BBC on digital tv now

lucky-colm

hi all
its probably no big news to all ye people on cable tv but us country folk who rely on aerials for tv and only recently got rte on digital it is big news.
but a quick tunning session this morning and i now have 29 digital channels sure there is a lot of crap in there and channels like itv3 and bbc4, parliment tv, price bid tv, and so on but some good one aswell. but i presume that more channels will follow in the future.

Antenna

if this has only happened in the past couple of days well...
this is only temporary due to atmospheric effects, which often happens with cloudless skies and fine weather.

the long distance reception will be gone again within days.

where are you BTW?

all year round reception of UK DTT is certainly viable in parts of Co. Wexford for example

Foggy43

Yes! I remember when we could pick up Spanish TV in these weather conditions on the back of our Band 1 VHF Aerials.

Antenna

Spanish on Band 1 happened due to a different type of propagation called Sporadic E,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporadic_E_propagation
- and one didn't need to be near the south coast to experience it.

The signal 'skips' hundreds of miles. Can happen with FM radio and TV Band 1 - but not UHF . mostly occurs during daytime in summer.

lucky-colm

Antenna wrote: »

if this has only happened in the past couple of days well...
this is only temporary due to atmospheric effects, which often happens with cloudless skies and fine weather.

the long distance reception will be gone again within days.

where are you BTW?

all year round reception of UK DTT is certainly viable in parts of Co. Wexford for example

about half way between dungarvan and youghal roughly 600ft above sea level.

so you reckon this is only temporary:( pity

GerardKeating

I was getting BBC R2 in the car lastnight. Assume it's the same effect?

tlaavtech

lucky-colm wrote: »

about half way between dungarvan and youghal roughly 600ft above sea level.

so you reckon this is only temporary:( pity

First question is where is your antenna pointed. For UK chnnels, it should be point East approx. Your Mt. Leinster should be point more NE. If you are picking it up on the RTE UHF, then a second antenna and an amp may make it possible.

Definitely worth experimenting with when the weather turns again!

tlaavtech

Just to get your hopes up ....


http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=62082680&postcount=90

Experiment with what you have first before you spend any money!

(I'm just jealous 'cause I am too low in Tramore to benefit!!)

lucky-colm

tlaavtech wrote: »

First question is where is your antenna pointed. For UK chnnels, it should be point East approx. Your Mt. Leinster should be point more NE. If you are picking it up on the RTE UHF, then a second antenna and an amp may make it possible.

Definitely worth experimenting with when the weather turns again!

yeah pretty sure its mt leinster
but do you think its worth putting up another uhf aerial and an amp (i think i may all ready have one of these) how or where would i join the two aerial signals together.

lucky-colm

tlaavtech wrote: »

Just to get your hopes up ....


http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=62082680&postcount=90

Experiment with what you have first before you spend any money!

(I'm just jealous 'cause I am too low in Tramore to benefit!!)

you may not be missing to much as they are not all brilliant channels
here is the list
bbc red button
itv 2
bbc 3
smile tv3
bbc4
itv3
sky three
sky news
channel 4+1
more 4
bbc news
e4
e4+1
itv4
cbeebies
cbbc channel
price-drop tv
teletext
dave
sky text
sky spts news
bbc parliment
directgov
community
gay rabbit
rabbit
301
trove
bbc radio 1
bbc 1 extra
bbc radio 2
bbc radio 5
bbc radio 4
bbc rsl
bbc r55x
bbc 6 music
bbc radio 7
bbc asian net
bbc world service
talk sport
premier radio
absolute radio
heart
bbc 1
bbc 2
itv 1
channel 4
five

my god there is an awfull lot in there :eek:
didn't realise how many until i started typing:D

tlaavtech

lucky-colm wrote: »

yeah pretty sure its mt leinster
but do you think its worth putting up another uhf aerial and an amp (i think i may all ready have one of these) how or where would i join the two aerial signals together.

For the moment, just wait for "normal" weather and try with the second arial polarised horizontally (the elements wide rather than tall!!). If that works you could probably get away with combining them indoors using a normal y-splitter since both sets of channels are UHF, with no channel overlap. (I now cover my head and wait for the barrage of "It won't work"!!!).

If you take it one step at a time you could do it for almost no money.

1) Point the second ariel to the east and tweak to maximise the signal strength.

2) Connect them individually to the receiver and compare the signal strengths and quality between the RTE and BBC signals - This will give you an idea of how well the BBC will hold up after the weather changes.

3) Combine them with the Y-splitter and look at the signal strengths and quality again. This will tell you very quickly if you can get away with it (That and actually still having telly pictures!!!!!)

If this works great!! If not, (and in all cases) your signal will be improved by (in no particular order)

1) using Satellite Cable rather than TV cable (ask for CT100)

2) using F-type connectors rather than co-axial (F-Types have the bare wire sticking 1cm out the top. Co-axial is the socket on the telly)

3) using a proper masthead amp/combiner - I don't have a head for heights, so this bit I leave to others .



Can anyone recommend a good amp/combiner for the job?

Mike 1972

Having bought a new toy and tuning around here in Antrim last night along with the usual Divis, Claremont and Limavady TX's I was suprised to pick up Brougher (Fermanagh/S Tyrone) and Cairnhill (Longford -ish)

Didnt find any Irish DTT though

oddly there was some breakup on some of the (normally rock solid) digital multiplexes from Divis. Probably something else coming in underneath.

lucky-colm wrote: »

a lot of crap in there and channels like itv3 and bbc4, parliment tv

What herasy BBC4 and ITV3 are about the only half decent channels these days ?

Spanish on Band 1 happened due to a different type of propagation called Sporadic E and one didn't need to be near the south coast to experience it

When I lived in Mayo I used to do a bit of TV DXing -Ibearian and Nordic signals were fairly common with Spain (TVE) predominant

Nowadays with dozens of countries available on satellite its not such a big deal anymore

Antenna

lucky-colm wrote: »

but a quick tunning session this morning and i now have 29 digital channels sure there is a lot of crap in there and channels like itv3 and bbc4, parliment tv, price bid tv, and so on but some good one aswell. but i presume that more channels will follow in the future.

Could you post what UHF channels (or frequencies) the UK digital are being received on? Just curious what transmitter you are receiving, may be from cornwall rather than Presely in wales.

Also what UHF channel numbers (or frequencies) do you get your Irish analogue TV on?

lucky-colm

Antenna wrote: »

Could you post what UHF channels (or frequencies) the UK digital are being received on? Just curious what transmitter you are receiving, may be from cornwall rather than Presely in wales.

Also what UHF channel numbers (or frequencies) do you get your Irish analogue TV on?

no bother but where do i find this info

Big Lar

lucky-colm wrote: »

you may not be missing to much as they are not all brilliant channels
here is the list.....................................

My God, What a bunch of useless channels :eek:

FYI, They are all available free (Well the good ones anyway) on the extra channels on the sky box.

lucky-colm

Big Lar wrote: »

My God, What a bunch of useless channels :eek:

FYI, They are all available free (Well the good ones anyway) on the extra channels on the sky box.

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:


and remember if your finger isn't brown and smelly it may not have went all the way through the paper

Our man in Havana

Cop on folks. Next troll gets a free 1 month ban.

lucky-colm

yeah sure enough they are all gone again
will be interesting to see if they come back again tomorrow when the fog clears in the irish sea

lucky-colm

lucky-colm wrote: »

you may not be missing to much as they are not all brilliant channels
here is the list
bbc red button
itv 2
bbc 3
smile tv3
bbc4
itv3
sky three
sky news
channel 4+1
more 4
bbc news
e4
e4+1
itv4
cbeebies
cbbc channel
price-drop tv
teletext
dave
sky text
sky spts news
bbc parliment
directgov
community
gay rabbit
rabbit
301
trove
bbc radio 1
bbc 1 extra
bbc radio 2
bbc radio 5
bbc radio 4
bbc rsl
bbc r55x
bbc 6 music
bbc radio 7
bbc asian net
bbc world service
talk sport
premier radio
absolute radio
heart
bbc 1
bbc 2
itv 1
channel 4
five

my god there is an awfull lot in there :eek:
didn't realise how many until i started typing:D

I'm 100% convinced that those channels are from caradon hill in cornwall.
You probably had RTE etc on 001 and 002 etc and the ITV1 was in the 800's.
Ergo you got them due to yesterdays tropospheric ducting [the term for what happens to tv signals due to high pressure weather conditions...the signal lifts and travels over long distances way outside of it's intended or even fringe range]
Unfortunately,they are probably all gone today.

See'ing as you are on high ground,you might be able to get presely digital there.You'd need the proper cabling and a group B aerial pointed out to sea roughly due East.
People have posted here though that there are hills in pembrokeshire that null presely towards waterford but ,this may not be the case with you being on high ground yourself.
~I'm not keen on getting you to spend money though so perhaps the best option is to swing your mt leinster aerial towards the east [if you have a sea view] and try that.
The experiment would work better if it has a mast head amp and is not a group A and rather is a wide band grid or something.

lawhec

Big Lar wrote: »

My God, What a bunch of useless channels :eek:

FYI, They are all available free (Well the good ones anyway) on the extra channels on the sky box.

"Good" is subjective. I'd watch a fair bit of the programming on Dave which can only be got on satellite via subscription.