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Full Freeview on the Limavady (Northern Ireland) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps55.108,-6.887 or 55°6'30"N 6°53'14"Wsa_postcodeBT49 9LJ

 

The symbol shows the location of the Limavady (Northern Ireland) transmitter which serves 45,000 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 Limavady (Northern Ireland) mast?

Limavady transmitter - Limavady 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 Limavady 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
C41 (634.0MHz)382mDTG-20,000W
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
 H max
C44 (658.0MHz)382mDTG-20,000W
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
 H max
C47 (682.0MHz)382mDTG-20,000W
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

COM4
SDN
 H -3dB
C40 (626.0MHz)379mDTG-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
C43 (650.0MHz)379mDTG-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
C46 (674.0MHz)379mDTG-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)

The Limavady (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 Limavady transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Newsline 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT2 8HQ, 1,051km northeast (51°)
to BBC Northern Ireland region - 46 masts.
regional news image
UTV Live 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT7 1EB, 1,051km northeast (51°)
to UTV region - 46 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

Elliotts HillTransposer13 km SE Ballymena, Co. Antrim90 homes (according to B9 Energy)

How will the Limavady (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
C40SDN
C41BBCA
C43ArqA
C44D3+4
C46ArqB
C47BBCB
C48_local_local
C49tv_offArqB
C50tv_offBBCA
C54tv_offSDN
C55tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCB
C58tv_offArqA
C59tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4
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 100kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 20kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 10kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-21dB) 800W

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Limavady 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. Limavady 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.

Comments
Sunday, 18 August 2019
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:09 PM

F Byrne: There is no recent engineering work shown for Limavady, although there are several frequency changes taking place on 4th September. As you're in the Republic of Ireland and therefore don't have a UK postcode, I don't think the Digital UK checker will be much use. Have you checked for any loose or damaged cables or connections behind your TV?

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StevensOnln1's 3,605 posts GB flag
Monday, 19 August 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:58 AM
Limavady

F Byrne:

As StevensOnln1 says the Digital UK - Coverage checker may not be of any help, but you could try it to see. You are quite a long way from the transmitter and parts of your locale are not (well) covered. Due to the changes coming up there may well have been undocumented transmission dropouts.
If you click on the transmitter postcode BT49 9LJ at the top of this page, it will open the checker at the transmitter site where you can at least see the UHF channel change due on the 4th September. All the multiplexes are moving, you could even try a manual tune for UHF40 to see if the SDN multiplex is already transmitting there (unlikely but some transmitters around the UK have occasionally started a multiplex on the new channel before the switchover date).

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Chris.SE's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 24 August 2019
F
F Byrne
9:36 PM

Thanks StevensOnLn1 & Chris.SE for your replies. Hopefully things will improve again after September 4. When the Freeview transmitters were on low power before analogue tv was switched off, we picked up all 6 UK muxes without any problem. Could be that ch 40 is being tested out, as you mention - some days it is perfect, other days unwatchable.

Now, I recently repointed my DAB antenna to point at Divis to pick up ch 11A .. I haven't tried moving it again to see if it is causing issues on ch 40, even if the DAB antenna isn't meant to pick up past ch 13 (the signals are combined into one aerial cable for the tv / radio ports in the house.

Thanks again!

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F Byrne's 12 posts IE flag
Wednesday, 4 September 2019
F
F Byrne
8:35 PM

Ok, I did the retune today. Even with my old yagi wideband antenna from 2009, all channels came in. Interestingly, the weakest channels are those on COM6 (Yesterday, CBS Drama, ...) On ch 46. Signal strength is 20% lower than the other commercial muxes. Same as before switchover - that mux is the weakest, even though your guide indicates it is the same strength as the other 2?

Either way .. no new / narrower aerial is required .. for now, anyway. My TV is too old to pick up the BBC HD mux, so can't test that at the moment

Question: is my 4G filter any use now to be kept plugged in, now that all the channels have shifted down? I'm assuming I'm losing a little gain with it inline but was not sure.

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F Byrne's 12 posts IE flag
Thursday, 5 September 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:31 AM

F Byrne:

You can check your predicted reception by using the coverage checker Digital UK - Coverage checker if you have a UK postcode.

There will be some insertion loss from the 4G filter but it's likely to be very small, try it without and see if it makes any difference. The disadvantage of not using it may be that if you have any very strong 4G signals they may saturate your TV front end reducing the sensitivity hence reducing signal level of other received channels.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
F
F Byrne
8:55 PM

Thanks, Chris, for your reply! I live in Letterkenny, in Co Donegal. I'll leave the 4G filter in for now and see how it goes with the weakest mux. It was slightly damaged so if I unplug it, I might not get it back in, should it be necessary! If it wasn't for the fact my aerial is on the roof of a two-storey house, I'd be tempted to upgrade it to a K band aerial, since it cost 150 last time for installation..

Btw - thanks also for all the info you have on your website!

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F Byrne's 12 posts IE flag
Monday, 4 November 2019
F
Francis Byrne
9:08 PM

Hi, back again! A few weeks on, ch 46 is so weak that it is frequently unwatchable, such as this evening. I tried looking up your coverage maps but they do not appear to be updated yet post-5G changeover?

C46 (674.0MHz) after switchover | free and easy

The above does not show any channels from Limavady.

I've noticed that ch 43 can be unwatchable at times (mornings in particular) and then without any errors the rest of the day. Definitely far more interference since the latest changeover...

Ch 43 is stronger than ch 46 yet their apparent transmission power is the same.

(I'm in Letterkenny, at a high enough point where one time, I used to get ch21 from Divis, showing Channel 4).


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Francis Byrne's 12 posts IE flag
Thursday, 11 June 2020
D
David Schindler
12:03 PM
Portrush

I understand that there were adjustments done to the Limavady transmitter last year. Ever since we have had problems with our reception especially on windy days. We have 3 different aerials in the house so I don't think the problem is this end.
Postcode BT56 8NP

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David Schindler's 1 post GB flag
David's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:45 PM

David Schindler:

The changes last September moved the multiplex UHF channels as part of the 700MHz clearance program from aerial Group C/D to Group B.
If your aerials are older C/D group (and lower gain models) and there is maybe any trees on the line-of sight nearby, this is the likely explanation for your reception problems.
If you are contemplating changing your aerials it may be best to go for a Group K as they tend to have better gain at the lower channels than a Group B (or generally Group T or Wideband across Group B) as this will also allow for any potential future changes if in the coming years decisions are made to move all channels into Group A (most of us hope not!).

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 8 July 2020
F
Francis Byrne
10:04 PM

Hi! I was wondering when the UK channel coverage maps will be updated on your website? For example, if I click on ch 46 on the Limavady page to see what other sites use ch 46, the map of transmitter sites does not show Limavady. I'm thinking it is showing the map of pre 5G changes.

Thanks in advance!
..Francis

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Francis Byrne's 12 posts IE flag
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