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Full Freeview on the Darvel (East Ayrshire, Scotland) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps55.579,-4.291 or 55°34'45"N 4°17'26"Wsa_postcodeKA16 9LS

 

The symbol shows the location of the Darvel (East Ayrshire, Scotland) transmitter which serves 150,000 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 Darvel (East Ayrshire, Scotland) mast?

Darvel transmitter - Darvel transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 25/03/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


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

Which Freeview channels does the Darvel 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
 H max
C22- (481.8MHz)446mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) Scotland, 2 BBC Two Scotland, 7 BBC Alba HD, 23 BBC Three, 24 BBC Four (Scotland SD), 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 13 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C25 (506.0MHz)446mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
3 STV (SD) (STV Central (Glasgow micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Scotland ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Scotland ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (STV Edinburgh), 35 STV+1 (STV Edinburgh),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C28 (530.0MHz)446mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Scotland, 102 BBC Two HD Scotland, 103 ITV 1 HD (STV West), 103 STV HD (STV West), 104 Channel 4 HD Scotland ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 108 BBC Scotland HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H -3dB
C32 (562.0MHz)446mDTG-810,000W
Channel icons
20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -3dB
C34 (578.0MHz)446mDTG-810,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -3dB
C35 (586.0MHz)446mDTG-810,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

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

regional news image
BBC Reporting Scotland 2.4m homes 9.2%
from Glasgow G51 1DA, 31km north (1°)
to BBC Scotland region - 230 masts.
regional news image
STV News 1.3m homes 4.8%
from Glasgow G51 1PQ, 31km north (2°)
to STV Central (Glasgow) region - 94 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

Craigie GardensTransposer1 homes 90 caravans
InversnaidActive deflector35 km N Dumbarton8 homes Hotel caravan park

How will the Darvel (East Ayrshire, Scotland) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20112011-135 Sep 2018
A K TA K TA K TA K TW T
C22-BBCABBCA
C23ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesSDN
C25D3+4D3+4
C26BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesArqA
C28BBCBBBCB
C29C4wavesC4wavesC4wavesArqB
C30_local
C31com7
C32SDN
C33BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C34ArqA
C35C5wavesC5wavesArqB
C37com8
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off

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 11 May 11 and 25 May 11.

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

Analogue 1-5 100kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 20kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 10kW
com8(-10.9dB) 8.19kW
com7(-11.2dB) 7.5kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*(-14dB) 4kW
Mux C*, Mux D*(-17dB) 2kW

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

Aug 1957-Jun 1997Scottish Television
Jun 1997-Dec 2014STV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Darvel 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, 25 September 2012
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:38 PM

William: The Commercial (COM) channels cover 90% of the population, as against the Public Service (PSB) channels which are available to 98.5%.

The Commercial broadcasters achieve their 90% covergage by transmitting from 81 of the largest transmitters (largest by viewer population). A small fraction of viewers who use one of these transmitters will not be able to receive the COMs.

In the case of Darvel, the COM channels are broadcasting at lower power than the PSBs.

Crucially though, there are over 1,000 small "filler-in" relay transmitters. The cost to the Commercial broadcasters to transmit from these sites is roughly equal to that of the 81 sites they use. As they operate purely for profit by showing advertisements to as many people as possible which they wish to acquire at lowest possible cost, they have decided not to double their cost of transmission to increase their potential viewer-bases by about 10%.


The Licence Fee does not guarantee reception of any signal. In any case, it funds only the BBC and as a Public Service Broadcaster, you have access to the BBC.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:55 PM

William: Ayrshire is a reasonably large area and it would have been of great assistance to anyone answering your question if you had provided your location, this being in the form of a post code or one from nearby, eg: a shop being suffice, as although Darvel is the main station transmitter for Ayrshire judging by what you have said it would appear that you are not in its coverage area. (maybe Girvan?).

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Monday, 5 November 2012
J
j Noble
7:56 PM
Ballymena

Please explain the grandiose statements made in "your guide to switchover" that "..most people will be able..." to get TG4 RTE One and RTE Two either from Freeview or via Saorview. This clearly is not fact as the vast majority of relay stations do not provide RTE (although for some reason the Carnmoney Hill relay does) which demonstrates that a relay transmitter can be provisioned for RTE and this Carnmoney Hill transmitter is in an area where there is "competing" signals from Divis transmitter occupying very considerable amount of the available spectrum whereas other relay stations physically removed from Divis there is available the spectrum available for the provision of RTE.

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j Noble's 2 posts GB flag
j's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:26 PM

j Noble: Relay transmitters by their nature cover small areas. So the fact that the "vast majority" of them don't carry the NI Mux (NIMM) does not mean that the vast majority of the population cannot receive those services.

See here:

http://consumers.ofcom.or….pdf

Ofcom estimates that around 94% of the population of Northern Ireland will be served by either overspill from the Republic's transmitters and/or the three NI Mux transmitters.

This website is an independent site here to help with advice. As identified in the Ofcom leaflet linked to above, you need to address your comments to Multiplex Broadcasting Services N. I. Limited which runs the NI Mux.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
J
Joe Faulkner
10:14 PM

Before 22/10/12 I received all channels from Darvel,know I only receive psb1, psb2 and psb3. Just 18 months ago I put up a high gain A group aerial etc., to give me this service. Please enlighten me why my service has deteriorated when in this age of technology It should be enhanced.
Post code: KA278SH,Balegra Farm.

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Joe Faulkner's 1 post GB flag
Thursday, 22 November 2012
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:04 PM

Joe Faulkner : The COM channels don't have as good a coverage as the PSBs. 1,000 or so small relays don't broadcast them, and those that do broadcast them don't spread them as widely as they do for their PSBs. The COM channels are re-used by transmitters in closer proximity than the PSBs and this appears as if it might be the case at your location.

The COMs from Darvel, Divis and Caldbeck are all co-channel and at half-power to their respective PSBs. The Digital UK Postcode checker even "thinks" Divis is the best transmitter for you. This suggests that the possibility of reception of Darvel COMs is limited by interference rather than limited because it doesn't carry as far.

For this reason, I don't think that you will be able to receive COMs from Darvel. The PSBs of Darvel and Divis are not co-channel.

If you can receive PSBs from Girvan which is 20 miles away and are at only 50W, then you may be able to turn your high-gain Group A aerial to Divis and combine with a Girvan aerial to give you BBC Scotland/STV regional output and COMs.

The only warning I will give you is that recorders can have difficulty with timed recordings when receiving from two different transmitter regions, the reason being that the EPG information isn't shared between the two. If this turns out to be the case then you will have to decide whether to have your recorder on one or the other (i.e. Girvan PSBs only or Divis PSBs+COMs).

If you can receive from Girvan, then you will need a diplexer to combine feeds:

Online TV Splitters, Amps & Diplexers sales

Girvan uses 50, 59 and 55 so the model that "splits" at C38 will be best. This will also allow reception of Divis PSBs as all its channels are below 38.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Thursday, 10 January 2013
J
Jimmy Jewitt
10:06 AM
Ayr

Dear Sir or Madam,
since changing to digital I have found that I keep losing the signal completely for days at a time. No matter what the weather it will go off and there doesn't seem to be any apparent reason for this. Oddly my televisions will say NO SIGNAL and after a day or 2 come back on. The longest it has been off at any given time was over a week which is very annoying. Both TV's have Freeview. I was wondering if the transmitter was having repair works to it?
Please help, My postcode is KA6 6QB
Regards J.J.

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Jimmy Jewitt's 1 post GB flag
Jimmy's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Michael
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:41 PM

Jimmy Jewitt: The Darvel transmitter switched over to digital in May 2011 - have you had problems ever since then? If so, then it's unlikely to be due to works at the transmitter for 18 months!

It's likely, unless all of your neighbours are also having problems, that it's something to do with your setup. Does it happen on both TVs? Which transmitter are you tuned in to? Check by either going to the signal strength screen or manual tune option, to see what UHF channel or frequency comes up.

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Michael's 358 posts GB flag
Sunday, 19 May 2013
J
john
12:45 AM

The TV reception from Darvel is rubbish i have lived in Ayrshire for 9 years and we have never had a great signal in North Ayrhire for all this time.

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john's 1 post GB flag
I
Iain Davies
sentiment_satisfiedGold

3:13 AM

Try using Divis in Northern Ireland, a lot of Ayrshire coast does.

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Iain Davies's 351 posts GB flag
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