Frequency Changes at Three Rock

jamescc

So I think that I have a wide band aerial would I have to get a new one now

marno21

Surely if the interference is bad on Three Rock C54, it's going to be much worse on Kippure seeing as the TX is further away and substantially weaker than analogue.

A lot of the southside will likely still get good signal on a Group C/D seeing as how high the power is in comparison with analog

MarkK

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

DTT coverage from Kippure northwards will be nothing compared to VHF analogue coverage, the directional characteristics of the UHF broadcasts from Kippure and the max ERP of 63 kW compared to 500 kW will mean it will offer poor coverage northwards. I think the power is down 10dB on max power in the northwards direction.

According to the Saorview Coverage checker, Kippure is the preferred transmitter for parts of Dublin, such as Cabra and Palmerstown, so it can't be that bad.

Ronnie Raygun

jamescc wrote: »

So I think that I have a wide band aerial would I have to get a new one now

Highly unlikely.

lucernarian

MarkK wrote: »

According to the Saorview Coverage checker, Kippure is the preferred transmitter for parts of Dublin, such as Cabra and Palmerstown, so it can't be that bad.

Maybe so, and they even show parts of Louth as being better served by Kippure but I am going on the directional plots that RTENL offered the commercial multiplex bidders when they were planning their license applications. The broadcasting power on UHF in every other direction is much lower than it is to the southwest of Kippure, roughly. Kippure is the better site to cover counties further afield from Dublin so maybe that has a significant bearing.

The Cush

This from Aertel 169 - RTÉNL Technical Information , essential engineering works at Three-Rock this week. In preparation from the frequency change next Tuesday?

Service Notification:
RTÉNL - Three Rock, Co. Dublin

Due to essential engineering works there will be some disruptions to Saorview between 10.30am and 1.30pm on Tuesday 3rd July.

This essential work will affect the Saorview service from this transmission site.

RTÉNL apologise for any inconvenience caused by this necessary work.

Service Notification:
RTÉNL - Three Rock, Co. Dublin

Due to essential engineering work, all radio, analogue TV and Saorview services will be on reduced power between 9am & 5pm on 3rd, 4th & 5th July.

RTÉNL apologise for any inconvenience caused by this necessary work.

Simply TV wrote: »

excerpt from an mail shot from Saorview today.

Frequency Change at Three Rock
...
SAORVIEW plans to inform the public of this change in the lead up to 10th July through the SAORVIEW website and through public information announcements on all SAORVIEW TV services.

Less than a week to go and no announcement.

Gyck

Oh great. :rolleyes: Based on information on the tvtrade.ie site I purchased a group CD aerial from them about a week ago.

pipkato

I'm one of those unfortunates with an early Panasonic PZ81 TV getting my signal from Three Rock. Does this change mean I'll lose access to my Saorview digital channels? If so, is there any workaround?

Thanks.

The Cush

Gyck wrote: »

Oh great. :rolleyes: Based on information on the tvtrade.ie site I purchased a group CD aerial from them about a week ago.

Register a complaint with Saorview - http://www.saorview.ie/contact/

Maybe tvtrade will do an exchange if you haven't already installed it.

Gyck

The Cush wrote: »

Register a complaint with Saorview - http://www.saorview.ie/contact/

Maybe tvtrade will do an exchange if you haven't already installed it.

I'll be getting on to them about it alright. I've already installed the aerial (in my attic) so its pristine (aside from a little blood on the reflector - those things are razor sharp!)

Sponge Bob

C/D was set in WRC 06 and by ComReg in 2007 as well.

The Cush

Sponge Bob wrote: »

C/D was set in WRC 06 and by ComReg in 2007 as well.

Three-Rock was allocated 4 UHF channels in Group A and 4 in Group C/D at GE-06 so a wideband aerial should've been the recommendation for DTT.

Kippure was allocated different frequencies at GE-06 but when Comreg published its list of frequencies for DTT in 2007 the Kippure frequencies were the same as the Three-Rock allocation in Group CD to create an SFN.

Three-Rock is now moving to one of its GE-06 Group A allocations - Ch 30. The other Three-Rock allocations in Group A are 23, 26 and 34.

Peter Rhea

The coverage map has had red areas attributed to Three Rock for a good while now, so they must have had some change in mind leading up to switchover or maybe just better use of the transmitting aerials when analogue is switched off?

The Cush

Peter Rhea wrote: »

they must have had some change in mind leading up to switchover or maybe just better use of the transmitting aerials when analogue is switched off?

They just haven't bothered telling anyone about it (except maybe the trade in a recent email) with less than a week to go with people still buying the incorrect aerial as we see in Gyck's post above.

TV Trade still haven't updated their site, do they know about the change? (pm'd Digital Satellite TV aka TvTrade.ie)

We don't know the reason for the change as RTÉNL haven't given their reasons.

The Cush

The Cush wrote: »

TV Trade still haven't updated their site, do they know about the change? (pm'd Digital Satellite TV aka TvTrade.ie)

Got this message back from Dave @ Tvtrade.ie. (expletives removed as requested )

Hi Cush,
Saorview haven't uttered a dicky bird at all to us about this. Only spotted it on boards yesterday. Was waiting to update the info on the website once our graphics guy was in today. The site has been updated. [snip] The first incling we got was from boards.ie, complete and utter joke. [snip]

Did they never hear of 'do it once and do it right'?

Anyway, info correct now. Putting it in as black for now with further info in the table below it. At this rate, we'll end up with a black map of Ireland on the website

Dave.

http://www.tvtrade.ie/digital-tv-aerial-selection-guide.html

The Cush

This from Aertel 169 RTÉNL Technical Information

Re-scan message

In order to accommodate essential upgrade work, viewers receiving the SAORVIEW service are asked to re-scan their televisions or set-top-boxes after 2pm on Tuesday 10th July. Instructions will be found in your TV or set-top box manual. For more information go to the SAORVIEW website or call the information helpline 1890 222 012:

After rescanning, viewers should see a slight change to the channel line up on their EPG. RTÉ News Now will swap places with 3e so that the new line-up will be:
• 3e on position 5, and
• RTÉ News Now on position 6.

This change has been made at the request of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

Short Term signal outage on 10th July (UHF channel 54 to UHF channel 30)
In order to undertake the necessary works viewers in the greater Dublin area that receive the SAORVIEW service from the Three Rock transmission site will, unfortunately, experience a service outage from 09:00 to 13:00 hrs on the 10th July. When the service restores at 14:00 hrs affected receivers must be re-scanned to receive SAORVIEW service.

This change coincides with the EPG change also planned for this date.

Antenna

I wonder to what extent will this change lead to a deterioration of RTE1 analogue pictures from Three Rock which is on the lower adjacent channel 29?
(considering the high power of Three Rock DTT)
Digital adjacent to analogue is much more likely to cause problems for analogue than even a significantly stronger analogue adjacent to the received analogue,
This issue would be much more noticeable in the case of old TVs (i.e. dating from the 1980s) still in use, as they tended to have less adjacent channel selectivity than more modern sets.

Also anyone still receiving BBC1 analogue from Divis in the Dublin area - that is on the upper adjacent Channel 31. Expect that to fade into the noise!

NobodyImportant

Thank God there was a wideband on sale in Sat World when i was there 2 weeks ago otherwise i would have bought a C/D aerial and be replacing it this weekend!

lucernarian

All is not necessarily lost with the group C/D aerials, they will probably still perform somewhat at Ch. 30. Hopefully most people who have installed them will notice no real difference to their Saorview reception.

Tony

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

All is not necessarily lost with the group C/D aerials, they will probably still perform somewhat at Ch. 30. Hopefully most people who have installed them will notice no real difference to their Saorview reception.

I agree

Gyck

Is it possible to adapt or modify a group C/D aerial into a group A aerial? Assuming its a 10 Element UHF contract is it a case of switching out the PCB?

Tony

Gyck wrote: »

Is it possible to adapt or modify a group C/D aerial into a group A aerial? Assuming its a 10 Element UHF contract is it a case of switching out the PCB?

No its the length of the elements that are proptional to the frequency used . I'd try it first it may well work ok on ch 30.

Gyck

Tony wrote: »

No its the length of the elements that are proptional to the frequency used . I'd try it first it may well work ok on ch 30.

Ok thanks!

Sam Russell

My neighbour has a group A aerial and is receiving 3 Rock on 54 with no problem, so I would think the reverse would apply - a C/D would be OK for ch 30. Having said that, I get it on a coathanger.:D

John mac

I was talking to the inlaws today and they have not heard anything about the requirement for a rescan..

as they told me they buy the Irish times every day, listen to the news , watch the 6 and 9 news , Nothing., no info..


(they have a saorview box)

they know now though.

Gerry Wicklow

They'll probably do one of their classics on the day like they used to do years ago..."We apologise to viewers in xyz who currently have no reception because of a fault..." :)

Sam Russell

Perhaps they consider a rescan to be normal, or alternatively, a Soarview Approved box will do it all on its own. Unapproved sets, go fix yourselves!

The Cush

Notice of the Three-Rock outage next Tuesday up on Aertel 169 - http://www.rte.ie/aerteldigital/desktopxhtml/169-7.html. Note the error - 10th May, should be 10th July

shinobi

The Cush wrote: »

Notice of the Three-Rock outage next Tuesday up on Aertel 169 - http://www.rte.ie/aerteldigital/desktopxhtml/169-7.html. Note the error - 10th May, should be 10th July

The first four slides of page 169 on Dig Text mentions 9:00 - 13:00 for the 10th July for Three Rock. Slide 7 is as mentioned above. Is there a chance this was past information as times differ also?

The Cush

shinobi wrote: »

The first four slides of page 169 on Dig Text mentions 9:00 - 13:00 for the 10th July for Three Rock. Slide 7 is as mentioned above. Is there a chance this was past information as times differ also?

It's possible. It could also be that the outage is shorter than first announced (and still within 0900-1400 hrs first announced last Wed) following completion of engineering work last week with the typo thrown in.