Aerial problems in Shannon, Clare

jbuckley78

Ok, bear with me on this. I'm not very savvy on these things so please, if you're going to reply try and keep the techy stuff to plain english. Basically what happened is, my father in law was painting our house and took down the aerial I had outside the house,he thought it was an old aerial for when we had Chorus.He threw it in the bin. So now I no longer have RTE 1 and 2 or TV3, which used to be perfect. I went up in the attic to have a look and I had one of those UHF/VHF combiners with 3 wires coming out of it and going out to the aerial outside. These 3 cables were cut by my father in law. A local cable guy is charging 180e to get them back up again. I'm hoping to be able to do it myself. hopefully with the aerial in the attic this time. So can anyone tell me what exactly I need to buy/do to get it working again. i'm living about 10 miles from woodcock hill so i'm asuming I'm getting the signal from there.Thanks in advance. This is similar to the one I have in the attic already. uhfvhfcombiner.jpg

coylemj

Woodcock Hill is now UHF only so you only need one aerial and can dump the combiner unit.

The channnels from Woodcock Hill are tightly bunched into 39-49 so a Group B UHF Aerial horizontally aligned would be your ideal solution. Your local aerial man will probably insist that you install a wideband because that's all he has in stock so stick to your guns and tell him to source a Group B aerial. Try to get it mounted on the roof as that will give you best reception but you do not need a VHF aerial.

jbuckley78

Thanks for that. Great help. So your saying I can get Rte 1 and 2 and Tv 3 on the one aerial? Is it possible to source that aerial myself? Could I get one in Maplin for instance?

coylemj

Yes you can get RTE1/RTE2/TV3/TG4 on a single UHF aerial from Woodcock Hill. All of the Maplin outdoor aerials are wideband but they're not too expensive and if the digital frequencies (when they start broadcasting digital in 2009) fall outside Group B then you'd be as well off with a wideband.

This model should do the job, mount as it shown in the picture i.e. with horizontal alignment.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=217681

From Shannon town to Woodcock Hill is magnetic 90 degrees meaning that you should bring a compass into the attic and when mounting the aerial, point it to magnetic east.

jbuckley78

Thanks again, and I apologise for some of the daft/simple questions.
1. How does the coax cable attach to the aerial? Is there an input socket for a coax cable on the aerial?
I'm assuming that the cables that my father in law cut off, can be attached to this new aerial?
2. Is there anything else I'll need to get it working? Even the simple equipment that you would assume someone would know.

coylemj

From what you said you already have co-ax running from the attic and/or roof to your TV and if you read the specs. for that Maplin aerial you'll see that it comes with a 10m co-ax cable and a co-ax connector (joiner) so all you need is someone reasonably handy to add a co-ax plug to the existing cable which runs down to the TV, then plug the aerial lead and that new plug into the conector supplied with the aerial. I used to do this at home back in the 60s when I was a young lad, it's dead easy. All you need to fit a plug to a co-ax lead are simple tools and just make sure that you preserve the shielding on the co-ax so you don't leave the core exposed at any stage.

Most important, make absolutely sure that no stray strand of the shielding cable is touching the core.

You can buy a co-ax plug in any electrical or TV shop.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/g_knott/elect18.htm

Foggy43

I would seriously doubt that Woodcock Hill transmitter can be received in Shannon Town. I am pretty certain I have read in other threads that it can't or a few locations can. Maybe jbuckley78 is one of the lucky few.

Woodcock Hill is far too low powered at 100watts. As far as I am aware the TV Transmitter is on the South Eastern side of the hill.

I have had a close look at an Ordnance Survey map and it looks as though there is a possible obstruction between Woodcock Hill and Shannon - Gallows Hill/Heathmount at 218 metres. The TV Txer is at about 260 metres 2km East of this.

I remember some time ago someone was able to give a map of transmitter coverage. Was it 'lawhec' or 'Northern Correspondent'?

coylemj

You could be right, the Shannon radar dome is on the summit of Woodcock hill and the RTE transmitter is to the SE but while this means that people to the NW of the summit are definitely blocked, the folk in Shannon may also be blocked.

According to the rtenl.ie website Woodcock Hill has an ERP of 2kW and jbuckley78 is only 12 kms away so unless he's blocked by the side of the hill he should be able to get a decent signal.

Foggy43

I will have a look for that thread I mentioned. You may be right. Where I am (when in Ireland, that is) I am not supposed to receive TV from Woodcock Hill but I can, with a little help from a booster, reception is excellent. 20 miles South as the crow flies. No obstruction.

I still say the Woodcock Hill TV Transmitter is seriously under powered. I wonder has anyone in Shannon tried DAB from Woodcock Hill. I would love to know the ERP that is using. Quite high I reckon.

coylemj

Woodcock Hill DAB (5 kW ERP) appears to be aimed specifically in the direction of Limerick city and there would appear to be zero coverage in Shannon.

The coverage map on this website says that each DAB transmitter has a 'single Bill panel pointing at the town center' so Clermont Carn appears to be aimed at Dundalk, Spur Hill at Cork city, Three Rock at Dublin city and Woodcock Hill at Limerick city.

http://www.digitalradio.ie/coverage.htm

Hence I would suggest that the lack of DAB coverage in Shannon doesn't say anything about the UHF coverage there from Woodcock Hill.

Foggy43

Thank you for the DAB info. 5kw! No wonder it is coming in so strong in SE Co. Limerick.

http://www.geocities.com/corkradio/tvch.html This site says Woodcock Hill has a ERP of 2kw. I am not sure. When Woodcock Hill first started it was. Only RTE1 and 2 were available but at a much better quality in Group C/D. The powers that be decided to change down to Group B, channels 39 and 42 for some reason. While the changeover was being done we had both the B and C/D channels. C/D was better quality. I was sure the power was turned down for Group B. I could be wrong.