Antenna or mast tangled in the line to the house?
Keep at least 8 metres back and keep everyone else away. Call Ausgrid on 13 13 88 or Endeavour Energy on 131 003, whichever runs your area, and 000 if anyone's hurt. Don't climb up to free it or pull at the cable, even if it looks dead.
Sydney weather and your antenna
Southerly busters
Expected from October to the end of March, they can swing a northeasterly into a southerly gale within ten minutes. If the picture drops out after one, the antenna may have shifted, so retune and look at it from the ground first.
Coastal gales
The East Coast Low of April 2015 kept gale-force winds going for about 30 hours along the coast, and a tornadic storm in December 2015 produced a 213 km/h gust at Kurnell. A mast on an exposed coastal roof needs fixings to match.
Hail
The 1999 hailstorm damaged about 24,000 houses, and the 2018 storm led to 30,738 residential building claims. After hail, check the antenna and the roof from the ground, and stay off the tiles.
Apartments
With 30.7% of Sydney homes in flats or apartments, plenty of people share a rooftop antenna. If every unit loses the picture at once, start with the strata manager rather than an installer.
Which part needs a Sydney electrician
The antenna and its cable carry signal, not mains power. Under the NSW definition, equipment running at no more than 50 volts AC isn't part of an electrical installation.
A new or moved power point for the TV, soundbar or set-top box is different. That's wiring work for a licensed electrician, and NSW requires a CCEW for it, lodged within 7 days of the work.
Hiding the cords behind a wall-mounted TV is where the two meet. Do it with a power point behind the screen and the antenna plate beside it, never a power board pushed into the wall cavity.
Questions for whoever quotes in Sydney
- Who's fitting the power point behind the TV, and what's their NSW licence number?
- Is the picture problem the antenna, its direction, the cable or the wall plates?
- How will the mast be fixed, given the wind on our street?
- In a unit: is this the building's antenna or ours?
- Will each TV point be tested and labelled?
Try these first, and leave the rest
You can
- Retune the TV after a storm.
- Push the antenna lead firmly into the TV and the wall plate.
- Ask the neighbours whether their picture's gone too.
- Look at the antenna from the ground, never from the roof.
Leave to a licensed electrician
- Power points for the TV, soundbar or set-top box.
- Anything at the switchboard.
- Checking anything electrical that got wet in a storm.
If it were our TV
After a southerly, we'd retune and check the leads before calling anyone, then ask next door. If a new TV is going on the wall, we'd book one visit that covers the power point, the antenna plate and a data point together, with someone licensed doing the power part. And if the antenna ever lands on the service line, we'd ring the network and stay well clear.
Want a specialist to sort it?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match the licence-checked local electrician who does this kind of work, and they call you. No ring-around, and your number goes to them alone.