Monaghan VHF Transmitter

deaglan169

hi i was jsut wondering if RTENL have any plans to change the vhf transmitter in monaghan to uhf, no one in monaghan uses the this transmitter as tv3 and tg4 arent available on it so we use clermont carn with very good results i live as the crow flies about 4 miles from the vhf transmitter line of site from my chimney but i am using clermont no amp and perfect reception, the vhf channels suffer from very bad ghosting and interference during tropo, as far as i am aware the transmitter in monaghan is also holding back some of the dab frequencies across the border!

Pyro Boy

I hope they change it too ! I get very bad reception of tv3 but good RTE 1 and 2 (think i'm picking them up from the VHF transmitter). Any way of improving the reception ? any point trying or just wait till they update the transmitter?

On a separate point I can view channel 5 (snowy not perfect). My tv can pick up some freeview channels:
UKtv history
4Music
Virgin 1
TMF
Ideal world
ITV2 +1
Film 4
Topup anytime
Gem tv
lottery xtra
4tv interactive
But that's it no BBC or ITV channels.... the signal strength is 72% and signal quality is 90+%.

1)What is wrong that I can only receive some freeview channels?
2)Do I need to to upgrade my aerial to a high gain aerial wideband ?
3)Is the aerial that is picking up RTE blocking the UHF ?
4)What way should my RTE aerial and UHF aerial be facing for Monaghan?

Any suggestions would be appreciated

deaglan169

it sounds like your antenna for the english stations is either off line or not enough gain, it depends were you are living in monaghan most people get their bbc's from divis (Belfast) and others from brougher over omagh direction, the vhf transmitter is in aghabog/corcaghan so aim your vhf antenna for that general area

I read once (I think on Richard Logue's site) that the Monaghan relay will remain on VHF until digital switchover. Even if it did switch to UHF you still wouldn't get TV3 from it.

lawhec

I remember discussing this a while back with someone as to why the Monaghan relay has not had its RTÉ1 and 2 transmitters moved to UHF from VHF. The conclusion came in that both these channels have been kept on VHF as these frequencies can propagate much better into Armagh City than it can on the high Group C/D frequencies its allocated for UHF, where TG4 can be found on channel E64.

The frequencies used by the Monaghan relay for RTÉ1 and 2, VHF Channels D & F, do not at present conflict with any DAB allocations for the UK.

Pyro Boy

So if I upgrade my UHF aerial to a high gain one will it get me the other freeview channels? If so can you suggest a good aerial that would suit my situation. thanks