Any chance of Saorview for me?

jolsen

A friend of mine gave me a smaller version of this aerial: http://www.tvaerials.com/product.aspx?productid=3690

He used it in his attic when he lived in Glasgow and picked up freeview fine. I tried it in mine and could barely get anything (I live a couple miles outside Arklow, btw). I threw up a bit of scaffolding at the side of my house and stuck it on top of a pole around chimney height. I took a little analogue tv up with me to test the signal. The only signal at all I was getting was, I'm guessing from Kippure (any houses with aerials nearby seemed to be pointing there also). Unfortunately I'm at the bottom of a hill and the aerial was pointing directly through the middle of it. RTE1 wasn't too bad but fairly snowy, RTE2 was terrible, the colour was barely holding on and tv3 and tg4 were nonexistent.

Would a proper aerial and masthead amp improve it much more? I don't have a tv capable of getting saorview but I'm guessing since analogue is so bad it wouldn't get it anyway. I'll probably get somebody out, but it won't be 'til the snow melts.

gtg60

There's a DTT relay in Arklow!! I'm sure Black Briar could advise you on your likelihood of reception as there are a few black spots, where exactly are you located?

watty

Saorview coverage may be already actually better, in some senses than Analogue.

jolsen

I'm out towards Brittas Bay, I might be a bit far out for the Arklow relay. If I'm sticking an aerial up a pole I may as well get one for freeview as well.

Out of interest would it be possible to get both Saorview and freeview on the one aerial or would I need one for each?

St Senan

jolsen wrote: »

I'm out towards Brittas Bay, I might be a bit far out for the Arklow relay. If I'm sticking an aerial up a pole I may as well get one for freeview as well.

Out of interest would it be possible to get both Saorview and freeview on the one aerial or would I need one for each?

Forget about Freeview get Freesat http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Logo_freesat.png instead and use your Aerial for Saorview which will need an Mpeg4 http://www.powercity.ie/?par=10-23-WP11DT receiver or a TV with a Mpeg4 tuner. If you cant receive Arklow try for Kippure. Don't bother combining Aerials for Irish and the UK overspill channels it will cause Problems.

gtg60

jolsen wrote: »

Out of interest would it be possible to get both Saorview and freeview on the one aerial or would I need one for each?

That's something you'd never know until you tried, here in Wicklow town I was able to get both on one aerial (at two different houses).

Well worth the investment in 2 aerials if you've a few modern TV's capable of tuning MPEG4 as you will have 30+ decent channels available at each of them.

watty

You likely need two aerials. Satellite is a better bet for UK TV for most people.

jolsen

I already have freesat. I had no intention of getting freeview initially but if I can only get saorview with an aerial up a pole, I see no harm in sticking one for freeview on it. I'm also liking the idea of having all the channels on one epg.

I was planning on getting a new tv soon so I'll probably try again when I get it and see what happens from there.

watty

The Welsh Freeview may interfere with Irish Saorview.

jolsen

watty wrote: »

The Welsh Freeview may interfere with Irish Saorview.

Is that nonsense still going on???? :mad:

Sigh...I might as well wait for saorsat, I'm doing renovations to the house anyway.

gtg60

jolsen wrote: »

Is that nonsense still going on???? :mad:

Sigh...I might as well wait for saorsat, I'm doing renovations to the house anyway.

Unlikely where you are, what direction and orientation is the aerial on the nearest house to you?

jolsen

I not certain, I'll check tomorrow in the daylight but I think some I looked at were horizontal and pointing to Kippure.

mar1us

this may help u http://www.mpeg4ireland.com/map

jolsen

jolsen wrote: »

I already have freesat. I had no intention of getting freeview initially but if I can only get saorview with an aerial up a pole, I see no harm in sticking one for freeview on it. I'm also liking the idea of having all the channels on one epg.

I was planning on getting a new tv soon so I'll probably try again when I get it and see what happens from there.

Can you give a rough indication of where you are when you say near Britas Bay?
Can you see Arklow at all?
How many miles are you from Arklow? Are you right on the coast and is there any hiogh ground between you and Arklow?

I ask because the arklow relay though low power is getting good distances out of the town in it's blinded direction to the west and crucially without a line of sight.
That augers well for it's high gain direction which is out over the town to the northeast.
Also I've seen some aerials north of Arklow pointed to presely wales,though most are arfon.
You can combine a welsh and a saorview aerial as you will be either looking for Kippure,Arklow or possibly greystones (which gets down to Wicklow town but I don't know about Brittas,a long shot there perhaps)
You'll need a good meter and a good installer.

Charlie-Bravo

jolsen wrote: »

...but I'm guessing since analogue is so bad it wouldn't get it anyway...

I'm in Greystones and couldn't get a decent analogue reception - Then when they started trialing the DTT I couldn't believe how good the picture was off an indoor aerial. DTT is the way to go.

mar1us

That is strange,cos there is a transmiter in greystones