Cairn Hill TX Reduced power?

Galway

Does anyone in the know, know if Cairn Hill is on reduced power. Im receiving from technically outside the service area and the picture quality on all 4 TV channels has deteriorated since Monday. I know there was an overnight outage last night but nothing on aertel re reduced power. Hence, my asking if anyone knows if the power is down?

medoc

Galway wrote: »

Does anyone in the know, know if Cairn Hill is on reduced power. Im receiving from technically outside the service area and the picture quality on all 4 TV channels has deteriorated since Monday. I know there was an overnight outage last night but nothing on aertel re reduced power. Hence, my asking if anyone knows if the power is down?

A couple of people I know were saying that tv reception monday evening was poor with TV3 and RTE2 been especially poor. I cannot confirm this as I use Sky for RTE. All ok now anyway. I think Cairn Hill serves Offaly

L1011

http://www.rte.ie/aertel/169-01.html

Work was clearly on-going - has "ten minute outage 26-01-09" basically.

http://www.rte.ie/aertel/169-09.html

and yesterday, overnight outage.

Galway

TV3 was grim this morning @ 7 am when I got up for work. All seemed much better when I got home this eve. TG 4 on ch 50 always the weakest everywhere it seems. RTÉ 1 on CH 40 & TV 3 on ch 46 seem the strongest, then RTÉ 2 on ch 43. I also get TG 4 from Maghera which belts out excellent pictures on ch 68 here. Roll on DTT! I think Maghera is due to get DTT before Cairn Hill though.

FYI Cairn Hill can be received over a huge area! It serves most of midland counties: Ros, WMeath, Offaly, Leitrim, Cavan, east co. Galway. It can be received in Galway on high ground - i get it 8 miles south of Tuam (mind you high gain aerial and masthead amp required). Even in Galway City on high ground - eg. out where the MMDS mast is at Tonabrucky/Bushypark. It gets into Mayo and parts of Sligo and across the border too. It causes co channel with Presely TX in Wales in parts of Wicklow and even North Wexford. Mind you it is an 800 kw Tx!

Digifriendly

Galway wrote: »

FYI Cairn Hill can be received over a huge area! It serves most of midland counties: Ros, WMeath, Offaly, Leitrim, Cavan, east co. Galway. It can be received in Galway on high ground - i get it 8 miles south of Tuam (mind you high gain aerial and masthead amp required). Even in Galway City on high ground - eg. out where the MMDS mast is at Tonabrucky/Bushypark. It gets into Mayo and parts of Sligo and across the border too. It causes co channel with Presely TX in Wales in parts of Wicklow and even North Wexford. Mind you it is an 800 kw Tx!

When I lived in Armagh there were a number of aerials for Cairn Hill in the city itself although most people in the county seem to get RTE/TV3/TG4 from Clermont Carn.

medoc

There still seems to be intermitant problems with tv3 on ch46, i checked a few times and it was off a couple of times, although this might be caused by local interferance. A local farmer's shed camera blocks out utv from NI. Any idea when DTT will be activated on Cairn Hill

Galway

medoc wrote: »

There still seems to be intermitant problems with tv3 on ch46, i checked a few times and it was off a couple of times, although this might be caused by local interferance. A local farmer's shed camera blocks out utv from NI. Any idea when DTT will be activated on Cairn Hill

The reception hasnt been constant even in calm frosty weather. DTT after maghera I think. Cant come soon enough. Where are u located?

medoc

Galway wrote: »

The reception hasnt been constant even in calm frosty weather. DTT after maghera I think. Cant come soon enough. Where are u located?

Located just outside Tullamore on Birr road. I am getting no picture on TV3 again today.The screen has grey/black interference all over and no sound. I checked on a few tv,s all with the same problen. I disconnected the high "bbc" aerial and reconnected the "rte" aerial with no change. I get TV3 on 671Mhz and if i manually retune to 670Mhz i get a poor picture and noisy sound. I noticed a signal on 675Mhz with a black screen and no sound. I disconnected any Vcr Sat DVD Sky boxes etc incase it was the rf modulators causing the problem with no effect. A neighbour has the same problem on a tv with "rabbit ears" as he has no aerial and inly uses Sky.
Any Ideas what the signal on 675 Mhz is.

lucernarian

I thought TV3's frequency from Cairn hill was 674 MHz.

Not a clue as to the black screen. you mightn't be hearing a sound but is there a nicam signal present? Does using teletext show you anything?

Is there chorus cable (not MMDS) in Tullamore? It could be something to do with faulty cables running nearby your house. It's unlikely though.

Galway

If the cause of this is an external source then maybe it needs to be reported to the RTÉ reception investigation? TV3 is fine here 8 miles south of Tuam, Co, galway - outside the service area. Tullamore is well within the Cairn Hill Service area.

Antenna

medoc wrote: »

I am getting no picture on TV3 again today.The screen has grey/black interference all over and no sound. I checked on a few tv,s all with the same problen. I disconnected the high "bbc" aerial and reconnected the "rte" aerial with no change. I get TV3 on 671Mhz and if i manually retune to 670Mhz i get a poor picture and noisy sound. I noticed a signal on 675Mhz with a black screen and no sound.

It could be an oscillating masthead amplifier or distribution amplifier in your installation
Try connecting a TV directly to the aerial you are using for TV3 (no amplifier in-line) - can you get TV3 now?.
It could also be a problem with a neighbour's masthead amplifier too!

TV3 from the transmitter concerned is Ch46 which is 671.25 (I assume TV only shows rounded to 1MHz).

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

I thought TV3's frequency from Cairn hill was 674 MHz.

674 would be the centre frequency for a digital trasmission on Ch 46
The frequency given for an analogue TV channel is the vision carrier, not the channel centre.

medoc

Hi
All seems fine sunday and monday. I checked the tv frequenceys online and am deffinately receiving from Cairn Hill with tv3 on 671Mhz. I disconnected the "bbc" areial ( sorry I dont know exact type its big and for bbc) and powered down the amp and the signal on 675Mhz with a black screen and no sound was present on the Rte areial and an indoor one aswell. All is ok today and it is only used for the kitchen so I used Tv3 on 831 Mhz during the affected time. There is cable in Tullamore but it is not near my house as I'm out from the town a bit. A neighbour has one of those farm shed cameras which broadcasts on 381Mhz and same on 511 Mhz which obliterates UTV on 503Mhz unless this was also causing the TV3 problem

stylers

there was definitely something going on with cairn hill last night, reduced power but RTE1 mostly affected i thought. Medoc, thats a funny frequency to have a camera link on, how did they manage that ?.

medoc

stylers wrote: »

there was definitely something going on with cairn hill last night, reduced power but RTE1 mostly affected i thought. Medoc, thats a funny frequency to have a camera link on, how did they manage that ?.

The farm Yard is located about 1/4 mile down road and his house is about 1/4 mile further up than us so we are located in the middle. There is an aerial on the shed and an aerial on his house.Last year when it was installed it was causing interference on Ch4, when we complained he turned it off and said he would get it retuned. We no longer use this aerial only for RTE in kitchen and just noticed yesterday it is now interfering with utv. I think they are common enough to transmit cctv over a short distance.