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Freeview Light on the Newcastle (Northern Ireland) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps54.203,-5.914 or 54°12'12"N 5°54'50"Wsa_postcodeBT33 0GR

 

The symbol shows the location of the Newcastle (Northern Ireland) transmitter which serves 4,400 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Newcastle (Northern Ireland) mast?

NEWCASTLE transmitter - DAB: Off the air due to a fault from 21 Jan 21:15 until 22 Jan 16:15. . BBC


Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
_______

Which Freeview channels does the Newcastle transmitter broadcast?

If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.

Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 V max
C40 (626.0MHz)269mDTG-800W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) Northern Ireland, 2 BBC Two Northern Ireland, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 14 others

PSB2
D3+4
 V max
C43 (650.0MHz)269mDTG-800W
Channel icons
3 UTV (SD) (UTV), 4 Channel 4 (SD) NI ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 NI ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 UTV +1 (UTV),

PSB3
BBCB
 V max
C46 (674.0MHz)269mDTG-800W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Northern Ireland, 102 BBC Two HD Northern Ireland, 103 UTV HD (UTV), 104 Channel 4 HD NI ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

NIMM
 V -6dB
C48 (690.0MHz)269mDTG-200W
Channel icons
from 4th September 2019: 53 TG4, 54 RTÉ One, 55 RTÉ Two,

H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

The Newcastle (Northern Ireland) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: .

If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Newcastle transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Newsline 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT2 8HQ, 1,041km northeast (50°)
to BBC Northern Ireland region - 46 masts.
regional news image
UTV Live 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT7 1EB, 1,041km northeast (50°)
to UTV region - 46 masts.

How will the Newcastle (Northern Ireland) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20122012-134 Sep 2019
C/D EC/D EC/D EC/D E TB E K T
C40BBCA
C43D3+4
C46BBCB
C48NIMMNIMM
C50tv_offBBCA
C55tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4
C59tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCB
C62BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

tv_off Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 10 Oct 12 and 24 Oct 12.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4 1000W
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-1dB) 800W
NIMM(-7dB) 200W

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Divis transmitter area

Oct 1959-May 2006Ulster Television
May 2006-Dec 2014UTV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Newcastle was not an original Channel 3 VHF 405-line mast: the historical information shown is the details of the company responsible for the transmitter when it began transmitting Channel 3.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Radiation patterns withheld

Comments
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
P
Peter Henderson
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

1:22 AM

"there certainly won't be anything like D1 in the province for years to come."

I'm not so sure Jordy.

I've come across this document:

http://stakeholders.ofcom….pdf


"The proposed improvements and additional sites are documented in section 1.1.The sites listed include several sites in Northern Ireland. As yet, Digital One have not discussed the detail of the sites in Northern Ireland with service providers (i.e. the owners of stations and services on Digital One). However, once the process of defining the list as a whole is at amore advanced stage, Digital One will look at ways of working with its customers to switch onthose sites as an initial stage of the process of expanding the network."

Proposed sites are:


Northern Ireland: Divis, Londonderry (Derry), Armagh, Maddybenny More, Camlough,Carnmoney Hill

Also, from digital One's website:

http://www.ukdigitalradio…ers/

"Due to a recent change in the law, there is also a specific possibility that Digital One will extend coverage to Northern Ireland."

So, it looks as if Digital One are definitely interested in broadcasting in the province.

It'll be an absolute disgrace if this doesn't happen sooner rather than later, especially given all the extra spectrum that'll be available after ASO in the ROI next October.

We still can't get Absolute Radio on DAB in the province. That's a deplorable situation at this stage and something Ofcom needs to urgently address.

I just hope you're wrong about this prediction.





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Peter Henderson's 240 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

11:12 AM

Jordy: If you post them on Facebook I can copy them here.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:12 PM

Peter Henderson: Internationally-cleared frequencies are published in the Geneva 2006 broadcasting plan, and updates to it. The Newcastle site was cleared for 12B, the BBC national ensemble, in May 2009, and Camlough in July 2009. Camlough shows definite agreement from Ireland (and Belgium, France and Holland, since it will contribute to the overall power transmitted by the whole SFN); Newcastle doesn't, but it also doesn't show the countries expected to be affected. No-one appears to have raised a complaint, though.

http://www.itu.int/ITU-R/…g=en is updated every two weeks, though GE06 plans, covering VHF Band III for T-DAB and UHF Bands IV and V for DVB-T, are not updated every time.

In the Reserved Assignments List at Ofcom | DAB Technical Policy Documents , Camlough and Newcastle are both listed as having 'other possible local block usage' on 10C and 12D. 12D is the Northern Ireland local multiplex carrying BBC Ulster. I can't find a reference to use of 10C in Northern Ireland anywhere else, though.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
P
Peter Henderson
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

3:59 PM

Mike: The reason why NI (and some western parts of England and Wales) have no Digital One is because the ROI still use Band III VHF for analogue TV. That is the reason why additional commercial frequencies for DAB were not allocated to NI.

These transmitters will be closed down on 24th October 2012, so there is absolutely no reason why Digital One cannot broadcast in NI (or any of the other parts of England and Wales that are affected) after that date.

As I have shown, there are sites proposed for the expansion of Digital One into the province.

Hopefully, these propsals will take place sooner rather than later. A measly 20 stations and no Absolute Radio is a disgrace at this stage.

NI radio listeners deserve better.

Personally, I can't see huge numbers of listeners going out and buying DAB radios in order to listen to just the BBC offering on DAB.

There is absolutely no excuse for Digital One not to be available in NI after 24th October 2012

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Peter Henderson's 240 posts GB flag
P
Peter Henderson
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

4:14 PM

P.S. Even including the commercial multiplex, the overall offering on DAB is rubbiksh.

The BBC aside, most of the stations are avalable on FM or AM anyway. The only ones that aren't are Heat Radio, Kiss, and UCB (or Q102.9 if you live in Belfast, Citybeat and Cool if you live in Derry or the morth coast).

Complete and utter rubish, and really not an insentive for anyone to invest in DAB in the province.

At least if Digital One were here it would improve thins dramatically.



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Peter Henderson's 240 posts GB flag
Friday, 11 November 2011
P
Peter Henderson
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

7:50 PM

Confirmed on UK Digital Radio's website:

ukdigitalradio: Coverage

"Up until 2010, a legal anomaly combined with a shortage of spectrum prevented the national commercial network from broadcasting in Northern Ireland. However, following a change to the law, spectrum has now been identified. Digital One is in the process of developing a financial and transmitter plan for the area, but a date for switch-on has not yet been fixed. In the meantime, the postcode checker will show details of other stations that are already broadcasting in the area."



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Peter Henderson's 240 posts GB flag
Sunday, 13 November 2011
J
Jordy
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:43 AM

As it stands the DAB work at Camlough and Newcastle is finished... We await with baited breath someone toddling up the mountain and switching on the tx's. Newcastle looks well with the 4 tier band 3 dipoles surmounting the UHF antennas. It appears the UHF kit is staying as is on the mast and a few dishes have appeared however Camlough has a new cardioid cylinder antenna as well as a pair of band 3 antennas.

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Jordy's 1,827 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:04 AM

Jordy: Some times there can be a delay because the provision of the terrestrial data link by BT is behind schedule...

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
J
Jordy
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:38 PM

All 4 analogue services, DAB and Downtown have been off air since 11pm last night. Service still not restored as of 9pm the following night. Could someone acknowledge the problems and sort them, because I'm sick of the amount of calls regarding this Tx.

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Jordy's 1,827 posts GB flag
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

8:48 AM

Jordy: Have you reported the problems via Radio & Television Investigation Service - Diagnostic form ?

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