Pics of Keeper Hill promised 2005

watty

[edit]
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View from UPC/Chorus to North




Mast


Dead aerial Array


View of Silvermines/Clare Glen (Tipperary) from West of Limerick City
(Keeper is actually behind the largest visible bump, the white lump is Raheen Ind. Estate).

zilog_jones

How long ago did they stop using those old aerials? Could you actually get a reliable signal from this far away?

watty

Years ago..

And yes you can. Allegedly there was even once backup reception from Presley in Wales.

If Brougher Mountain DTT was same power as Divis (it is low power only 200W possibly), even DTT is possible from there.

I know another site near Killaloe/Ballina Lough Derg/Tipperary that also is possible. I have operated the Dundalk Clemont Carn 145MHz repeater with a handheld radio on 1W FM from the 2nd site.

Galway

Were they receiving from Brougher Or Divis? The NTL rec site for Galway was at Kilconnell nr Ballinasloe.Not a particulary high site but for some reason the signal from NI got in through a 'gap' there. Array is still there - orginally 4 XG "21 gr As, now 6 Triax UNix 32 gr Aon ahigh tower. Signal now taken at their main Tonobrucky site near Galway city from the Chorus site at Woodcock Hill , so i was told, microwavelink from the Chorus network. Generally v good quality with Ttext,ocasional swtiching to digibox but much less frequent now.Not quite as good as Sky Digi pics tho. NTl have repeater site at Knockroe Hill east of Tuam (main galway bay fm site), Mount Mary near Roscommon border and out in Connemara.Dont know where their Castlebar MMDS site is tho.

lawhec

If Brougher Mountain DTT was same power as Divis (it is low power only 200W possibly), even DTT is possible from there.

DTT from Brougher is 500W per multiplex, still a bit on the low side. Reception of multiplexes A, B, C and D would probably suffer from adjacent channel interference from transmitters using the E23, 26, 29 and 33 group like Mt.Leinster (partial) and Castlebar, but the BBC Multiplex on E30 and (less likely) the UTV/CH4 multiplex on E34 are on less crowded channels, and could probably be done with the right setup, though hardly worthwhile I'd reckon.

watty

Galway wrote:

Were they receiving from Brougher Or Divis?

There were two arrays, one for Brougher and one for Divis. I'd guess Brougher was better as I can often get the 145MHz West Tyrone repeater but hardly ever get the Belfast one.

Foggy43

Thank you for the pictures. I never realised how close the antenna are to the ground.
I am just back in the UK from my annual 3 weeks in south east Limerick.
Keeper Hill must be a 2 thousand foot climb! The peak used to spend most of winter in cloud. Looking from the south it looks possible to drive to the mast provided you are allowed access that is.

I noticed a mast still on a hill east of Doon still in place. A long time ago it used to be an illegal relay. I remember in the summer and the right weather it could get perfect BBC 1 Wales. You would be lucky to get a few hours though.

watty

It is a depression on an almost cliff face just below the summit. So the aerials are well off ground and shielded on nearly three sides by mountain.

You need a high wheel vechile or you will lose your exhaust & brake pipes on that road. It goes ove the plateau on top and down to the locked site.

Galway

I would imagine that those off air NI signals were weather dependent,ie subject to some fading and of course the CCI when pressure was high.

Where does Chorus take their RTE.TV3?TG4 feeds from I wonder?

On NTL digital RTE 1 and 2 and TV 3 are widescreen versions as on Sky Digital, so I wonder if the NTL feed is taken from SKY??

zilog_jones

For analogue cable in Limerick, they seem to get the terrestrial channels from local analogue signals. There's no compression artefacts like with all the other channels, but there seems to be some weird chroma delay - reds (especially fast-moving) seem to lag behind everything else and go kinda flickery.

But I think I may have noticed the same thing on an off-air signal from Woodcock Hill (I mainly notice it on RTÉ One and TV3). Any ideas?

Antenna

zilog_jones wrote:

but there seems to be some weird chroma delay - reds (especially fast-moving) seem to lag behind everything else and go kinda flickery.

But I think I may have noticed the same thing on an off-air signal from Woodcock Hill (I mainly notice it on RTÉ One and TV3). Any ideas?

Its a problem with RTE not Chorus.

I have noticed exactly what you describe on RTE, I receive from Spur Hill (not cable). This especially during GAA coverage when Cork were playing and that effect was occuring big time with their red jerseys!!! Have a look tomorrow during the All-Ireland and see if it still happens!!!

watty

zilog_jones wrote:

For analogue cable in Limerick, they seem to get the terrestrial channels from local analogue signals. There's no compression artefacts like with all the other channels, but there seems to be some weird chroma delay - reds (especially fast-moving) seem to lag behind everything else and go kinda flickery.

But I think I may have noticed the same thing on an off-air signal from Woodcock Hill (I mainly notice it on RTÉ One and TV3). Any ideas?

Do you mean on Analog cable (rubbish on all channels IMO) or direct UHF from Woodcock Hill?

My Woodcock Hill is perfect. Apart from Widescreen, the pictures are higher quality than that from Satellite. About 12.5 km from TX.

Maybe your signal is too low, too high, colour turned too high or it's the TV set.

Antenna

Watty
the problem he talks about is there and occurs during fast moving action (i.e. sports), nothing whatsoever to do with TV sets or cable companies, or analogue reception quality.

Have a look at RTE 2 tomorrow afternoon and you will surely see it with the red jerseys when Cork and Kilkenny meet!
(unless it is fixed in the meantime:))

zilog_jones

watty wrote:

Do you mean on Analog cable (rubbish on all channels IMO) or direct UHF from Woodcock Hill?

I mean both... well it's definately on cable, but I'm not exactly sure if it's the same directly from Woodcock Hill - I don't have an aerial myself (should get one really) but I'll check at my friend's house (Mayorstone) this evening if I remember.

It's not like any reception issue I've seen - it looks like red colours are delayed compared to everything else, and when this happens (fast motion) it's a bit flickery too. I've noticed it on RTÉ One, Two and TV3 - dunno about TG4.

watty

I'll be back home maybe tomorrow and look.

Foggy43

I have brought this up before particularly the 'Saturday or Sunday Game'.

I can only watch this live on Setanta and notice a great improvement in picture quality when Setanta show the repeats. Even though they show the whole game they remove the RTE commentator and put in one of their own and the picture now near perfect and fits the screen.

I understand RTE is widescreen and Setanta is not. It is a problem I can only find when a RTE game is relayed live by Setanta. I do not have RTE. I do not know who does the outside broadcasts for RTE. Maybe it is down to them.

Hurling is a very fast game. Maybe the camera's are finding it hard to keep up with the action. I'm no expert but in photography the faster the film speed the poorer the picture quality? I do not know anything about digital photography!

zilog_jones

It doesn't just happen with sports broadcasts - it happens with anything where there's a fast moving red thing (e.g. a red car going across the screen). And as I said I've seen it on TV3 too. And it's not picture quality in general, it's just red colours seem to be messed up and temporally off-set with everything else.

Whatever you're on about is a totally separate issue.

Foggy43

Zilog, You are correct, a totally different issue!

I was in South East Limerick during August. My mum is receiving from Woodcock Hill. I will phone there this evening and see if they are having problems. I didn't watch much TV but I'm sure I would have noticed your problem.

To be honest the only function my terrestrial aerial system has is a backup should Sky fail and FM radio.

watty

Images (taken in 2005) updated and changed 23 July 2009.
Moved to Broadcast History.

The original hosting site was "lost" but I had backups on my server in the attic still.
(even though new disks thrice and rebuilt since 2006!)