels through the air like a snake in the grass. This means you have to mount the aerial so that the elements are vertical.
The above is a bit simplified but I am sure you will get the idea.
For reference Kings Weston is about North West and Mendip is pretty much bang on South. However, due to the landscape, hill's etc... it's not always a case of sticking the aerial in the rough direction.
Hope this is of some help.
