menuMENU    UK Free TV logo Freeview

 

 

Click to see updates

Full Freeview on the Divis (Northern Ireland) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps54.607,-6.009 or 54°36'24"N 6°0'34"Wsa_postcodeBT17 0NG

 

The symbol shows the location of the Divis (Northern Ireland) transmitter which serves 440,000 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 Divis (Northern Ireland) mast?

Divis transmitter - Divis 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 Divis 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
C27 (522.0MHz)551mDTG-100,000W
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
C21+ (474.2MHz)551mDTG-100,000W
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
C24 (498.0MHz)551mDTG-100,000W
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
C23 (490.0MHz)551mDTG-850,000W
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
C26 (514.0MHz)528mDTG-850,000W
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
C30 (546.0MHz)528mDTG-850,000W
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

LBT
 H -13dB
C36 (594.0MHz)528mDTG-125,000W
Channel icons
from 29th September 2014: 7 NvTv,

NIMM
 H -40dB
C48 (690.0MHz)551mDTG-10W
Channel icons
from 4th September 2019: 53 TG4, 54 RTÉ One, 55 RTÉ Two,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

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

regional news image
BBC Newsline 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT2 8HQ, 1,044km northeast (51°)
to BBC Northern Ireland region - 46 masts.
regional news image
UTV Live 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT7 1EB, 1,044km northeast (51°)
to UTV region - 46 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

Chapel FieldsTransposerCentral Belfast61 homes

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

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20122012-134 Mar 2020
VHFA K TA K TA K TK TW T
C1BBCtvwaves
C21C4wavesC4wavesC4waves+D3+4D3+4
C23SDNSDN
C24ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCBBBCB
C26ArqAArqA
C27BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C29ArqB
C30LBT
C31BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C33com7
C34com8
C36_local
C48NIMMNIMM
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 10 Oct 12 and 24 Oct 12.

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

Analogue 1-4 500kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 50kW
com8(-16dB) 12.7kW
com7(-16.1dB) 12.4kW
LBT(-20dB) 5kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*(-23.4dB) 2.3kW
Mux C*(-24dB) 2kW
Mux D*(-24.9dB) 1.6kW
NIMM(-47dB) 10W

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. Divis 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
Friday, 6 September 2019
C
CP
12:32 PM

In keeping with some other comments I have noticed a marked drop in the reception quality of com7 and com8 since 4th Sept, to the extent that the channels no longer appear on most of my receivers. Did their transmission power change when their channels moved to 51 / 60?

As far as I am aware I have a wideband aerial (black plug on the end of it), so I'm not sure why I seem to be getting such poor reception now.

link to this comment
CP's 1 post GB flag
Saturday, 7 September 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:48 AM

CP:

As per my previous post they are on lower power than the other muxes - 12.4 & 12.66kW respectively compared to 100kW for the PSB muxes & 50kW for the other COM muxes. They are due to reduce to 8.913kW sometime in Q1 2020 according to DigitalUK. Being SFNs (Single Frequency Networks) will no doubt contribute to lower coverage.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
Sunday, 8 September 2019
P
PeterH
9:24 PM

I noticed BBC News HD reappeared on 107 on my Humax, with signal strength over 70 % but signal quality at <10% and no picture.

The guy who installed the aerials is coming on Tuesday to see what he can do, and will try the Divis aerial on it's own.

What a mess, and I payed a fair bit of money for this. I didn't mind, because everything was working perfectly on Tuesday, and the break up on Com 7 and Com 8 had gone.

We'll see what transpires on Tuesday. Hopefully, he'll sort things out.

The RT aerial would have had to be changed anyway, so it wasn't money entirely wasted, but I'm very disappointed.

Digital U.K. postcode reception predictions are not fit for purpose.

link to this comment
PeterH's 3 posts GB flag
Monday, 9 September 2019
A
ALAN HYNDMAN
2:14 PM

StevensOnln1: Since last week, like a number of people, I have lost my progs on Com 7 from Divis.
I have 2 BT boxes and while all the other Muxes are at least 95% signal strength 100 % quality, my Com 7 on both boxes jumps between zero (most of the time) and 45% signal strength. I have just retuned my 2nd BT box (again) using the above Freesat reset procedure and the multiplex is not showing at all now!
I understand the reason for the change but the publicity for it was non existant and what happens now with the loss of several channels??

link to this comment
ALAN HYNDMAN's 1 post GB flag
C
CARL READE
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

6:00 PM

PeterH: I would suspect it's 4g interfering now because of their position. Now hearing reports of people losing RTE 52 and 56 for some reason. Absolutely no information coming from there at all. My job is becoming guesswork with this mess.

link to this comment
CARL READE's 51 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 10 September 2019
I
Ian.JH
12:28 PM

Thanks CARL READE and Chris.SE for your replies.


A quick re-cap for the benefit of anyone else with the same problem:

I'm in Bangor, and receive Freeview via a BT YouView+ Box model: DTR-T2110

Prior to the re-tune on the 4th Sept. I was receiving all available channels via a standard looking, approx. 35 year old, chimney mounted aerial.

After the 4th Sept. re-tune I found I was missing all the channels on four multiplexes:

Com 7
Com 8
LBT
Local

After reading comments here about lower broadcast power on com7,com8 and a need for a wideband aerial, I purchased a new wideband, hi-gain aerial at the weekend (Tristar 278844tr). I mounted the aerial in the loft as I didn't have easy access to the chimney.

After a re-tune of the YouView box, all channels have now been restored.

The signal strength and signal quality of each multiplex, as measured by the YouView box is:

Com 7 Sig.Strengh. 90% Sig.Qual. 100%
Com 8 Sig.Strengh. 80% Sig.Qual. 95%
LBT Sig.Strengh. 88%. Sig.Qual. 20%
Local Sig.Strengh. 88% Sig.Qual. 20%

All other multiplexes are Sig.Strengh. 100% Sig.Qual. 100%

Please note, that even though the signal quality of LBT and Local is only 20%, the picture quality is perfect.

link to this comment
Ian.JH's 3 posts GB flag
C
CP
7:08 PM

Thanks Chris.SE.

I know that Com7/8 have a considerably lower power output than the other mixes, but I was specifically wondering if their power output reduced from some higher level on 4th Sept? That would explain my (and many other's) sudden loss of signal. If they've been at their current power level for some time then the reason must related to the frequency / channel shift instead.

As an aside, is there any official way to complain or raise a query about this? Who would this be directed to?

link to this comment
CP's 4 posts GB flag
I
Ian.JH
8:24 PM

CP - My first port of call when my 4th Sept. re-tune had gone awry was the official Freeview website:

Important changes to Freeview | Freeview

There is a freephone number 0808 100 0288 to deal with re-tune issues.

To my surprise, after explaining my problem re. loss of specific multiplexes, they arranged for an engineer to come out, free of charge.

When I sorted out the problem for myself, I called back to cancel the engineer visit.

link to this comment
Ian.JH's 3 posts GB flag
Friday, 13 September 2019
I
IA
2:48 PM

I notice on the Freeview mux listing for Divis:
BBC1 NI and BBC2 NI SD are missing from BBCA.
BBC1 NI and BBC2 NI HD are missing from BBCB.
Thanks !

link to this comment
IA's 1 post GB flag
Saturday, 14 September 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:24 AM

IA:

I'm afraid the listings here may be/are not up-to-date see Channel listings | Freeview

CP:

I can confirm that according to DigitalUK, there was no power reduction for the COMs 7&8 muxes when the retune event took place. As far as complaining goes, OFCOM & Arqiva but, I would point out that the COMs 7&8 multiplexes are only temporary and are due to close between 2020 & 2022 as 5G take up happens. See What is 700MHz clearance? | Freeview for more information.
It would seem that as the COMs 7&8 muxes are SFNs (single frequency networks) sharing the same UHF channels around the country, it means that there will be some interference from time to time.. Experience to date seems to be single strength appears lower and signal quality can be variable during times of increased propagation (night time occasionally and dependant on weather conditions at others).

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
Select more comments

Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

UK Free TV is here to help people. If you are rude or disrespectful all of your posts will be deleted and you will be banned.








Privacy policy: UK Free Privacy policy.