How to find transmitters on google maps?

zu

The various transmission station locations are here.

Can someone tell me how I can use those coordinates to find the transmitters exact locations on google maps?

12 element

This link should help you : http://www.mpeg4ireland.com/map

sesswhat

The co-ordinates in the pdf are in Full Irish Grid format. You can use a converter like the one at Fielden Maps to convert this to Decimal degrees for Google Maps.

Put the eastings (E) and northings (N) into the Irish Grid (Full) form and click Convert.

Read the resulting Lat and Lon under WGS84/ETRS89. (Make sure you choose Decimal degrees).

In Google maps put the results in the search box with a comma between the figures and a '-' in front of the Lon (to denote west) as follows:

53.80804, -7.71689

or put

N53.80804, W7.71689


In Google Maps a green arrow will show the location entered, while a red pin will show a nearby road. You should be able to check you are in the right place by going into street view to look for the transmitter.

studdlymurphy

"Is SAORVIEW the same as UK Freeview?
No.
Irish DTT uses MPEG-4 video compression over a DVB-T broadcasting infrastructure. Both standard definition and future high definition channels on Irish DTT will use these standards.

UK Freeview uses MPEG-2 over DVB-T for its standard definition channels and MPEG-4 over DVB-T2 for its high definition channels.

A standard definition UK Freeview STB or iDTV (mpeg2 / dvb-t) will not work with Irish DTT.

A high definition UK Freeview STB or iDTV (mpeg4 / dvb-t2) will work with Irish DTT, as DVB-T2 is backward compatible with DVB-T."

Does this mean that the High definition UK box receive both UK and Irish channels?

Souriau

zu wrote: »

The various transmission station locations are here.

Can someone tell me how I can use those coordinates to find the transmitters exact locations on google maps?

CH is N53.80417 W7.70967

ianwalsh2

I converted the coordinates from that RTE pdf file and created a kmz file (opens in Google Earth). Hopefully this is what you're looking for. Although the mpeg4ireland website mentioned above probably does what you're looking for too!

watty

studdlymurphy wrote: »

"

Does this mean that the High definition UK box receive both UK and Irish channels?

yes
see http://www.saortv.info/about/n-i-digital/

Sponge Bob

ianwalsh2 wrote: »

I converted the coordinates from that RTE pdf file and created a kmz file (opens in Google Earth). Hopefully this is what you're looking for.

I have co ordinated with Watty and Techtir to get the definitive list here. Oy, where is Dooncarton Watty :P ??? RTE have published bum data in their PDFs before.

http://www.techtir.ie/tv-radio/Irish-DTT-Sites

If you know where a relay is

1. Locate with maps.osi.ie ( note co ordinates in bottom left corner)
2. Use the sesswhat link, Fieldendata. OSI MAPs use Irish Transverse Mercator Grid Co-ordinates X = Easting and Y = Northing.
3. Take the WGS84 output just above that in long an lat.

Personally I find Yahoo maps much better because the roadmap is accurate unlike Google which is rubbish.

Here is a Yahoo Map co ordinate, replace Long Lat and Zoomlevel ( 10 is close and 15 is much closer) click to see,

http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=s&lat=55.430108&lon=-7.241814&zoom=10
http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=s&lat=55.430108&lon=-7.241814&zoom=15

Here is the same location in OSI maps, you will notice that you can convert either to either on the fielden page. Note there is a positional error of some metres there at the extremity of the projection and converting and reconverting will make it worse , maybe a few more decimal points required in long and lat but the data is more accurate the further south and west you go...mkay :cool:. That is because every Irish projection is from a point in the sea off Mizen Head somewhere .

Note the zoomlevel format below

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,647990,965071,4,10
http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,647990,965071,0,10

watty

Sponge Bob wrote: »

I have co ordinated with Watty and Techtir to get the definitive list here. Oy, where is Dooncarton Watty :P ??? RTE have published bum data in their PDFs before.

Yes. One site was in middle of Irish Sea. A degree off!
More than one is dodgy. I don't believe the Truskmore Co-ordinates entirely either.

Dooncarton is near Belmullet co. Mayo?

Guesstimate from Google Earth
54.2723,-9.8268

RTE NL was supposed to be publishing maps at end of Jan 2011.
No sign of them yet.

Sponge Bob

Truskmore is here for sure, this is a problem. Let me explain.

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,575862,847296,7,10

That converts in Fielden to 54.37277414n and 8.41765785 w

I checked Holywell just now Techtir converted in Fielden to this which is perfect ( just round to whole numbers which are 1m )

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,638295,916976,4,10

I use a program called Franson Co Ord Trans to batch convert txt and csv Irish Projections to WGS84, the Google Map and all other online maps format. It handles quite a few of the Irish Projections.

watty

I have some PC GPS/Grid conversion programs. I will check them later.

ianwalsh2

watty wrote: »

Yes. One site was in middle of Irish Sea. A degree off!
More than one is dodgy. I don't believe the Truskmore Co-ordinates entirely either.

Dooncarton is near Belmullet co. Mayo?

Guesstimate from Google Earth
54.2723,-9.8268

RTE NL was supposed to be publishing maps at end of Jan 2011.
No sign of them yet.

Ye I made a kmz out of that list of sites linked to by Sponge Bob and there's ten points showing up out in the sea! Is that data you received from RTE?

I've checked all the RTE published co-ordinates and for all the ones where there's clear arial photography they are all fairly accurate. You can see the point is within a few hundred metres of the mast.

If it's any assistance to people I use a handy program called Grid Inquest to convert co-ordinates. It basically allows you to do the same as the Fielden Maps site however it also allows you to convert long lists of co-ords from txt or csv files, which it appears you cannot do with Fielden Maps?

Also I use another handy web based tool to create the KML files from my list of co-ordinates. I think it was originally developed to create and edit POI files for Garmin sat navs, but it can also convert between a load of other file types.

Sponge Bob

Thanks Ian, I have found incorrect data in RTE PDFS before and usually check mast loci from first principles. OSI Maps has the best aerial data as well as marked buildings and masts. I have withdrawn my comment on Fielden, disregard please.

Forgot to mention that Franson, the program I use, will also convert Shape files from whatever projection they are in to whatever you want, these are oftem how one obtains a coverage plot so if you want a Shapefile conversion ( .shp + associated .dbf) corresponding to a KML complex polygon by another conversion I will do that for ye no worries.

watty

Anyone know where this one is
Cnoc an Oir Kerry

Also any errors on http://www.techtir.ie/tv-radio/Irish-DTT-Sites please point out correct channel / name/ county / grid reference.
use http://www.techtir.ie/contact and select saortv.info as Category.

Emails via the default category are dumped automatically!

You don't need to enter a real email address. Just put dummy @ fake.com (without spaces) if you don't want me to get your email address.

Sponge Bob

watty wrote: »

Anyone know where this one is
Cnoc an Oir Kerry

Anglicised to Knockanore

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,491019,642585,7,10

watty

http://www.biology.ie/convert.php
and
http://www.gridreference.ie/

May be useful

I have now Cnoc an Oir, Kerry, channels & polarity unknown, 52.5235, -9.6050

But what system is X=491019 y= 642585 on http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,491019,642585,4,3

Irish Grid starts with a single letter. i.e. that location seems to be Q 91087 42565

Sponge Bob

watty wrote: »

But what system is X=491019 y= 642585 on http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,491019,642585,4,3

I explained that some posts back

watty

OK. I see. Too hard for them to have Lat +Long and Irish Grid references too along with "Irish Transverse Mercator Grid Co-ordinates" on their web site


Is it possible that on some RTE pdfs they have acidently mixed ITMG X & Y with Lat&Long on PART of the data entry and this is why some are in Irish Sea?

watty

In case anyone is baffled and wants to know.

The GPS is inherently spherical via constellation of satellites in the same distance above center of gravity of Earth. Altitude thus of GPS won't correspond in most cases with height above sea level.
This map shows why: http://maps.techtir.com/

Maps are flat projections. So they need a different local co-ordinate system to suit the projection used so that the numbers change evenly and the same with the X and Y grid.

Sponge Bob

There are a number of different Irish Grids, this paper by the OSI will sort of explain it for anyone interested.

http://www.osi.ie/GetAttachment.aspx?id=b3843531-6ede-4758-814f-212518dc6a0f

also

http://www.osni.gov.uk/2.1_the_irish_grid.pdf

The two most common are

1, Irish Transverse Mercator which is the maps.osi.ie one
2. Discovery series.....this gives a result like M112 883 and is generally known as Irish Grid or Irish Grid 1965

Most co ordinates are in one or the other format.

3. Pre Irish Grid 1965 (as modified 1975) a projection from around 1910 and another by OSNI from 1951 was used on maps. While very close to Irish Grid it can be out by 10s of metres.

As 2 and 3 are close but not the same you could find yourself rather bewildered if you had old maps / data.

More here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Transverse_Mercator

Fortunately the Fielden system linked up top by Sessawhat will convert any to any and you can check data against maps.osi.ie and google and yahoo.

studdlymurphy

watty wrote: »

yes
see http://www.saortv.info/about/n-i-digital/

Thanks Watty, Using This link and looking at the antenna just outside dundalk will this antenna retransmit the UK freeview channels or is it only done from the north? As there ar mountains all along the border so no line of sight into the north.

watty

UK freeview is only from N.I., IOM and Wales.

I've received them a few years ago at edge of Dundalk.

watty

watty wrote: »

I have now Cnoc an Oir, Kerry, channels & polarity unknown, 52.5235, -9.6050

I can see it from my parents' house, it's very near Ballybunion. Only carries FM radio for RTÉNL at the moment. There are some other masts up there for UPC MMDS and PermaNET fixed wireless broadband, I'm sure there's others too.

sesswhat

Heres a few I looked up a couple of years ago:

NAME,County,Easting,Northing,Lat,Lon
CAIRN HILL,Longford,218782,284214,53.80728,-7.71565
CLERMONT CARN,Louth,309906,315839,54.08002,-6.32149
DUNGARVAN,Waterford,218245,90696,52.06843,-7.73466
GREYSTONES,Wicklow,327113,212554,53.14861,-6.10084
HOLYWELL HILL,Donegal,238462,417004,54.99904,-7.39975
KIPPURE,Wicklow,311586,215452,53.17811,-6.33181
MAGHERA,Clare,151750,191150,52.96858,-8.71855
MT. LEINSTER,Wexford,282750,152492,52.61776,-6.77897
MULLAGHANISH,Cork,121460,81783,51.98308,-9.14387
SPUR HILL,Cork,164496,67151,51.85600,-8.51602
THREE ROCK,Dublin,317668,222983,53.24444,-6.23811
TRUSKMORE,Sligo,175950,347294,54.37374,-8.37080
WOODCOCK HILL,Clare,153268,163372,52.71981,-8.69230

nikon1000

watty wrote: »

Yes. One site was in middle of Irish Sea. A degree off!
More than one is dodgy. I don't believe the Truskmore Co-ordinates entirely either.

Dooncarton is near Belmullet co. Mayo?

Guesstimate from Google Earth
54.2723,-9.8268

RTE NL was supposed to be publishing maps at end of Jan 2011.
No sign of them yet.

The transmitter at Dooncarton is located at 54.272627,-9.827241 on Google Maps/Earth. I saw mention in a RTENL document that it was co-sited with a radar station. You can see a photo here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/55738210@N05/5369796137/

watty

I'm round to 4 places so
54.272627 -> 54.2727
-9.827241 -> -9.8272

So my estimate 54.2723,-9.8268 is a bit out. About 0.0004 in both directions.
How much distance in Km is 0.0001 in Ireland on average?

sesswhat

watty wrote: »

I'm round to 4 places so
54.272627 -> 54.2727
-9.827241 -> -9.8272

So my estimate 54.2723,-9.8268 is a bit out. About 0.0004 in both directions.
How much distance in Km is 0.0001 in Ireland on average?

.0001 Decimal degrees Latitude is about 11 metres, and in Longitude (in Ireland), between 6 and 7 metres.

watty

Thanks.
so for pointing an aerial at a Transmitter, rounding to even three places would be OK. For site of mast to do the Radio Coverage plot, four places is mostly OK unless its a tiny sharp hilltop! I've only SRTM topology data.