Short answer: at every pitch you are effectively installing a new aerial. Rank the transmitters from where you are parked, point at the best one, set the rods horizontal or vertical to match it, then retune the TV. And expect fewer channels than at home: holiday areas are relay country, and a relay usually carries only three multiplexes.
Aerial Aligner is built for exactly this, because it does the ranking from GPS with no signal at all. This guide is the routine, with a worked example from a Cornish campsite.
The routine at each pitch
- Open the app and let it take your position. No postcode needed; the ranking is computed on the phone from the bundled Ofcom data, so it works in a field with no mobile coverage.
- Read the ranked list. Note the bearing, polarisation and multiplex count of the top two or three sites.
- Point the aerial using the live compass. Stand by the aerial, turn until the dial is on the target, and lock the mast.
- Set the polarisation. Rods horizontal for a horizontal site, vertical for a relay. Get this wrong and the rest is wasted.
- Retune the TV. Different site, different channels. Point first, then scan.
- If it is poor, try the second-ranked site, particularly if the first has a hill or a caravan storage barn in the way.
Worked example: Padstow
For a postcode in Padstow, the nearest transmitter is Port Isaac, a 70 W relay about 9 km to the north-east, vertically polarised, carrying three multiplexes. The ranking puts it second. First is Caradon Hill, a 100 kW main station 35 km to the east, horizontally polarised, carrying six.
| Site | Power | Distance | Bearing | Polarisation | Multiplexes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caradon Hill | 100 kW | 35.5 km | 95° (E) | Horizontal | 6 |
| Port Isaac | 70 W | 9.4 km | 55° (NE) | Vertical | 3 |
| Redruth | 20 kW | 42.6 km | 210° (SSW) | Horizontal | 6 |
So the aerial points a shade south of due east with the rods horizontal, and you get the full channel line-up rather than the relay’s three-multiplex subset. If the pitch is tucked in behind a ridge to the east, Port Isaac to the north-east becomes the fallback: rods vertical, and accept the shorter channel list.
That fallback pattern is common in touring. Another example: around Porthmadog every site in range is vertically polarised, the strongest two are a pair of co-sited 8 kW and 2 kW transmitters each carrying three multiplexes, and the nearest main station is 43 km away. There, vertical rods and a partial line-up is simply what the area gets.
Why it is nearly always a relay
The UK has 1,130 terrestrial TV transmitters. Only about 130 are horizontally polarised main and regional stations. The rest are low-power relays built to fill in the valleys, coasts and shadows the main stations cannot reach, which is a fair description of where caravan sites are.
Two things follow from the data:
- Relays are vertical. 939 of the 1,042 sites under 1 kW are vertically polarised. If the best site is a relay, the rods go vertical.
- Relays carry three multiplexes. 1,008 of those 1,042 carry exactly three: the public service multiplexes with the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 services. The commercial multiplexes carrying much of the rest of the line-up are on main stations and a small number of larger relays. That is not a fault with your aerial or box; the channels are not being transmitted from that site.
So “I only get about 40 channels here” is, most of the time, the expected result on a relay. The fix, where there is one, is a main station within reach, and the ranked list tells you whether there is.
The aerial itself
Directional or omnidirectional. An omnidirectional aerial needs no pointing, which is tempting on a wet Friday evening. It also gathers less signal and accepts interference from every direction, so it is the first thing to fail on a marginal pitch. A directional aerial has to be pointed, but it works in more places. If you tour rural and coastal areas rather than parking near cities, directional and pointed is the more reliable choice.
Switchable polarisation. Many touring aerials can be rotated through 90° on the mast. If yours cannot, you are committed to one polarisation and will lose the other kind of site entirely. Worth checking before the season.
Height and clearance. Get the aerial above the van roof and away from the awning rail, the bike rack and the next van’s satellite dish. Metal within a few feet of the aerial distorts what it sees.
Amplifiers. A masthead amplifier helps on a weak signal and can overload the tuner on a strong one. Near a main station, try without it first.
Retune after pointing, not before
A TV’s automatic scan tunes to whatever it can hear at the time. If you scan with the aerial pointed at the last site, or lying on the seat, it will pick up whatever leaks in, which may be a distant transmitter with a different channel plan. Then, when you point the aerial properly, the tuned channels do not match the site you are actually receiving. Point first, retune second, every time.
Site hook-ups
Some sites provide a TV connection at the pitch, fed from the site’s own aerial or satellite system. If there is one, use it; the site has done the pointing and usually has a better aerial position than you can manage. The routine above is for when there is not.
Sources
Transmitter positions, powers, polarisations, channels and multiplexes are from Ofcom’s published transmitter parameters, bundled in Aerial Aligner. The counts and the worked examples were computed from that dataset. The signal ranking is the app’s own calibrated estimate and terrain is not modelled, which is why the second-ranked site is worth trying when the first is blocked. Our guides on which way an aerial should point and finding your transmitter go deeper on the ranking and the tuning-menu check.
Dataset counts and the worked examples were computed on 11 September 2026 from the Ofcom transmitter data bundled in Aerial Aligner 2.0. Plan CD is not affiliated with Ofcom, Freeview or any broadcaster.