Freeview Light on the Black Mountain (Northern Ireland) transmitter
 | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 54.586,-6.024 or 54°35'10"N 6°1'28"W |  | BT17 0LU |
The symbol shows the location of the Black Mountain (Northern Ireland) transmitter which serves 6,600 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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Black Mountain (Northern Ireland) transmitter._______
Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
DTG-11 QPSK 32KN 2/3 10.0Mb/s DVB-T2 MPEG4
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Black Mountain (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 Freeview channels does the Black Mountain 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.
| Mux | H/V | Frequency | Height | Mode | Watts |
| PSB1 BBCA | V -26dB | C41 (634.0MHz) | 486m | DTG- | 5W |
 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 -26dB | C44 (658.0MHz) | 486m | DTG- | 5W |
 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), 71 That's TV 3, | |||||
| PSB3 BBCB | V -26dB | C47 (682.0MHz) | 486m | DTG- | 5W |
 46 5SELECT, 57 U&Eden, 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, plus 1 others | |||||
| NIMM | H max | C33+ (570.2MHz) | 486m | DTG-11 | 2,000W |
 53 TG4, 54 RTÉ One, 55 RTÉ Two, | |||||
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Black Mountain (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 Black Mountain transmitter?
BBC Newsline 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT2 8HQ, 1,044km northeast (51°)
to BBC Northern Ireland region - 46 masts.
How will the Black Mountain (Northern Ireland) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1959-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 4 Sep 2019 | ||||
| VHF | B E T | B E T | B E T | B E T | K T | ||||
| C9 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C33 | NIMM | ||||||||
| C37 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C39 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | +NIMM | |||||
| C41 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | BBCA | |||||
| C42 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C44 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C45 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | |||||
| C47 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C49tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | BBCB |
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 5 | 50kW | |
| NIMM≡ | (-14dB) 2kW | |
| Analogue 1-4 | (-33dB) 25W | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-40dB) 5W |
Local transmitter maps
Black Mountain Freeview Black Mountain DAB Divis TV region BBC Northern Ireland UTVWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Divis transmitter area
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldSunday, 20 October 2019
Aerial 8-element LP in the roofspace 15m AGL.
RTE (mux 33) appears to have increased its transmitter power recently to at least 100kW. It is giving 100% on
the signal strength bar, compared to 99% for BBCA (21) and B (27).
Anyone any idea how often the listings are updated?
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Denis's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Denis: I am referring to the Northern Ireland Minimux NIMM, listed as being from Black Mountain.
All other signals are from Divis, which is the same distance and within 2 degrees direction.
Here in Killyleagh I get signal strengths of:
100kW muxes 98% signal strength from the 100kW muxes
95% from the 50kW muxes (23, 26, 30)
74% from the (stated) 5kW mux (36)
78% from a 12.7kW mux (51)
54% from a 12.7kW mux (60)
The last two are about half the predicted values.
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Denis's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 3 October 2020
D
denis campbell4:20 PM
3rd October 2020.
Aerial: 8 el yagi in the roofspace, into a multiswitch feeding 6 apartments.
I am on the top floor about 15m asl
Divis at 34km los:
The 100kW muxes are showing signal "strength" of 10.
The 50kW muxes are showing 9.
Mux 36, listed as being 5kW is showing 5.
Mux 55, listed as being 12kW is showing 7.
Black Mountain at 33km los:
Mux 33, listed as 2kW is giving 7. It must be a lot more than 2kW.
This is a rebroadcast of four RTE channels, programmes ar often not available due to broadcasting rights.
The figures are from my Panasonic DVR, which shows signal strength of 0 to 10, an arbitary figure.
RTE from Claremont Carn at 55km gives a useable signal on Mux 42 and 45 using a 14 ele Log Periodic on my balcony. Saorview shows TV channel numbers in the 800 series on my Freeview tuner - to avoid confusion with the Freeview.
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C
Chris.SE10:03 PM
denis campbell:
Well what can I say, except to update you on some of the information that's not been updated on this site -
Divis, Local mux on C36, power was increased to 10kW when it moved from C30 on 4th Sept.2019.
Divis, COM7 on C55, power changed to 8.9kW when it moved from C51 on 4th March 2020.
Black Mountain, NIMM on C33, power increased to 3kW when it moved from C39 on 4th Sept.2019.
The reason that the NIMM on C33 gets to you with such a good signal is that it's modulation is the more resilient QPSK (which some say is the equivalent of 10x that using 64QAM) but doesn't have the bandwidth.
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Monday, 1 April 2024
A
A.J. Sheehan7:30 PM
Belfast
I used to receive the Black Mountain NIMM via an attic aerial and 'TVHeadend' software (to distribute it to various TVs) for some years past; in the last two months the NIMM (i.e. the four RTE channels) has disappeared completely from my reception though every other channel is working. I have changed nothng in my hardware or software setup and am baffled by this remarkably specific 'blackout' - only the NIMM, nothing else.
Can anyone advise, please?
| link to this comment |
A.J.'s: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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