Freeview Long Range Reception Reports

marclt

Hi Guys
Just wondering if anyone else is picking up freeview from Caradon Hill in SW England.

Must be a bit of a lift on tonight, and I know that Caradon Hill was a bit of a favourite in the South East during lift conditions.

Signals seem to be especially strong on Ch. 21, 25 and 28.

Post your findings...

Nothing here I'm afraid on those.
We did get them here last year in a lift alright-that was my first visit from cardon in dtt.
It was frequent in analogue during lifts.

It's true I think what you said recently that lifts are usually one way though at a time.

And we have lift off

Just found 24 services on ch 50.
Currently watching film 4

Also have 14 services on ch 60 including itv1 wales

Signal strength good to very good

Which tx is that? Llandonna?

some brief break ups on presely tonight too which must be llandonna co channel.
It's absolutely blasting in

To be honest,it could be there all the time for the amount of times I bother with checking

Nice to have deja vu,the music channels and film four

Barometer isn't crazy high though at 1023mb

mrdtv2010

Deleted User wrote: »

some brief break ups on presely tonight too which must be llandonna co channel.
It's absolutely blasting in

To be honest,it could be there all the time for the amount of times I bother with checking

Nice to have deja vu,the music channels and film four

Barometer isn't crazy high though at 1023mb

Yes, that's Llanddona, whose COM muxes are cochannel with Preseli PSB muxes but operating at 10kW vs 20kW for Preseli. I wonder if you can see LLanddona PSB all the time...

marclt

Good to hear some longer range signals coming, there was a trend for signals to come from the south last night - but then also from the east for you too.

Pressure isn't that high, but the conditions are right and it was quite damp overnight also. Helped those FM signals travel a wee bit further too.

It's gone this morning.
Thankfully as it played havoc with presely last night

Had long mountain [I presume] on channels 53 and 56 last night as well as a blasting in llandonna last night.

Long mountain was a surprise.

To anyone getting far away tx's in the current lift [best late afternoon into the evening] bear in mind that you mostly know about this because of your tv's auto tune facility.

This was never available during analogue,so a distant signal would have been there in the past but you would have been blissfully unaware unless you were in the habit of tuning the tv yourself regularally looking.

Gerry Wicklow

Currently getting good signals on Ch 21, 24, 25, 27, 28, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 51, 52, 56 all with about 70-90% Strength, 80-100% Quality.
Both Wales and South West regions.
Oh yeah and some other lot on Ch39:D
My Tv has gotten to number 999 and is scratching its head
This is on a bog standard grid aimed roughly for Preseli from South Wicklow.
Once again one wonders what is happening in Wales if RTENL is going their way.

Dipole

Living in Wicklow Town. Just did a scan on Sony KDL26U2000 & tuned in 36 UK Freeview channels. I think this is from IOM as BBC 1 & 2 are Scotland and ITV 1 is Border. The scan started on Channel 40. The RTE channels using a Viacess CAM keep breaking up as usual but Analogue from 3 Rock is perfect. Unfortunately do not have any sea view to the East so cannot get reception from Wales. Also getting intermittent Ananogue reception from Divis. Have amplified high-gain Group B aerial pointing at 3 Rock.

Dipole,thats probably caldbeck.

Regarding the grid,it will pick up anything thats going in a lift especially if you have a wide band amp-it's kind of a slut that way but it's not the best at reliable reception in weak signal.

I've group B's with a group B amp so that means nothing out side of that group unless it's very very strong.

gtg60

Dipole wrote: »

Living in Wicklow Town. The RTE channels using a Viacess CAM keep breaking up as usual but Analogue from 3 Rock is perfect. Have amplified high-gain Group B aerial pointing at 3 Rock.

Whereabouts in Wicklow town are you?
I've a C/D contract in the attic (unamplified) and DTT from 3 Rock is perfect!

Peddyr

Dipole wrote: »

Living in Wicklow Town. Just did a scan on Sony KDL26U2000 & tuned in 36 UK Freeview channels. I think this is from IOM as BBC 1 & 2 are Scotland and ITV 1 is Border. The scan started on Channel 40. The RTE channels using a Viacess CAM keep breaking up as usual but Analogue from 3 Rock is perfect. Unfortunately do not have any sea view to the East so cannot get reception from Wales. Also getting intermittent Ananogue reception from Divis. Have amplified high-gain Group B aerial pointing at 3 Rock.

Not IOM if you´re getting BBC Scotland & Border. We switched (unfortunately) to the North West Region of England (Granada), which IMO is totally irrelevant to this country (IOM). Could be Calbeck Scotland you´re picking up?

Dipole

Unfortunately Freeview reception now gone.

Dipole

I'm in the Lower Ballynerrin area. I have also tuned into Greystones transmitter using an un-amplified contract aerial. - It's an issue with the Viaccess CAM decoding Mpeg 4.

gkp1

Blaenplwyf coming in very strong last night (south Dublin), got all muxes with good signal strength and 100% quality. This is with a group B + masthead amp mounted in the attic. All gone this morning apart from 3rock of course!

I'd be trying Blaenplwyf with a proper group A aerial and mast head amp up on the chimney if I were you with the aerial pointed towards it-use a meter to find the strongest signal.
I'd imagine you'd get it under normal weather conditions-it has a nice channel list.
Have you a sea view to the south of East?
I note from the M50 driving towards the M11,that theres a good couple of miles there with potentially a good view out towards cardigan bay.

gkp1

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd be trying Blaenplwyf with a proper group A aerial and mast head amp up on the chimney if I were you with the aerial pointed towards it-use a meter to find the strongest signal.
I'd imagine you'd get it under normal weather conditions-it has a nice channel list.
Have you a sea view to the south of East?
I note from the M50 driving towards the M11,that theres a good couple of miles there with potentially a good view out towards cardigan bay.

Actually got the group B for Arfon as signal was quite stable from there even in heavy rain but ironically started to fade in recent good weather. I probably have a clear sea view SE from 6 foot above the chimney but not in a position to mount the aerial there so for now I am probably stuck with trying to optimise the intermittent indoor reception.

Actually down here in Arklow, Arfon is rock solid at about 90% signal and 100% quality throughout the last few days -so I would be thinking it's co channel from the high pressure lift thats causing you to lose it.

JazzyJ

In Sandyford - was getting Blaenplwyf full on last night with a wideband and masthead amp in the attic. Arfon was coming in but fairly weakly (though I think a corner of neighbours house might be a slight obstacle - at attic level anyway)

Still had everything from Blaenplwyf this morning, and still the high powered channels until an hour ago before I lost them all.

Will probably look at upgrading to a group A outside - how would that go for continued reliability?

mrdtv2010

JazzyJ wrote: »

In Sandyford - was getting Blaenplwyf full on last night with a wideband and masthead amp in the attic. Arfon was coming in but fairly weakly (though I think a corner of neighbours house might be a slight obstacle - at attic level anyway)

Still had everything from Blaenplwyf this morning, and still the high powered channels until an hour ago before I lost them all.

Will probably look at upgrading to a group A outside - how would that go for continued reliability?

Very likely: the difference in signal between loft and outside is up to 20dB. And a wideband is a very poor performer on Group A channels. The other obvious thing about recent posts is that those to the NW of B-P are getting good results in Ireland, because they are outside the restriction towards Arklow. You are in a straight line with the Lleyn peninsula which B-P has to serve. Results on a wideband loft antenna are a poor proxy for a proper outdoor antenna installation: I would never consider loft antennas for long distance DTT.

mullingar

Aerial positioning is a black art.

You could be lucky and find a sweet spot for reception in most weather conditions, move it 1 meter up/down/left/right can easily add or remove a few dB's of signal.

The only thing to do is chance it and install a decent grouped high gain aerial.

mrdtv2010

Not with a meter! And some STBs provide almost as much information as a meter. A meter + experimentation usually yields very good results.

Sam Russell

Well, had another go in Bray today. Put up mast and attached a grid (from TVtrade.ie) and pointed it a LLanddona and got 116 digital tv channels. Could not get any signal strength information, but a handful of channels were pixilating or not showing. So swung the aerial towards BP and got a simmilar result, but much better reception.

Had to change the country setting to UK, and got two copies of Irish DTT on the back of the aerial. Analogue reception was cr?p when pointing at LLanddona but just about OK when pointing at BP. Channel numbering was all over the place with duplicate channels appearing all over the place. What a mess.

Disconnected NTL analogue and connected aerial, and hey presto, digital all over the house. Time will tell how good the service is, but all channels that are wanted are there, including DAVE, Sky News, Sky 3, etc, etc.

Good days work.:)

Excelent.
I've a feeling it will work.
You might get up there with a meter just to peak it.
You'd be surprised what an inch one way or the other does in terms of db's.

Sam Russell

Deleted User wrote: »

Excelent.
I've a feeling it will work.
You might get up there with a meter just to peak it.
You'd be surprised what an inch one way or the other does in terms of db's.

I am leaving it for a month while the recption reports are checked in detail, how each channel fails and the overall reception is verified. Then I will adjust for maximum signal, as it is not certain which mux the signals actually come from, and I will use the Picnic box to verify that, we could be picking up anything. Eventually, if BP is the chosen Tx, then I will get a high gain group A aerial, and then optimize that, or a group E for LLanddona.

We will see.

yeah-you have to factor in that there is an on going variable lift in the current weather and thats likely to be the case for at least another week if not longer.
So it's not the best time for a test.

Sam Russell

Deleted User wrote: »

yeah-you have to factor in that there is an on going variable lift in the current weather and thats likely to be the case for at least another week if not longer.
So it's not the best time for a test.

The problem is that I am getting more than one version of some channels and I have not had time to verify which Tx and which mux is best. It's not my house, so I can only work from time to time. The grid is probably only giving 10 dB in group A compared with up to 17dB from a top of the range aerial. Also a grouped aerial with give a certain amount of selection. The way Freeview handles duplicates is clumsy to say the least, and out of country signals are handled in a worse way. What a mess to sort out. Freeview also gives bits of channels a different plale on the listing, so instead of 40 channels, I got 116. Nuts. Also, Topup and encrypted channels are included, even though they cannot be watched. The Irish channels are dumped in the middle of the duplicated. Not friendly atall.

But it is FREE.:)

Not helping you is the fact that a poster here used a group A [a decent one iirc] somewhere around kilcoole and lost Blaenplwyf after a lift had dropped.
It really is a terrible time at the moment to properly test for reliable signals.

On most half decent tvs and stb's [when you have decided on the tx],you can sort and list the channels on any numbers you want,the same as was always possible with analogue.

I know I can do it on my sony w400 and on the humax pvr.
The shopping channels and the rubbish,I put in the 200's

Sam Russell

I know that there is a possibility that the result will be unsatisfactory, but there is a clear sea view from the roof, and there is a choice of BP, Arfon, and LLanddona. I have not tried Arfon yet as it is V polarised, and that would be awkward to deal with. I will try with a metre to optimise the signal and then let it rip for a while.

One TV is a LG, and the other is a Philips, both MPEG4. Neither is very friendly to tune.

championc

Has Analog along the Welsh coast been completely turned off now ? I believe that once turned off, then the new Digital signal levels are cranked up. So are the welsh transmitters now running at full power ?


C

Sam Russell

championc wrote: »

Has Analog along the Welsh coast been completely turned off now ? I believe that once turned off, then the new Digital signal levels are cranked up. So are the welsh transmitters now running at full power ?


C

Yes, as far as I know.

championc

So would this now be significantly adding to the possibility of regularly receiving these broadcasts ? I believe that Digital signals are far more efficient and that a transmission of about 10% of the original power is still more powerful then the original Analog at 100% - yes ?


C

championc

championc wrote: »

So would this now be significantly adding to the possibility of regularly receiving these broadcasts ? I believe that Digital signals are far more efficient and that a transmission of about 10% of the original power is still more powerful then the original Analog at 100% - yes ?


C

Uhm... there are several threads on this.
Anyone that had half decent analogue from wales in Wicklow and wexford can and do receive freeview rock solid.
The digital signals to mirror the old analogue coverage just need 25% of the power.
The pictures are digitally formed so ,you either have them or you don't and if you do,they are crystal.

There is an issue with some of the com channels from the presely welsh transmitter in wexford and parts of wicklow due to RTENL mar dhea testing but in reality just jamming some of the welsh channels.
They have the right to do so as the frequencies are allocated to Ireland but they don't have to as they are not needed and are wasting electricity on what must be deliberate jamming at this stage.
20 or so channels are unaffected including the BBC's,ITV,4 and 5 as RTE do not have the right to broadcast from Mount Leinster on those channels.

Most of wicklow that had analogue from wales had it from the arfon tx and digital is working very well.