Freeview Light on the Londonderry (Northern Ireland) transmitter

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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 like Derry is to fill in gaps in coverage that the main transmitters miss out due to the terrain.

Johnny
2:21 PM
Londonderry

I'm wondering if anyone can me. I retuned yesterday, which in itself was an anticlimax due to the pathetic amount of channels the (NI's second largest city) recieves. I however noticed that I wasn't getting the UK HD channels despite picking up RTE2 HD from . I realise that my tv needs to be compatable with 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?

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.

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Johnny's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

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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 , although even then, the COM channels are on lower 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.

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

Freeview standard definition signals use DVB-T standard whereas signals use the newer DVB-T2 standard. Hence a 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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2:41 PM

Johnny: It comes back to politicians not mandating licence-holders to broadcast from the relays. They have been allowed to pick and choose what suits them rather than working to provide a (more) universal public service.

seamus o'doherty
2:46 PM

Considering the is the tallest structure in Ireland and covered the whole of N.Ireland I find it amusing that it's referred to as a small site.

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Johnny
3:17 PM
Londonderry

Dave,

Thank you for your speedy reply. I understand the differences between the main and transmitters and plan to rotate the towards at the weekend to see if that improves things. I won't hold my breath however. Its just quite frustrating after waiting so long for freeview, I can't get the full service. Had just assumed till yesterday that all the channels would be available.

My main confusion was that I was recieving RTE HD and not UK HD but you have cleared that up for me nicely and can only assume my tv does not have a DVB-T2 tuner. As far as I remember (not home at the minute) the model is LG 42LH3000. I plan to buy a recorder soon anyhow so will look to getting a one which should at least get me the HD channels.

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Johnny's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

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3:19 PM

seamus o'doherty: I did refer to them as "smaller" rather than "small".

Maybe it is your sense of humour...

Anyway, this document lists the number of households expected to use each :

http://consumers.ofcom.or….pdf

I haven't found a way of putting it into a spreadsheet, but having just looked down the list, I think that Derry is the largest to be PSB-only. with 14,000 households is nowhere near coming second.

The sizes (smaller/larger) are a measure of the number of households they serve rather than the length of the !

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3:45 PM

Johnny: Undoubtedly the whole Lite thing must be the biggest let-down.
The page on the LG site about your TV is:
LG 42LH3000 Television - 42" HD Ready 1080p LCD TV - LG Electronics UK
You will, of course, have to switch your to horizontally polarised. For lots of information about aerials, including an online shop, see ATV 's site A.T.V (Aerials And Television) TV Aerial, DAB Aerial, FM Aerial. (It says that there is an additional charge for orders to Northern .)
See this page for suggestions for :
A.T.V (Aerials And Television) TV Aerial, DAB Aerial, FM Aerial. digitalnationwide2.html#L
Derry uses Group B whereas Limavady uses Group C/D ones so you may need to replace the aerial. In any case, you may be looking for something with a higher . However, you might be able to use the current one for purposes with Limavady.
Use manual tuning to select the Limavady channels. Select a UHF channel and wait a moment for the strength and to show (but don't press "Add" just yet). Doing this will allow you to use your TV as a meter.
The objective isn't to see the signal strength at 100%; it is quality that matters.
The six UHF channels from Limavady are:
PSB1 | BBC One |
PSB2 | |
PSB3 | BBC One HD |
COM4 | ITV3 |
COM5 | Pick TV |
COM6 | Film4 |
In order to receive RT you will need a separate aerial. I guess that you may have one now and that it is pointing to which is just over the border and not far from Sheriff Mountain. Unfortunately Holywell Hill is horizontally polarised and Sheriff Mountain is vertically polarised else you may have got away with a single aerial for both (as they are on bearings only 14 degrees apart from your location).
If you have combined the two aerials into one downlead (so as to feed it into the same without having to swap aerial leads) then this should still work for Holywell Hill and Limavady.

Johnny
4:41 PM
Londonderry

Dave,

Thanks again. Thats alot of information to get my head around but it will be a great and will have to look into it over the weekend.

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Johnny's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

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5:08 PM

Johnny: The only other thing I will say is that the UK Postcode Checker "thinks" that COM4 and COM5 are "poor" at your postcode whereas COM6 is "good". The figures that it calculates are the percentage of the area of the postcode that are "served" and "marginal". It should be taken with a pinch of salt as such predictors can never be entirely accurate.

The reason I raise this is because I have been wondering why the marked difference between COM6 and COMs 4 and 5. Unfortunately it doesn't let on why it has calculatated it like this!

In some cases one can make a guess that the likely reason is due to a particular that uses the same . This transmitter, the predictor "thinks", may act to degrade . But as reception is not an exact science, so too is from unwanted signals.

The only thing I can think is that the calculation has taken into account a former transmitter in the Republic. Interestingly those which used 54 and 58 used 64 as well (but not 49). So I think that this is probably nothing to be concerned about.