Maghera off (18 Jun 2010)

watty

All TV & Radio is Off. Maghera is completely off, meaning that large parts west can only get RTE radio & TV via Satellite, or RTE radio via LW.

RTE was a bit hasty IMO shutting MW. Loads of radios, in cars too, have MW and no LW. They should have waited till DRM radios established.

glineli

Is this a permanent thing?

Dtt off aswell?

MayoForSam

Yeah, noticed that all of my FM radio channels went dead at the same time on the way into work near Galway this morning. It must be a power problem at Maghera and I presume only a temporary fault?

irishchris

full story here - good news i suppose as its only temporary

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0618/rte.html

scath

Any chance it was to do with DTT upgrade? Prob not I suppose.

John mac

My radio reception went this am (very week reception) i receive it from Castlebar relay, went off @ 08:40 but was back by 10:30

Mike 1972

watty wrote: »

Loads of radios, in cars too, have MW and no LW. .

Lots of radios are a pile of poo

Now anyone for a "bring back 405 line television" campaign ?

GerardKeating

irishchris wrote: »

full story here - good news i suppose as its only temporary

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0618/rte.html

Seems to be back at lunch time... but no update on the RTÉ site...

Chicken Run

I live at the bottom of Maghera and we had 4 or 5 power cuts in the area this morning - could it be that ??

watty

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Lots of radios are a pile of poo

Now anyone for a "bring back 405 line television" campaign ?

And starting Analogue LW as RTE did, is like pre 405 mechanical TV.

I'm not arguing to bring back MW, but it seems the decision to open LW analogue and then close MW was premature since in few years we will have DRM on LW, MW, SW, but don't have it yet. Also many radios have MW and not LW (USA doesn't use LW).

Mike 1972

The RTE news article was very badly written

"radio listeners in the West cant get RTE.......well actually they can....er sort of........"

No mention of TV or other radio services from Maghera such as Today FM, Clare FM, etc

watty wrote: »

And starting Analogue LW as RTE did, is like pre 405 mechanical TV.

Analouge LW is a tried and tested proven technology. If your comparison with mechanical TV had any validity then the same comparison would be equally applicable to Analogue MW since it is based on essentially identical technology (Amplitude Modulation) Indeed the technology used at RTE's longwave site (built 1989) is more advanced technology than anything ever used at their former MW sites (1932-1975)

If and when DRM proves itself as a suitable technology for analogue AM and gains sufficent market acceptance then RTE's transition to DRM can be put on the agenda

watty wrote: »

Also many radios have MW and not LW

I think I addressed this point in my previous post

watty wrote: »

(USA doesn't use LW).

So rather than a "bring back 405 line TV" campaign we should argue for RTE to commence television broadcasts in 525 line NTSC ?

Chicken Run wrote: »

I live at the bottom of Maghera and we had 4 or 5 power cuts in the area this morning - could it be that ??

Surely they would have standby generators at the TX site ???

watty

I'm NOT arguing to change anything!

I'm suggesting that RTE *WAS* premature in their changes. RTE didn't need to start 252LW.

I'm not arguing to "Bring Back" anything. I'm just saying past decisions were poor. When such decisions are made, you're stuck with them for a long time.

Bazzer2

I suppose it would have been beyond RTE to suggest that during the outage, many listeners could alternatively tune in to satellite . . . :rolleyes:

In the old days

watty wrote: »

I'm NOT arguing to change anything!

I'm suggesting that RTE *WAS* premature in their changes. RTE didn't need to start 252LW.

I'm not arguing to "Bring Back" anything. I'm just saying past decisions were poor. When such decisions are made, you're stuck with them for a long time.

I think the LW service is useful. You can pick it up in car from West Cork to Antrim where fm coverage is poor due to hills etc.. and well into UK as a bonus (further than the old Tullamore AM service). It was very late in the day that RTE introduced the service after the Atlantic 252 and its sucessors collapsed but I think it serves a purpose to infill the gaps in national radio1 coverage.

watty

I think the LW was mainly for UK.

I wonder how many people have satellite and don't know (A) there is Radio, (B) RTE is on it.

henryhenry

Down again? Or has my cat screwed up the cable yet again?

BuzzG

The cat is safe, all quiet from Maghera @ the min, no signal here either

emanresu

henryhenry wrote: »

Down again? Or has my cat screwed up the cable yet again?

RTE 2 went off about halfway through The Simpsons, along with the other 3 stations, and they are all still off now.

Elmo

What areas does this affect?

henryhenry

Thanks for the reply.

emanresu

Elmo wrote: »

What areas does this affect?

Much of the west of Ireland. Maghera is in East Clare.

Mike 1972

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Analouge LW is a tried and tested proven technology. If your comparison with mechanical TV had any validity then the same comparison would be equally applicable to Analogue MW since it is based on essentially identical technology (Amplitude Modulation) Indeed the technology used at RTE's longwave site (built 1989) is more advanced technology than anything ever used at their former MW sites (1932-1975)

The LW TX is actually a new unit installed by RTÉ NL. It's a 300kW transmitter which replaced the 2x250kW units originally used for Atlantic 252. This is why Radio 1's range is reduced compared to Atlantic, especially in south-east England.

I don't think watty was trying to say we should use US standards, he's giving an explanation as to why so many radios are absent of LW support.

GerardKeating

emanresu wrote: »

Much of the west of Ireland. Maghera is in East Clare.

Not East Clare, it's near Gort, so South Galway, or maybe North Clare

Sam Russell

GerardKeating wrote: »

Not East Clare, it's near Gort, so South Galway, or maybe North Clare

........ or even West Clare.

Machinehead

Maghera has been back up since before 7:30pm. Prior to downtime I had 15-20% signal qual & 100% strength with a BER all over the place giving picture break up from time to time. Since resumption at 7:30 I have up 50% qual with zero BER - looks like they've cranked up the juice:D
Bye bye VHF;)

emanresu

GerardKeating wrote: »

Not East Clare, it's near Gort, so South Galway, or maybe North Clare

As I said before, it is in East Clare.

http://www.rtenl.ie/downloads/television-frequencies.pdf

emanresu

Maghera is at 52°58’N 008°43’W. That is in Co.Clare (East Clare).

watty

Karsini wrote: »

The LW TX is actually a new unit installed by RTÉ NL. It's a 300kW transmitter which replaced the 2x250kW units originally used for Atlantic 252. This is why Radio 1's range is reduced compared to Atlantic, especially in south-east England.

It's also been used for DRM tests, including amazingly multiple program stream transmission.

AFAIK the older Tx system wasn't linear enough for DRM.

Karsini wrote: »

I don't think watty was trying to say we should use US standards, he's giving an explanation as to why so many radios are absent of LW support.

Also costs more to put LW in a MW radio, though not much more.

Mike 1972

GerardKeating wrote: »

Not East Clare, it's near Gort, so South Galway, or maybe North Clare

Its near Gort but in Co Clare (just)

quite a few RTE transmitters seem to be located close to county boundries

(might be down to county boundaries often coinciding with natural features such as mountain peaks)

watty

The Cork Kerry border is alleged to run through middle of building at Mullaganish TX.

Sam Russell

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Its near Gort but in Co Clare (just)

quite a few RTE transmitters seem to be located close to county boundries

(might be down to county boundaries often coinciding with natural features such as mountain peaks)

It is in Co Clare according to RTENL. It is west of Ennis, by about 10km, it is south of Galway county boundary by 20 km, and north of Limerick county boundary by 20 km. So it's not in North Clare, nor is it in East Clare, nor is it in South Clare. The West Clare Railway used to travel round it. So I'd say it is West Clare.:)

watty

I'd call it the East of West Clare.

GerardKeating

watty wrote: »

I'd call it the East of West Clare.

Or North of Mid-Clare...

watty

Or the far North West of East Clare.

Sam Russell

Or perhaps Mid-Clare.

irishchris

Who gives a flying **** lol. Google map it guys

watty

We know where it is.

But the only county with actual mapped "Ridings" like "The Shire" is Tipperary. Maybe a local Hobbit Leprechaun Shee Traveller person would know the North/South/Mid/East/West division of Clare.

GerardKeating

henryhenry wrote: »

Down again? Or has my cat screwed up the cable yet again?

TodayFM and 4FM seemed to be on reduced power earlier this morning...

emanresu

Sam Russell wrote: »

It is in Co Clare according to RTENL. It is west of Ennis, by about 10km, it is south of Galway county boundary by 20 km, and north of Limerick county boundary by 20 km. So it's not in North Clare, nor is it in East Clare, nor is it in South Clare. The West Clare Railway used to travel round it. So I'd say it is West Clare.:)

That's a different Maghera. It's not the mountain with the transmitter.
See my previous posts for the correct location.

irishchris

rte transmitter map attached

emanresu

That is not an accurately drawn map of Ireland.
It is good for showing the coverage areas of the main transmtters,
but it does not show the correct locations of the transmitters themselves.
Maghera is shown too far north of the correct location.
Truskmore, Clermont Carn, Kippure, Mount Leinster are also shown in the wrong locations. The location of Mullaghanish looks about right.