Deflectors + UK Freeview Signal

Clanc

Does anyone know if the "deflectors" that cover the area around Dungarvan, Co. Waterford also carry the UK Freeview signal?

I was in Currys in Newry yesterday + was talking to a guy from Wexford that receives Freeview directly from Wales. He was up there buying freeview boxes for his neighbours who dont want to get Sky.

They had a twin tuner freeview box with 40GB HDD for £120 which would be just the trick for the folks xmas pressie - if it would work.

Failing the freeview part, does anyone know whether such a box would work just for the normal analogue signal- the crowd in Currys hadn't a notion.

Richard

Clanc wrote:

Does anyone know if the "deflectors" that cover the area around Dungarvan, Co. Waterford also carry the UK Freeview signal?

They don't. A deflector is basically a private rebroadcaster. There are no such rebroadcasters for freeview in the UK as the signal would degrade. All transmitters are supplied with a direct signal, and a private deflector in ROI wouldn't have access to this signal.

Failing the freeview part, does anyone know whether such a box would work just for the normal analogue signal- the crowd in Currys hadn't a notion.

There are analogue Hard Disk recorders out there. I think Argos has some.

Freddie59

Richard wrote:

There are analogue Hard Disk recorders out there. I think Argos has some.

They do. Cost €300 - about half the price of a similar Sony.:)

lawhec

As i've explained in my FAQ sticky (which I wish I could update except that I can't edit the posts ) in theroy it might be possible for an active deflector to rebroadcast Freeview where it picks up channels from a main transmitter and retrasmits them locally on the same frequencies, but there are no known cases of this successfully working. I don't think there are too many active "deflectors" in Ireland anyway, they're reasonably common though for self-help schemes in Britain.

For a "relay" to successfully retransmit a DTT signal the incoming signal must not only be strong enough but also be as free of errors as much as possible. Currently all UK DTT transmitters are direct fed* but the BBC have been doing some expirements on DTT relays and apparently the Swiss have been trialling networks some eight hops deep. At the time of DTT starting in the UK in 1998, not enough research had been done into DTT relays.

* I would like to know how the Bressay transmitter in the Shetland Islands are fed DTT considering that their analogue TV feed is done via a UHF receive pick-up point and then sent by SHF link to the transmitter site? For those not in the know, only Mux.A in the UK is satellite fed, the remainder use terrestial networks. It is possible that an undersea cable has now been installed there (one has now been laid for Fremont Point and another has been laid for Brougher Mountain which prior to DTT had its analogue channels feed picked up from a remote receiving site for Divis linked to Brougher via SHF) but I've not read anything on it.

watty

I found some feeds once on a transatlantic bird labelled "Shetland"

They seem to be gone now.

deaglan169

hi i live in monaghan and get 83 channels including radio stations on freeview my brother lives 10 miles from me and receives the same except he also gets the sky channels via freeview does any one know why im not receiving these channels is it coming from a different transmitter i have a full signal on all the freeview channels cant understand why im not getting the sky channels? any ideas

Mossy Monk

which Sky channels are you not receiving?

deaglan169

hi its "sky 3 ,sky news and sports" i think "uktv history and yooplay games" are also carried on this mux not gettin them either

lawhec

deaglan169 wrote:

hi i live in monaghan and get 83 channels including radio stations on freeview my brother lives 10 miles from me and receives the same except he also gets the sky channels via freeview does any one know why im not receiving these channels is it coming from a different transmitter i have a full signal on all the freeview channels cant understand why im not getting the sky channels? any ideas

The channels you mention are on Multiplex C from Divis, which uses a frequency (E48) that is out of band from the traditional Group A aerials usually needed for analogue TV from Divis. The remaining channels are all broadcast in-band.

The solution is to use a different aerial in place of the Group A aerial, namely a Group K one - your combiner box (which combines the Divis aerial with your RTE one into one downlead) may also need to be changed, and possibly even the masthead amp. Is it worth it?

Your brother either already has a setup to allow this out-of-band channel to be received or is receiving Freeview from Brougher Mountain instead, where all digital services are in-band with the analogue channels.

deaglan169

hi thanks for that info re sky mux my brother is living up the side of carnrock in co.fermanagh and there is a good chance he is pulling the signals from brougher aswell as divis i have a good line of site to the enniskillen direction would there be a chance of pullin the sky mux from brougher if i put up another antenna and changed the combiner box.

lawhec

deaglan169 wrote:

hi thanks for that info re sky mux my brother is living up the side of carnrock in co.fermanagh and there is a good chance he is pulling the signals from brougher aswell as divis i have a good line of site to the enniskillen direction would there be a chance of pullin the sky mux from brougher if i put up another antenna and changed the combiner box.

He's more likely just to pick them up from Brougher Mountain rather than Divis as well.

If you think you can get some success, just swing the current aerial aimed at Divis around and see. Both Brougher and Divis use the same analogue aerial group (Group A).