Full Freeview on the Limavady (Northern Ireland) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 55.108,-6.887 or 55°6'30"N 6°53'14"W |  | BT49 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 25/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
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 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.
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?
BBC Newsline 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT2 8HQ, 1,051km northeast (51°)
to BBC Northern Ireland region - 46 masts.
Are there any self-help relays?
| Elliotts Hill | Transposer | 13 km SE Ballymena, Co. Antrim | 90 homes (according to B9 Energy) |
How will the Limavady (Northern Ireland) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 4 Sep 2019 | |||||
| C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E T | B E K T | |||||
| C40 | SDN | ||||||||
| C41 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C43 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C44 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C46 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C47 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C48 | _local | _local | |||||||
| C49tv_off | ArqB | ||||||||
| C50tv_off | BBCA | ||||||||
| C54tv_off | SDN | ||||||||
| C55tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCB | |||||
| C58tv_off | ArqA | ||||||||
| C59tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | |||||
| C62 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | ||||||
| C65 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves |
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 |
Local transmitter maps
Limavady Freeview Limavady DAB Limavady AM/FM Limavady TV region BBC Northern Ireland UTVWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Limavady transmitter area
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Sunday, 20 September 2020
F
Francis Byrne9:10 PM
Was there any problems with Freeview Limavady this evening? Poor reception across all Muxes, including BBC1. Signal normally 70%, now 45%. It was fine yesterday. I'm wondering if it has to do with the current weather?
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Tuesday, 22 September 2020
C
Chris.SE1:03 AM
Francis Byrne:
Yes it is most likely to be the "Tropospheric Ducting" that's around causing interference, see Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | RTIS for a simplistic explanation. It can be quite variable, come and go within seconds, minutes or hours. It has been particularly strong recently. Climate change is likely to mean these sort of events could be more common.
Currently it may continue on and off for a day or two more.
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Wednesday, 28 October 2020
Was there any problems with Freeview Limavady again this evening? Poor reception across all Muxes, including BBC1. Signal normally 70%, now 50%. The Mux with Pop is not coming in at all this afternoon.
Thanks in advance!
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C
Chris.SE9:20 PM
Francis Byrne:
Can't find any reports of any transmitters problems and it's not currently listed for Planned Engineering.
Is your aerial still ok in the severe weather?
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Monday, 2 November 2020
Thanks for your reply. Hopefully so it is just temporary! I just had a new aerial put up a few weeks ago (a K channel band with 5G filtering). It was working fine at the time with a slight improvement on the weakest channels (such as the one Pop is on, ch 206) but over the last week, it has been dreadful. BBC1 has improved again in signal strength, slightly (60-65a%) but Ch4+1, Challenge are very poor now. Could be temporarily linked to the poor weather .. might have to contact my aerial man again to check.
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Tuesday, 3 November 2020
C
Chris.SE12:49 AM
Francis Byrne:
Hmm. Does the Saorview predictor include results from NI transmitters, or do you have to rely on the aerial man?
The K Group aerial - if it's just for Limavady - may be "future-proofing" if at anytime in the future changes get made to move the channels down the band, but other wise a good Group B might be better because that might have slightly better gain at the higher UHF channels in the group. As I said though it will depend on whether the aerial is just for Limavady AND which K Group it is.
The problems you are describing are right across the UHF channels used by Limavady, which is leading me to think that reception either is marginal or there is unlisted transmitter work.
NB. For which channels are on which multiplexes, see Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview
Also note that is due to change on 4th.Nov. with the LCNs 24-55 all going up an LCN and BBC4 Scotland going to LCN24.
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Hi Chris,
Thanks, as always, for your replies. As it turns out, the channels are all back to their normal strength, except the mux which Pop is on (which despite its reported Mux power of 10kW on COM6, comes in much weaker than the others). It is unwatchable but at least appears again. It looks like the very poor weather at the start of the week was really degrading the reception.
I live relatively high up in Letterkenny, so am in a spot where I pick up both the Saorview muxes from Holywell Hill near the Derry/Londonderry border and the Limavady muxes, all in the same direction. Since RT are on ch 22 and ch 25, I have an aerial that covers ch 21 - 48. It's a Vision 48 element High Gain aerial from CPC (https://cpc.farnell.com/vision/122814/v12-x7fak-aerial-ch21-48-group/dp/AP03390?st=element)
You're correct - I'm at the edge of the reception range and the maps indicate similar. As I'm not in the UK, I can't use my postcode to check for signal reception. However, I used to get full reception with minimal issues during the very weak output pre-digital on the DTT channels (when the commercial muxes were on 800w). Ever since the move down the band, either the power was reduced or shielded in my direction to prevent as much overspill. I was hoping that the new aerial would give more gain than the older ch21 - 68 yagi I had but it's about the same as before - and possibly weaker. Meh. The aerial man showed me the before and after signals at the time - it's marginally weaker but with a cleaner signal/noise ratio. He also replaced my masthead amplifier which looked like it got slightly fried at one point of its 20 year lifespan.
I suspect if I went for a Group B aerial, I'd lose RT on Saorview, unless I combined it with a smaller aerial for the local Letterkenny transmitter for RT - but the combining of the two aerials would probably lose the few dB I'd gain by using a slightly stronger aerial?
I do have a Freesat box, so I'm not stuck as such - it's just nice not to have to keep swapping between the two (Freeview/Saorview and Freesat) and I only have an aerial socket upstairs.
Thanks and regards,
..Francis
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Wednesday, 4 November 2020
C
Chris.SE1:30 AM
Francis Byrne:
Hi. Considering the transmitters you are going for then obviously the Group K is the correct one to go for, a Group B would likely lose ch22 & 25 or at best make then unreliable and the problem of combining two aerials would likely lose more than it would gain.
I'd guess the cleaner signal/noise ratio is down the the more modern masthead amp (does it have as much gain or more than the old one?).
Unfortunately less reliable reception is more likely these days as there is more frequency sharing (not just UK/Eire but Europe etc.) never mind all the extra interference coming from the significant increase in electronic devices of one sort or another.
What sort of signal strength and quality figures is your set showing in its tuning section for all the muxes?
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Friday, 6 November 2020
Hi Chris,
As far as I can remember from the aerial man, the masthead amplier gain was a 25dB model, replacing the old one of the same strength (installed around 2000)
It is COM6 which is by far the weakest mux - I clicked on the ch46 oval where the list of channels is listed on this web page for Limavady, to see what other transmitters are also on ch 46 in NI / Donegal but I see the ukfree.tv's website has not yet been changed for the post-5G cutover? I'm wondering if there is another transmitter on that channel causing me some interference, as the others are relatively-speaking ok (as in, they are watchable - COM6 seldom is, except occasionally on my bedroom TV, which seems to get a marginally better signal). As "Pop" is on COM6, it matters to the kids :-) but they're now used to tuning it in on FreeSat
The mux strengths are as follows today, according to my 2009 Samsung TV:
PSB1: 70 to 72 (out of 100), bit error level: 0 out of 10
PSB2: 70 to 72, bit error level 0
PSB3: n/a: I *just* missed out on Freeview HD coming out on both my TVs by a year
COM4: 63, bit error level 1
COM5: 63, bit error level 1
COM6: 45 to 48, bit error level 7 out of 10 (basically, unwatchable at the best of times).
SaorView on ch25: 85, bit error level 0
SaorView on ch22: 85, bit error level 0
The reception appears to be affected now on really bad weather days on the COM5/6 muxes.
Thanks, ..Francis
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Sunday, 8 November 2020
C
Chris.SE4:42 AM
Francis Byrne:
The Bit Errors for C46 may suggest interference of some sort. You haven't got anything with an RF output running have you, old VCR, games consoles etc. If so change the channels to something above 60 if possible.
Yes, it's a big disappointment that UHF Channel usage for each of the channels haven't been updated for all the post 700MHz changes.
C46 is used by a lot of quite/very low power relay transmitters but none very near you, and in most cases they also use C40 & C43. This is also true of the high power transmitters that use the same channels so why C46 should be affected is rather strange.
Just for reference some of the NI relays are Newcastle (800W), Kilkeel (400W), Cushendall (5W), Carnmoney Hill (16W), Camlough (500W), Plumbridge (5W), Edemy (11.2W), Lisbellaw (4W), Castlederg (2.2W).
Some of the high power (>10kW) ones are Preseli, Llanddonna, Bilsdale, Rosemarkie, Keelylang Hill, Black Hill, Heathfield, Hannington, Bluebell Hill, Sutton Coldfield, Tacolneston,
All are far enough away not to be an issue in normal circumstances.
Are the figures still the same now or have they changed? There has been some Tropospheric Ducting around which might have resulted in interference.
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