Can Freeview be received in North Dublin

meolwan

I am sure this question has been asked before and at the risk of been told so I am gonna ask again.

Can freeview be received in North Dublin in fact the Rush area to be exact. If so what equipment do I need to receive it and were can it be purchased from???

The Idots guide please as the most high tech i have got is watching Dr. Who or Star Trek....

mrdtv2010

meolwan wrote: »

I am sure this question has been asked before and at the risk of been told so I am gonna ask again.

Can freeview be received in North Dublin in fact the Rush area to be exact. If so what equipment do I need to receive it and were can it be purchased from???

The Idots guide please as the most high tech i have got is watching Dr. Who or Star Trek....

It depends. Divis is compromised as some of its current low power DTT multiplexes are cochannel with Three Rock analogue. Better bets would be Arfon or LLanddona from Wales. A good test is to see which way the aerials are pointed: north towards the Mournes and its Divis or Kilkeel ( no DTT till 2012 from there), east out to sea is Welsh stations.) Time to look at the rooftops!

meolwan

mrdtv2010 wrote: »

It depends. Divis is compromised as some of its current low power DTT multiplexes are cochannel with Three Rock analogue. Better bets would be Arfon or LLanddona from Wales. A good test is to see which way the aerials are pointed: north towards the Mournes and its Divis or Kilkeel ( no DTT till 2012 from there), east out to sea is Welsh stations.) Time to look at the rooftops!

Thanks mrdtv I will start with the tech stuff it is a small square aerial on about a 6ft poll.

It is facing north towards the Mournes not out to sea so it cant be wales i assume.

FREETV

meolwan wrote: »

Thanks mrdtv I will start with the tech stuff it is a small square aerial on about a 6ft poll.

It is facing north towards the Mournes not out to sea so it cant be wales i assume.

Hi, you will need a very large high gain Group E or a wideband aerial for LLanddonna, the more elements and longer the better for long distance reception plus the higher up on the roof the further your aerial can receive distant transmitter signals as there is more gain in decibels coming in to an aerial thus a better chance of receiving Llanddonna. I wouldn't waste my time with Arfon as it is only a relay transmitter and Freeview lite as they call it, it only transmits half the amount of channels compared to the mains transmitters. An aerial pole of six metres, twenty feet from the highest point of the roof is allowed for tv aerials, any higher than that then planning permission is required by law beforehand. Chimneys are usually about four to six feet lower than the highest point of a roof so a guyed pole slightly longer than twenty feet could be used or two twelve feet poles coupled together and welded also on each end for extra safety. I would also recommend a large Hirschmann UHF aerial, Vision masthead power supply unit and an FTE Maximal M1000 masthead amp between a metre or 1.2 metres from the aerial. The amp has three gain settings of 26db, 33 and 40db, has a 0.8db noise ratio and it works brilliantly for Irish DTT and analogue from Divis in Trim. Tilting the tip of the aerial an inch or two sometimes can add extra gain and so a higher signal quality. I am renting a house in Swords and the owner will not allow me to put up an aerial mast either on the roof or on the gable end of the house even though I have all the equipment so because of that I can't tell you whether or not there is a signal receivable here from Wales. If you cannot get any signal from Wales in Rush then you will have to wait until the end of 2012 to receive Freeview from the Divis transmitter outside Belfast. You will also need a cheap magnetic compass to help you to point your aerial towards different tv transmitters. Kilkeel will be only Freeview Lite. PM me if you are interested and would like to know where to get your equipment.

mrdtv2010

meolwan wrote: »

Thanks mrdtv I will start with the tech stuff it is a small square aerial on about a 6ft poll.

It is facing north towards the Mournes not out to sea so it cant be wales i assume.

That will be a grid pointing to Kilkeel which is analogue only, this will also pick up Clermont Carn. You can check this: if the UK analogues are 39,42, 45 and 49 its Kilkeel

Llanddona should not be obstructed from your direction, nor does it have any nulls. FREETV has given you sound advice.

meolwan

thanks for all the information Freetv I think the condensed versoion is I need a bigger aerial on a bigger pole on the roof. then I may be able to get freview of some sort or hold out for 2 more years and get it from the north. Have I got it right ????

Mrdtv I will check the ch numbers you gave me but it will have to wait till after the match LOL.

FREETV

meolwan wrote: »

thanks for all the information Freetv I think the condensed versoion is I need a bigger aerial on a bigger pole on the roof. then I may be able to get freview of some sort or hold out for 2 more years and get it from the north. Have I got it right ????

Mrdtv I will check the ch numbers you gave me but it will have to wait till after the match LOL.

Yes, you are spot on meolwan. I hope that it works out for you. Keep us all posted please.:)

meolwan

No problem Freetv I have to start the talks with the owner of the house (wife I just pay the mortage) lol. I just hope that we have a hot summer so we get plenty of interference on the aerial that we have on roof now, though we do get some strange channels at times in the good weather.

FREETV

meolwan wrote: »

No problem Freetv I have to start the talks with the owner of the house (wife I just pay the mortage) lol. I just hope that we have a hot summer so we get plenty of interference on the aerial that we have on roof now, though we do get some strange channels at times in the good weather.

Show her the Freeview.co.uk website and that may sway it for you when she sees the amount of tv and radio stations available if you can get a regular 20db or more of an incoming signal in your area with the necessary equipment. Webro WF100 or Triax100 are also good quality satellite cable manufacturers which you could use with your setup. Philex PF1OO is a bit cheaper and will work well too.

lucernarian

That grid aerial is ubiquitous to the east coast, north of Ireland's Eye anyway. It will be used to pick up Kilkeel and Clermont Carn.

meolwan, can you describe your NI channel reception? (From the TV with the best reception, if you've got multiple TVs connected) Can you get nicam? How snowy are each of the channels? Can you pick up Ceefax/Teletext on any of the channels?

Grids for wales are also prevalent south of Dublin to Rosslare on the coast.
Arklow is gridarama.

there is another poster here ordering equipment in Dublin city centre.

I'd keep an eye on that thread first and see how he gets on and if it works for him it will work for you.
He has height in a tall building already on his side but you'd need that in the city centre anyway.

Here is the thread :

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055934731

lucernarian

I've seen pictures and threads about grids picking up Arfon from Wicklow alright. I was getting at the way grids aren't used to pick up Kilkeel from Rush southwards really though I've seen grids in the Killiney area for NI I think. The reception must be mediocre at best if they use grids at that distance on a 600W relay.

Arfon in Rush would be some achievement. Without some altitude I wouldn't expect much and that area is not known for its height. On the other hand, a good group B can still be used to pick up Kilkeel when it eventually switches over in late 2012. It should easily manage Clermont Carn's DTT broadcast too despite being slightly out of group.

If there was too much money/equipment/external ironmongery required for freeview, I'd go the easy route with freesat myself. Freeview is easier to distribute but at least freesat would give a constant reliable signal with properly installed equipment.

I wasn't thinking arfon for rush.
I was thinking Llandonna or whatever that chap in the city centre can pick up.
Mind you Blaenplwyf might work in the city centre but fall below the threshold at Rush.
It's hard to say untill tested.It's double the power of presely on the psb's and I'm about 100 miles from presely which is working well up to 20 miles further inland of here.

Arfon by the way had good analogue reception at the montrose hotel albeit from a very high [circa 200ft at least] quad aerial array that still exists but hasn't been used since sky digital came along.

Yeah grids for kilkeel in Kiliney would mean snowy stuff.
They work well on arfon and presely in the southeast.
Houses near me are getting 90% + reliable presely freeview on them
They lose it in fog.

meolwan

mrdtv2010 wrote: »

That will be a grid pointing to Kilkeel which is analogue only, this will also pick up Clermont Carn. You can check this: if the UK analogues are 39,42, 45 and 49 its Kilkeel

Llanddona should not be obstructed from your direction, nor does it have any nulls. FREETV has given you sound advice.

Mrdtv I have jsut checked the UK analogues and it is Kilkeel.

meolwan

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

That grid aerial is ubiquitous to the east coast, north of Ireland's Eye anyway. It will be used to pick up Kilkeel and Clermont Carn.

meolwan, can you describe your NI channel reception? (From the TV with the best reception, if you've got multiple TVs connected) Can you get nicam? How snowy are each of the channels? Can you pick up Ceefax/Teletext on any of the channels?

The best channel is BBC1, UTV been the worst I can receive Ceefax on BBC1 and sometimes on the others but not in this weather.

Maybe Freesat is the way to go could be as simple as cancel Sky and yes I know it is not easy to cancel sky.

meolwan

Thanks to all who took the time to replay to this thread, Not sure if I followed all the information to be honest I kind of turned off when you start going into the tech stuff as to is it kilkeel or the benifits of a grid or not south of dublin. But thanks all the same I just want the idiots guide.

lucernarian

The kilkeel bit was crucial though, as I'm trying to gauge what sort of joy you'll have for getting freeview in 2 years time from the North. No one can answer your question without having some idea of how fuzzy or not your reception is. Sounds like you'd need some sort of decent aerial upgrade for it one way or another. It's hard to give a half honest answer on somewhere awkward like Rush without going techie. Wouldn't do if you went out and spent loads of money on equipment only to see it wasted!

A free-to-air satellite setup (e.g. freesat) is probably easiest, especially if you have a sky dish in place already. Once 12 months has passed, surely cancelling is just a phone call away:p

For kilkeel,I'd say definitely a group B aerial and masthead amp is a must post digital switch over.

Grids for DTT work fine on presely down this way but are borderline for arfon dtt which is operating at 2kw ie considerably stronger than kilkeel.

Mrdtv reported arfon reception in East Down by the way so it's not entirely impossible for Rush.
It's the highest mast in the UK iirc.
So high that they ruled it out as a main station as it would interfere with too many other transmitters.