Saorview on the Clermont Carn (Republic of Ireland) transmitter
 | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 54.079,-6.323 or 54°4'45"N 6°19'23"W |
The symbol shows the location of the Clermont Carn (Republic of Ireland) transmitter. 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 Clermont Carn transmitter._______
Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
DTG-1003 64QAM 8K 2/3 24.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG4
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Saorview channels does the Clermont Carn transmitter broadcast?
If you have any kind of Saorview fault, follow this Saorview 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 |
| SV1 | V max | C42 (642.0MHz) | 626m | DTG-1003 | 160,000W |
 3 Virgin Media 1, 4 TG4 (RoI), 21 RTÉ News Now, 22 Tithe an Oireachtais , | |||||
| SV2 | V max | C45 (666.0MHz) | 626m | DTG-1003 | 160,000W |
 1 RTÉ One HD, 5 Virgin Media 2 , 6 Virgin Media 3, 7 RTÉ jr, 11 RTÉ One +1, 12 RTÉ2+1, 27 Saorview Information (*, | |||||
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
How will the Clermont Carn (Republic of Ireland) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 1 Sep 2019 | |||||
| A B C/D E K T VHF | A B C/D E K T VHF | A B C/D E K T VHF | C/D E T | B E K T | |||||
| C42 | SV1 | ||||||||
| C45 | SV2 | ||||||||
| C52tv_off | SV1 | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | SV2 |
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 1 Jan 12 and 1 Jan 12.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| SV1||, SV2|| | 160kW |
Comments
Monday, 20 August 2012
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PaulN2:21 AM
Just had a mad idea... could I have too MUCH gain on the SaorView setup - would that saturate the receiver and make it unable to decode anything ?
Data here is stating 160kW on Clermont while the Freeview channels on Divis are below 2.5kW and I have the same gain on each antenna - broadly speaking.
I am much further from Clermont.
I was also perplexed that RTE1 & RTE2 on C52 and C56 respectively are visibly poorer than TV3 and TG4 at C66 7 C68... I have just noticed the possibility that I could be getting interference from Whitehead transmitting on C52 and C56 in Vertical polarisation.
I dont aim directly towards the Whitehead station but I smell something here... Going to try an amp with variable gain and see what the saorview decoder gets on C53.
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PaulN11:14 AM
No cigar.... dropped the gain down and could see immediate effect on the analog signal strength but SV1 and SV2 look very weak according to strength indication on the Triax STB. Oddly it reports perfect signal quality so that metric is clearly useless.
Maybe SV1 doesn't launch with full power until Oct 24th - little point in me trying much more until then... maybe I can rent some snazzy measurement gear to get readings before and after DSO. Maybe add a different high gain aerial as well to so if that performs any better than the Labgear450W.
Maybe I am just too hopeful of my chances this far from the transmitter - especially with the potential for Whitehead complications.
Will SV1 at Clermont stay on C53 at DSO or does it move to C52 - where it will also bump into one of the mixes on Whitehead after DSO ?
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Peter Henderson11:27 AM
Sounds interesting Paul.
Yes, I know Larne fairly well as I'm involved with the community radio station in the town (Chaine FM). We're planning to be back this Christmas after a 2 year break. I also worked in Premier Power for 13 years (now retired !)
Digital UK's coverage for the RTE NI Mux is interesting as the fact that it's on Black Mountain doesn't seem to make much difference. If anything, coverage is greater than the equivelent Freeview power levels. This may be down to technical parameters. It's been suggested on Boards.ie that 2 kw on the NI mux is really the same as 18kw from a Freeview transmitter. This sounds about right, if Digital UK's postcode checker is to be believed. Even the 16 Watts from Carnmoney Hill seems better.
Lift conditions is a term applied when there's high pressure and all VHF/UHF signals are enhanced. When this happens at this location (Jordanstown) Caldbeck wipes out certain Freeview Channels on Divis e.g 23 and 29. It's very annoying. Hopefully it wont be a problem after October 24th.
I can see the Carnmoney Hill transmitter from my bedroom window, but I also get good reception from Divis most of the time. Signal levels during the high power tests in July looked really good !
You're probably correct about the Whitehead transmitter.
I'm not sure if there's will be a problem with the NI mux being on 39+ and Craigy Hill on 39.
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Peter Henderson11:29 AM
Saorview from Clermont Cairn moves from 53 to 52 on October 324th by the way Paul.
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PaulN11:50 AM
That Clermont move from 53 to 52 will add to the challenge Peter... who do I call to tell them not to move it - and wind up the power while they at it ? LOL
Is NIMM on Black Mountain going to be Vertical or Horizontal polarisation ?
Nice explanation of 'lift conditions' by the way - appreciated... it had never occurred to me that it was interference caused by an even more distant transmitter.
It doesn't explain the occasional badness on C33 from Divis - UTV etc - although that is vastly improved since I swapped out a crappy aerial and put a masthead amp up there.
BTW - my background is telecoms & IPTV hardware & software with some CATV history but I never studied the dark arts of RF much !
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Peter Henderson12:10 PM
No problem Paul.
My background is actually Chmistry (I worked in the laboratory in Ballylumford) but I'm a licenced radio amateur (GI4 KBW) and a keen Dxer etc.
I'm assuming the NI mux will be horizontally polarised as Digital UK have stated on the BBC's "on your behalf" that no additional aerial will be required if you're receiving Channel 5 analogue at the moment (also transmitted from Black Mountain).
October is certainly going to be an interesting month in NI with regard to terrestrial TV. I envisage all sorts of problems (Signal overload etc.) although with most people now having satellite dishes (probably Sky) I may be being a bit pessimistic.
Certainly, if Freeview, Freesat, and the NI mux had been around when I first started paying for Sky, I'd never, ever have bothered with subscription TV.
Once the kids stop watching all those crappy children's shows, I'll seriously consider ditching Sky.
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PaulN12:37 PM
Ahhh - never noticed that Channel5 came from Black Mountain before... I receive that fine on analogue at C37 from my aerial pointed at Divis - makes sense as they are so close to each other... and obviously both horizontal.
I am hedging my bets with Freesat here - getting a dish fitted very soon as the main TV is Freesat ready.
BTW - a useful bit of info for other folk is about the Triax TR1112 STB I bought as an official SaorView box. It receives the FreeView lineup perfectly as far as I can tell from tests so far - it just isn't officially approved.
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PaulN1:16 PM
Some other weird science is that despite having nothing pointed remotely towards Larne I can pickup snowy horrible analogue channels on C39, 42, 45 & 49.
How does that work when the only horizontal aerial I have is pointed about 90 degrees away from Larne ?
The vertical aerial is filtered for C52-69 so it must be my Divis aerial seeing the Larne signal quite horribly... I would use Larne for FreeView except its only going to be FreeView 'Lite' come DSO.
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Peter Henderson4:01 PM
Yep, similar situation with Clermont Cairn and Carnmoney Hill Paul. Carnmoney Hill is also Freeview Lite post DSO which is a shame. On my old 18 element aerial I could also get a snowy picture from the Newcastle transmitter.
Still, it's horses for courses with regard to Freeview vs Freesat. There's really only 4 or 5 stations that are on Freeview that aren't on Freesat. However,there are also many more stations that are on Freesat that aren't on Freeview. In a freeview Lite area it's a no brainer if you're not interested in Sky.
It's just a pity the NI mux isn't on Freesat for NI viewers, but that's another story. Somehow, I can't see too many people up here bothering with Saorsat(most will probably put up with the Sky service).
Not sure how much actual interest or take up there's been for Saorsat down south.
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PaulN4:47 PM
Saorsat is an odd beast alright with that spot beam... clever stuff them satellites !
I can't see many folk going for a 2nd dish etc - most folk will try the funky adapters and LNBs for Sky/Freesat dishes that seem to be working OK with a Diseqc switch and so on - but thats really only viable for a single screen - which is probably OK.
Not sure if SaorSat will have HD content either due to its small expected penetration.
Seem to recall reading that Saorsat was only expecting to pickup a small %age of users in difficult terrain where SaorView would be impossible.
Didn't there used to be a thing where NI and IE subscribers to Sky got RTE1&2 by way of additional entitlements on their smart card - it was determined by customer billing address at registration - or did I just make that up ?
October promises to be an interesting month. I must have a look around for some decent DVB-T/T2 measurement gear - it must be available to hire on short term basis - then I can collect some real information.
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