Horizontal VHF in Fermoy

Satts

While passing through Fermoy, Co. Cork, I noticed some horizontally polarised VHF aerials.

I presume its for a local transmitter ?

Is it for just RTE 1 + 2 or channels 1,2,3+4 ?

byte

Terrestrially, TV3 and TG4 are broadcast nationally (loose term) on UHF only, so the ones you see would be for RTE1 and 2.

GerardKeating

Satts wrote: »

While passing through Fermoy, Co. Cork, I noticed some horizontally polarised VHF aerials.

I presume its for a local transmitter ?

Is it for just RTE 1 + 2 or channels 1,2,3+4 ?

All relays are UHF,

Only horizontally polarised VHF main transmitters are Cairn Hill, Hollywell Hill and Kippure.

Might not be TV....

byte

GerardKeating wrote: »

All relays are UHF,

Only horizontally polarised VHF main transmitters are Cairn Hill, Hollywell Hill and Kippure.

Might not be TV....

And Truskmore!

netwhizkid

Would it be for SCTV as they deflect the British channels as a relation of mine in Kilworth has BBC1, BBC2, HTV and Channel4 Wales? I don't think the signal would reach across from either Cornwall or Wales so it must be deflected I think.

Cairn Hill is UHF and deflectors should all be UHF, doubt there's any VHF ones.

Could they just be aerials for the old Fermoy VHF relay? It had an ERP of 6W (yes, 6 watts!) on channels F and I. There's still plenty of VHF aerials floating around in areas where the old VHF relay is long gone.

watty

Deflection is a Myth.

SCTV (and other so called "Deflectors") use receivers and Transmitters. No-one has a VHF licence for that and the UHF ones have to close this year.

All VHF Band II FM and VHF Band III DAB Radio is Vertical/Slant/Circular polarised. In the UK originally Band II used Horizontal.

Antenna

Karsini wrote: »

Could they just be aerials for the old Fermoy VHF relay? It had an ERP of 6W (yes, 6 watts!) on channels F and I. There's still plenty of VHF aerials floating around in areas where the old VHF relay is long gone.

Yes, this is correct. You can still see a lot of VHF Band III aerials for RTE's fermoy relay still up in that area even though it moved to UHF in the region of 10 years ago. The relay is near the one-time train station building on the northern side of the town.
I once came across someone's very old channel list and the Fermoy relay was originally on Channel G when there was just a single RTE channel, but moved to F prior to RTE2 launching in the late 1970s

You can also see a very small number of Band I aerials up in Fermoy, which must be up since the 1960s for the former Maghera Band I transmission which must have been the best (or the best of a bad lot) picture for much of the town prior to the local relay being built (which someone said was around 1970). Attached is a picture of one of them (on the right of the picture) above a shop on the Cork side of the town! SCTV 'deflector' for the area is UHF, you can see a 'grid' aerial for it on the chimney on the left of the picture, same aerial probably getting some sort of reception of TV3 on Ch27 roughly from the same direction, as TV3 not on the local relay.

Mullaghanish is of course the nearest main transmitter but the Nagle mountains in the path of it is the problem,

The Fermoy relay can be seen here in the background: http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/F/Fermoy/slides/DSC01162.html

I've also seen VHF aerials in Abbeyfeale and Listowel recently though Listowel must have been one of the last VHF relays to go, it didn't get shut off until 2005 or 2006.

Mayo Exile

Lugad in Monaghan would still be on the air with RTE 1 & 2 on VHF band III.

watty

Old aerials are rarely removed, they just slowly disintegrate!

Satts

Thanks for the info guys.

Yes, these aerials are pointing in the direction of the old train station.
Some are log periodic, some are yagi.

I was always curious because I read in the RTENL Aux list that you should use a vertically polarised UHF group B aerial for the Fermoy relay.

These aerials are a testament to the guy who put them up, and the materials he used, as I have seen much newer installations in very bad shape.

Antenna

Satts wrote: »

Thanks for the info guys.

Yes, these aerials are pointing in the direction of the old train station.
Some are log periodic, some are yagi.

Attached is a picture I took 2 weeks ago of a couple of aerial installations with defunct (since the late 1990s) 'LP7' Band 3 aerials aimed at the local relay in Fermoy. The pole on the right however also has the correct UHF aerial (Group B yagi) nowadays required as well as a wideband UHF Grid for the local 'deflector' (from near Ballyhooly village).

BTW the 'deflector' is still on and carrying (horizontal):
Ch 22 BBC1
Ch 29 BBC2
Ch 33 C4
Ch 35 ITV

Ch 22 was formerly Ch21, and Ch 35 was formerly 25, but had to move in recent months to avoid QRM from Mullaghanish DTT tests.

Antenna

Attached here is two pictures taken (2 weeks ago) of much more ancient aerials pictured whilst in Fermoy dating from before there was a RTE relay at all in the area (which went on air in 1971 - see links below)

(1) first: is another for the defunct Band 1 Maghera transmission.

(2) Second picture: on the street just east of the town centre is an unusual type of Band 3 aerial aimed at Mt Leinster (I could spot 3 of these)
- an extension of the "Box" type aerial with the additions of directors. (Coax cable long since gone) . MMDS aerial also to be seen on another pole on its left (probably disused also)

1968 Dail discussion about Fermoy TV reception there:
http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0236/D.0236.196807100014.html

Whilst this 1971 Dail debate indicates that 1971 was the year the RTE switched on a relay for the area:
http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0251/D.0251.197102110067.html

There are still old VHF aerials up in Arklow dating back to preseli Wales VHF transmissions which I think ended in the mid to late 70's.

Satts

Thanks for the photo's Antenna.

With reference to the installs with both UHF + VHF aerials, just wondering why the VHF's were not taken down when UHF's were put up ?

Was it a case of "this UHF craic will never last, better leave up the VHF just in case" ?

Or was the UHF aerial installer too lazy to take down the VHF's ?

Or was there a long overlap period before the VHF was turned off ?

Satts

Satts wrote: »

With reference to the installs with both UHF + VHF aerials, just wondering why the VHF's were not taken down when UHF's were put up ?

Was it a case of "this UHF craic will never last, better leave up the VHF just in case" ?

Or was the UHF aerial installer too lazy to take down the VHF's ?

Or was there a long overlap period before the VHF was turned off ?

I remember that when TnaG launched from Listowel it was the only UHF service there so the two aerials were needed for a time. RTÉ 1 and 2 were eventually added about two years later.