TV3 and TG4 signal quality - How can i improve this?

flashcash5

i had asked this in consumer electronics/Home entertainment but no reply..

Hi All,

I only have the poverty channels in my home in Limerick (RTE1,2, TV3 and TV4). I access these using the co-ax cable that comes in throught the hole in the wall (Not using a rabbit ears arial on top of my set)

The picture quality on 1 and 2 is perfect. However, tv3 is really bad and tg4 is almost as bad. Now i see adverts in the paper saying that these guys can get these 4 channels to your house perfect for a small fee?

Does anyone know how they do this? I'm presuming it's some sort of signal amplifier? I do have a type of amplifier that my cable connects to before it goes to the TV (it's one of the ones that you can plug multiple TV's into to get good signals in them all) but it doesn't seem to make any difference.
Mabye i could buy something to help? Although my house is kinda at the foot of a small hill so this may be a factor.
With the Tour De France going live on tg4 on july 1st, i'm eager to try work something out if possible.

If you have any comments, i'd be glad to hear them..

byrnefm

I don't know what frequencies the channels are transmitted at in Limerick for TG4 and TV3 but they're often quite spaced out from RTÉ 1 & 2. This means that if your antenna is for a limited channel selection (eg for channels 21-30) that it wouldn't pick up the other two as clearly as it wasn't designed for that. (If this is the case, you'd need a wide-band UHF antenna). In some areas, TG4 and TV3 are broadcast from a different area to RTÉ1 & 2 (as is the case where my folks live), so they have the problem where you can get in RTÉ 1 & 2 in clearly, TG4 in poorly and literally nothing at all for TV3. Your only solution there is to move the antenna to be inbetween the two transmitters.

Hope that's of some help...

rlogue

The other possibility is that the coax is fed from a Band III aerial pointing at Maghera - in which case the TG4 and TV3 signals will be of much poorer quality.

Sponge Bob

need a UHF aerial for them 2 form Maghera

Ulsterman 1690

Its also possible that the OP is getting their signal from Mullaghanish although thye advice RE: UHF aerials would be pretty much the same.

ADDS: "poverty channels" havent heard that expression before -love it !

Sponge Bob

Or one of these yokes here

flashcash5

Thanks a millon all for the response - looks like i've finally found a place where people know their stuff about this kind of thing.

So, apologies if i sound stoopid but:

byrnefm:
I dunno if my antenna is for a limited channel selection - any way of telling?
Where do i get a wide band uhf antenna?
What do you mean by moving the antenna to be inbetween the two transmitters?

rlogue:
How do i find out if my coax is "fed from a Band III aerial pointing at Maghera "?!! so i can find out if the signal is just of poor quality?
Maghera sounds like some form of ice cream to me ..

Sponge Bob:
"need a UHF aerial for them 2 form Maghera" Can i put an antenna into ice-cream? Can this conduct uhf signals also?

Ulsterman 1690 :
Any idea how i could test if my OP is getting their signals from Mullaghanish?

Thanks again!

Sponge Bob

UHF

http://www.geocities.com/corkradio/tvch.html

Maghera and Mullaghanish use slightly different UHF aerials. I am unsure which works in Limerick or whether you should consider Woodcock Hill instead.

For Maghera use a green coded one and make it horizontal
For Mullaghanish use a red coded one and make it horizontal
For Limerick (Woodcock Hill) use a yellow coded one and make it horizontal (this may not carry TV3 though)

For VHF you may use rabbits ears . The UHF aerial is like a .5m squared fly swat .Ask in the TV aerial shop in Limerick when purchasing the aerial as the fellas in there should know.

If you see lots of HIGH UP fly swats in your area see which way they point and that will tell you where the signal is coming from and that its far.

If you see lots of LOW DOWN fly swats in your area see which way they point and that will tell you where the signal is coming from and that its near . Woodcock Hill has the radar on top

byte

"Fly swats" is a name I've never heard the grids called before. I'm used to the term "colour king" but fly swat sounds much better!

Sponge Bob

there is a wideband UHF aerial to do all three bands too

and if he does not understand that he should pay someone who does to fit an aerial for TV3 and TG4

flashcash5

Thanks again all, i've learned a good bit more than what i did. It's not an urgent matter anymore but i like learning about this stuff nevertheless.

The houses around me have High up fly swats, but don't seem to be pointing to Maghera or woodcock (which are north of me), or Mullaghanish which should be south west. It seems they are pointing east-ish? There is one on top of my house pointing in that direction but it is a semi detached so i'm not sure if that belongs to the guy next door or to my connection coz i've no ladder (3 story house). I did see one pointing towards woodcock hill though..

But something leads me to believe that the problem may be related to something in my house (it is rented by the way so i'm gonna have to do some cable exploration). I have a cable going into my room on the top floor from the attic, i set up a tv on this yesterday and tv3 is much better on this..

I'll climb up there after work and try trace the cables to see whats goin on. Stay tuned (..get it:o )

byte

Maybe both houses are rented out, and the houses share the same aerial?

watty

Most of the "flyswats" are copies of real aluminium bowtie rod aerials made out of coathanger wire. Useless.

Even the "real" quad dipole arrays are only really good with a strong signal and low multipath.

If you can see woodcock hill from Chimney then it is best bet.

The advantage of the "flyswats" is that they are good in UK where C5 does not fit in same group. But here usually all four channels are in one group so a narrower band aerial will perform better (red, yellow, green). I think Woodcock is indeed "yellow", but a green will work too. A red is bad as it is two low a group (A) and will give poor signal.

Ulsterman 1690

Stacked bowties/Grids/"Colourkings"/"antighost"/"flyswats"/whatever yer havin yerself offer reasonable performance as "semi-wideband" aerials in that they cover UHF groups B, C/D and the top end of group A fairly well but performance falls off pretty drastically below around Ch 30.

Aerial installers in the Republic seem to love them (a load of them will fit well into a van ?!?!?!) and use them almost everywhere (even where there are better alternatives just as inexpensive)

They have their uses but when it comes to recieving say BBC from Divis or Brougher (or an "on-channel" deflector relaying same) they are not the best choice

Ulsterman 1690

Ulsterman 1690 wrote:

Stacked bowties/Grids/"Colourkings"/"antighost"/"flyswats"/whatever yer havin yerself offer reasonable performance as "semi-wideband" aerials in that they cover UHF groups B, C/D and the top end of group A fairly well but performance falls off pretty drastically below around Ch 30.

Aerial installers in the Republic seem to love them (a load of them will fit well into a van ?!?!?!) and use them almost everywhere (even where there are better alternatives just as inexpensive)

I was in Bryanstown Manor in Drogheda over the weekend and virtually every house had them! The odd one had a conventional yagi but the vast majority had one or two mesh aerials on the mast. The standard config seemed to be one for Divis (??) and another for Clermont, although most had Clermont only and some had MMDS (why you'd choose MMDS up there is beyond me!).

Antenna

Ulsterman 1690 wrote:

Stacked bowties/Grids/"Colourkings"/"antighost"/"flyswats"/whatever yer havin yerself offer reasonable performance as "semi-wideband" aerials in that they cover UHF groups B, C/D and the top end of group A fairly well but performance falls off pretty drastically below around Ch 30.

Aerial installers in the Republic seem to love them (a load of them will fit well into a van ?!?!?!) and use them almost everywhere (even where there are better alternatives just as inexpensive)

One of the reasons for their popularity is that with horizontal polarised signals - the aim does not have to be very accurate!!!

Also historically, they were often the favourite for reception of TV 'deflector' services.
In the past some of these services - even ones that were providing just 2 channels - had channels spread across more than one aerial group. Also there have been occasions deflectors have been forced to change not just channel but aerial group (to avoid interference to new RTE transmitters being introduced), a wideband aerial would be 'future-proof' for any such changes!

Antenna

Antenna wrote:

One of the reasons for their popularity is that with horizontal polarised signals - the aim does not have to be very accurate!!!

Doesn't explain why there were so many of them up in Drogheda, Clermont is vertical! And they were vertically polarised, so obviously wasn't for Divis except for a few horizontally polarised ones.

But thanks for that, didn't really know that tbh!

Rippy

Antenna wrote:

One of the reasons for their popularity is that with horizontal polarised signals - the aim does not have to be very accurate!!!

QUOTE]
The wide angle of acceptance can be very useful. In parts of Carrigaline I can position a horizontal grid looking west and pick up south coast deflector (groupB) to the South West and Mulliganish (group A) to the North West perfectly. Must be about 45 deg spread. I do use my meter to 'get the balance right'. This is the about the only thing I use them for though. All others are decent grouped yagis.

lucernarian

Karsini wrote:

Doesn't explain why there were so many of them up in Drogheda, Clermont is vertical! And they were vertically polarised, so obviously wasn't for Divis except for a few horizontally polarised ones.

But thanks for that, didn't really know that tbh!

The reason is using a grid aerial allows reception of Clermont Carn and Kilkeel for the BBC with the one aerial. That's what we had put in 8 years ago, though the BBC reception is far from perfect as time has progressed.

Divis reception isn't exactly good, with the Mourne Mts./Slieve Gillion in the way...