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Freeview Light on the Londonderry (Northern Ireland) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps55.003,-7.370 or 55°0'11"N 7°22'11"Wsa_postcodeBT48 0JS

 

The symbol shows the location of the Londonderry (Northern Ireland) transmitter which serves 37,000 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 Londonderry (Northern Ireland) mast?

LONDONDERRY transmitter - AM: Reduced quality due to a fault from 30 Sep 11:09 until 30 Sep 20:19. Off the air due to essential engineering from 30 Sep 10:00 until 30 Sep 10:51. . BBC


Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Londonderry 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
 V max
C29 (538.0MHz)286mDTG-2,000W
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
 V max
C31 (554.0MHz)286mDTG-2,000W
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), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 V max
C37 (602.0MHz)286mDTG-2,000W
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

H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Are you trying to watch these 44 Freeview channels?

the effected channels
the effected channels
the effected channels
the effected channels

The Londonderry (Northern Ireland) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: U&Yesterday, 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, DMAX, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, FRANCE 24 (in English), GREAT! action, GREAT! christmas, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, HGTV, HobbyMaker, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1, ITVBe +1, Legend, PBS America, Quest +1, Quest Red, Really, Sky Mix, Sky News, Talking Pictures TV, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, U&Dave, U&Dave ja vu, U&Drama +1, U&W.

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 Londonderry transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Newsline 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT2 8HQ, 1,052km northeast (50°)
to BBC Northern Ireland region - 46 masts.
regional news image
UTV Live 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT7 1EB, 1,052km northeast (50°)
to UTV region - 46 masts.

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

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20122012-134 Sep 2019
VHFB E TW TW TB E TW T
C2BBCtvwaves
C29BBCA
C31C5wavesC5wavesD3+4
C37BBCB
C41ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4
C44BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCA
C47C4wavesC4wavesC4wavesBBCB
C51tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves_local_local

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 10kW
Analogue 1-4(-4.9dB) 3.2kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 2kW

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. Londonderry 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
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
P
pat
8:01 PM
Londonderry

Does anyone know when the Derry transmitter will start broadcasting any channels on HD.

link to this comment
pat's 9 posts GB flag
pat's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mark
10:35 PM

Seems to be some smart people on here that know things about digital tv. can anyone explain why Northern Irelands second biggest city only gets a few freeview channels only getting BBC1, 2, 3 ,4, UTV, CH4, CH5, ITV, 4+1, More4, E4 and UTV+1?

link to this comment
Mark's 1 post GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:46 PM

Mark: It is those who cannot receive from a full-service transmitter who will be unable to watch the Commercial channels (those that don't broadcast from the Sheriff Mountain transmitter).

The reason for this is because there are two types of broadcaster: Public Service (PSB) and Commercial (COM).

The Commercial multiplexes (each multiplex is a single signal that carries multiple services) cover about 90% of the UK population from 81 of the largest transmitters (largest by viewer population). The cost for them to broadcast from the other 1,000 or so smaller relays would roughly double their cost of transmission whilst only adding 8.5% of the population to their a potential viewerbases.

Their objective is show advertising which they sell. They want to get as many viewers as possible for lowest possible cost. Doubling the cost of transmission to increase potential reach by around 10% doesn't make sense to them. They operate purely for profit and have no obligation to provide a "Public Service".

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Thursday, 25 October 2012
P
pat
1:42 AM
Londonderry

Why are we not a full-service transmitter after all we are second biggest city in northern Ireland, maybe Derry is not large enough and Limavady is.

link to this comment
pat's 9 posts GB flag
pat's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mark
11:31 AM
Londonderry

Yes that is my point why wasn't the transmitter put closer to Derry. And is it possible that we will ever get a few more channels or is it maxed out?

link to this comment
Mark's 2 posts GB flag
Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:35 AM

pat, Mark: I have already answered your questions above in the posting of Wednesday 24 October 2012 10:46PM.

Unless you can receive from a full-service transmitter (which is probably only Limavady, if any) then you will only ever have PSB channels.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:40 AM

Mark: Transmitters are located where they are most effective which is generally on higher ground where they can be seen by the populations they serve. The purpose of any relay transmitter like Derry is to fill in gaps in coverage that the main transmitters miss out due to the terrain.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
J
Johnny
2:21 PM
Londonderry

I'm wondering if anyone can help me. I retuned yesterday, which in itself was an anticlimax due to the pathetic amount of channels the Londonderry (NI's second largest city) transmitter recieves. I however noticed that I wasn't getting the UK HD channels despite picking up RTE2 HD from Saorview. I realise that my tv needs to be compatable with Freeview HD in order to pick these up. Does the fact that I am able to recieve the RTE HD channel not mean that my TV is HD compatable and therefore should be able to pick up the UK HD channels also?

Apologies for the tetchy tone of this post however it really grates me that these freeview plans have been years in the making, we have been the very last people to recieve the freeview service and then are landed with much less channels than seemingly 90% of the rest of the country.

link to this comment
Johnny's 3 posts GB flag
Johnny's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:38 PM

Johnny: (See above to my posting of yesterday @ 10:46PM for an explanation as to why you only have some channels.)

The only thing you can do is investigate the possibility of receiving directly from Limavady, although even then, the COM channels are on lower power and may be difficult. I looked on Streetview and can see a few aerials on Limavady, although as I say, the Commercial channels "may" be unavailable - that is, the fact that aerials point to Limavady doesn't mean that they are sufficient to receive the COMs.


Saorview signals are broadcast using DVB-T standard. These signals carry a HD picture which is encoded using MPEG4 format.

Freeview standard definition signals use DVB-T standard whereas Freeview HD signals use the newer DVB-T2 standard. Hence a receiver that doesn't have a DVB-T2 tuner cannot receive Freeview HD.


What is interesting is that Freeview standard definition pictures are encoded using MPEG2 and as such a lot of Freeview standard definition receivers don't have the capability to decode MPEG4 (used by Saorview). Evidently yours does. May I ask what is the make and model of the receiver you are using to receive Saorview? Also, is it a "Saorview" labelled product or a "Freeview" one?

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
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