Australian-made antennas · 25-year manufacturer warranty
Pixelation, missing channels, storm damage. The service call is credited toward the fix, and most repairs are done in the same visit from stock on the ute.
What actually goes wrong
Genuinely dead antennas are rare. These are the usual suspects, roughly in order of how often the meter finds them.
An antenna aimed at Mount Coot-tha needs to be horizontal; one on Darlington Range needs to be vertical. Wrong plane works on clear days and fails in weather. The fix is realignment - or the right antenna if the hardware is wrong-band.
Queensland humidity plus a 15-year-old crimp equals half your signal gone. The join looks fine from the outside; the meter says otherwise. Remade with weather-sealed fittings, it stays fixed.
Parts of Brisbane receive Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast signals well enough for auto-tune to store them - then those channels break up because they were never meant for you. Free fix: manual retune, delete the strays. We talk you through it on the phone before charging anything.
Close to a 50 kW transmitter, a booster overloads the tuner - the picture gets worse, not better. A quarter of inner-Brisbane “weak signal” jobs end with us removing an amplifier, not adding one.
Bent elements, a rotated mast, chewed cable - south-east Queensland specials. Made safe first, then repaired or replaced with a written, photographed report your insurer will accept.
Aluminium does not wear out. If a quote starts with “you need a whole new antenna” before anyone has put a meter on the system, get a second opinion - ours, ideally.
How a repair runs
Suburb plus symptoms often names the fault - and if it is the wrong-city retune, we fix it right there on the phone for nothing.
Readings at the antenna, the splitter and the outlet isolate the fault to a component instead of a theory.
Connections, splitters, amplifiers, mast hardware and common antennas are on board - most repairs finish the same visit, with the service call credited. Adding an extra TV point while the system is open is the cheapest time to do it.
Before-and-after signal figures at handover. If we recommend replacement instead, the numbers will show you why - see antenna installation for what that involves.
The honest call
Yes - with the meter reading to justify it, not a shrug. Realignments, corroded connectors and single bent elements are repairs. Snapped booms, structural corrosion and antennas in the wrong band or plane for your transmitter are replacements, because repairing those buys months, not years. When it is a replacement, the new antenna is Australian-made and carries a 25-year manufacturer warranty, so you are not having this conversation again. The full decision table, including the storm-insurance evidence checklist, is published in our repair-or-replace guide; cost context lives in the antenna cost guide.
Before you call
Half of repair calls are solved by one of these guides before anyone climbs a ladder. Read the one that matches the symptom.
Pixelation in rain, missing networks, a picture that comes and goes: which fault each symptom points to.
The retune, the cable and the splitter checks that fix it for free, before you pay anyone.
Safety first, then the photos your insurer needs, then the repair that holds.
The improvements that beat any booster, and when an amplifier actively does harm.
Repair questions
Describe the picture and your suburb - a good half of repair calls can be triaged on the phone.
Call 0467 098 943The meter decides, not the salesman. A structurally sound antenna on the right transmitter usually just needs realignment, a corroded connection remade, or a tired splitter swapped - a quick, inexpensive fix. Replacement earns its money when the antenna is physically failing, on the wrong band for your transmitter, or so old it predates the digital channel plan. We tell you which, with the reading to back it.
Classic marginal-signal symptoms. Wind moves an antenna whose mount has loosened; rain attenuates a signal that was already borderline. The common root causes in Brisbane: an antenna on the wrong polarisation for its transmitter, a rusted connection dropping half the signal, or foliage that has grown into the signal path since the antenna went up. All three are findable with a meter in one visit.
Usually one of two things. If the missing channels all belong to one network, that network's frequency is arriving weaker - an aiming or band problem. If channels appear and disappear, your TV may have auto-tuned to a distant transmitter (Sunshine Coast or Gold Coast signals reach parts of Brisbane) and stored the wrong versions. That second one is a free fix: a manual retune, which we will talk you through on the phone before booking anything.
Yes. After a storm we make the antenna safe first - a dangling mast is a hazard - then assess whether it is a re-fix or a replacement. You get a written report with photos and an itemised quote in the format insurers ask for. Storm weeks book out fast; call early.
The service call - signal check, diagnosis, retune - is a fixed fee quoted when you book, credited toward the repair if we fix it the same visit. Component swaps are quoted on the spot from the ute's stock, and everything is covered by our price promise.
Get a price
Tell us your suburb and what the picture is doing. If it is the free fix, we will say so.
Or email info@toplineantennas.com