Getting RTE 1 HD On Saorview Aerial But Other Channels Not Clear

rb25

Hi.

I set up an outdoor Saorview aerial and did an auto scan on the terrestrial setting on my Amika Alien 2 receiver. It found all the irish channels. RTE 1 is perfect and in HD. But RTE 2 is saying HD but the picture is all jumbled. I can see TV3 but it seems like it is stalled. For TG4 it is also jumbled but comes in sometimes with no sound and then instantly jumbles the picture again.

Why would I get RTE 1 picture perfectly and the others tune in but cannot see the picture on those other channels?

The Cush

rb25 wrote: »

Why would I get RTE 1 picture perfectly and the others tune in but cannot see the picture on those other channels?

Aerial may be to be realigned, RTÉ 1 & RTÉ1+1/RTÉjr are carried on a different frequency to the other channels. Inadequate signal for the other channels most likely.

Thurston?

rb25 wrote: »

I set up an outdoor Saorview aerial and did an auto scan on the terrestrial setting on my Amika Alien 2 receiver. It found all the irish channels. RTE 1 is perfect and in HD. But RTE 2 is saying HD but the picture is all jumbled.

Maybe you have channels from 2 different transmitters at the top of your list? The 'good' RTE2, TV3, TG4 etc. might be down the channel list somewhere.

If you need further help, post the UHF channel nos. or frequencies that you are receiving RTE1 & RTE2 on. Approx. location would be useful too.

rb25

Thurston? wrote: »

Maybe you have channels from 2 different transmitters at the top of your list? The 'good' RTE2, TV3, TG4 etc. might be down the channel list somewhere.

If you need further help, post the UHF channel nos. or frequencies that you are receiving RTE1 & RTE2 on. Approx. location would be useful too.

I'm 10 miles north of Wexford town so I think I should be receiving from Mount Leinster (according to the map for coverage) - either Mount Leinster or Forth Mountain.

When I tuned it in it found 20 channels via the terrestrial auto scan. Most of them just come in as 'PTXXX' for their name and there is nothing on them.

I'll get the frequencies later when near the TV and post them.

The Cush

rb25 wrote: »

When I tuned it in it found 20 channels via the terrestrial auto scan. Most of them just come in as 'PTXXX' for their name and there is nothing on them.

During a normal scan a receiver should find about 71-73 services between the 2 frequencies but most are hidden "channels", either displaying testcard or are simply blank (see the list I linked to earlier).

Thurston?

rb25 wrote: »

I'm 10 miles north of Wexford town so I think I should be receiving from Mount Leinster

Yes, I'd be pretty certain you're getting both multiplexes from Mt. Leinster. Even if the receiver did find & store Forth Mtn., you would expect it to be further down the list, assuming it's scanning from low to high frequencies. There probably isn't anywhere it would be possible to get 2 transmitters with the muxes interleaved in order anyway.

Thurston?

There probably isn't anywhere it would be possible to get 2 transmitters with the muxes interleaved in order anyway.

Maybe Cork: Collins Barracks mux.2, ch.40; Spur Hill mux.1, ch.45; Glanmire mux.1, ch.47; Collins Barracks mux.1, ch. 50. Collins Barracks would have to be your 'good' transmitter & it would have to be a receiver that just stores things the order it finds them in, paying no heed to signal quality.

Irrelevant to this thread anyway.

rb25

I have one of these aerials:
http:// www . f erguson-digital.eu/en/terrestrial-tv/429-ferguson-city-hd.html

Does it matter which way up I put this aerial?

Currently I have it pointing vertically. Since setting it up the RTE 1 HD reception has deteriorated to where there are pops and clicks coming in over the sound and the picture goes blocky.

I've tried it pointing horizontally and tried re-scanning on the Amika Alien. When I did this the channel names for RTE 2 and TV3 disappear and are now set to PTXXX and PTXXX while RTE 1 stayed as RTE 1.

Something very odd going on.

Thurston?

The signal from Mt. Leinster is horizontally polarised.

Going by the gain figure for that thing, it must have an amplifier: is this powered up? Or can it also work passively, with less gain?

rb25

Thurston? wrote: »

Going by the gain figure for that thing, it must have an amplifier: is this powered up? Or can it also work passively, with less gain?

It's not powered. I just plugged it into an existing aerial cable. And I have also now tried putting the signal from it through an amplifier but no difference.

I tried it both horizontally and vertically but don't see how turning this bit of plastic with wires in it either horizontally or vertically changes much as the signal seems to stay the same whether it is pointed up or down.

Thurston?

There's a figure for power consumption: 5V/30mA. It would be powered via the coaxial cable.

Does the Amiko Alien have an option for an aerial power supply? Either that or you'll need a separate PSU, if the aerial won't deliver a signal without the amp. being powered.

Thurston?

rb25 wrote: »

... I just plugged it into an existing aerial cable.

Presumably there wasn't an aerial already connected to this cable?

rb25

Thurston? wrote: »

Presumably there wasn't an aerial already connected to this cable?

There was an old aerial. When I scanned using that old aerial it didn't find any channels.

The Cush

rb25 wrote: »

There was an old aerial. When I scanned using that old aerial it didn't find any channels.

Might have been an old VHF aerial for Mt Leinster?

Suggest you consider a standard UHF aerial like this - http://www.tvtrade.ie/red-group-a-uhf-aerial.html

rb25

From the stats on the box I can see that I'm getting RTE 1 HD on CHANNEL 22 (Number 26 in list) at 514000 kHZ with Quality of 88 and with 'L' (don't know what 'L' means) of 83. I cannot post photos here but would send those if I could. As I mentioned RTE 1 is generally perfect but there are pops and clicks in the sound regularly but intermittently.

Channel 20 (Number 23 in list) has an 'L' of 85 but a quality of 0 (zero). RTE 2 HD, TV3 and TG4 seem to be on Channel 20 but cannot see them.

All the other channel numbers are 0 in the list. In some posts I have seen that all these stations should be coming in on Channel 23 but I don't have that in the channels list when manually or auto scanning.

As a test this morning I connected up a new UHF aerial and scanned again and still the same. I then got an old UHF aerial (from neighbour) and tried that and still the same.

We are NOT located behind any hill but we do not have direct line-of-sight to Mt. Leinster.

Is it just that some locations cannot get the signal for these stations?

Slightly off-topic but what I don't understand is that I get the BBC and all the english channels via the old Sky satellite dish that I have hooked up to the alien tuner box but I need an aerial for the Irish channels. Why are the Irish channels blocked via the satellite?

Thurston?

rb25 wrote: »

From the stats on the box I can see that I'm getting RTE 1 HD on CHANNEL 22 (Number 26 in list) at 514000 kHZ

514000 kHz is UHF TV channel 26, channel 23 is 490000 kHz.

rb25 wrote: »

We are NOT located behind any hill but we do not have direct line-of-sight to Mt. Leinster.

Mt. Leinster's transmitting aerials are over 2900 ft. ASL, & you're probably only 15 miles away, so there would need to be a pretty big obstacle for you not to have LOS.

What height do you have these aerials at? You're using an already existing mast? Are you sure you're making all the cable connections properly?

rb25 wrote: »

Is it just that some locations cannot get the signal for these stations?

You have poor signal at your receiver for all the Saorview channels, not just mux 1.

Take a look at the Saorview coverage checker, although there aren't too many white patches (supposedly not covered) in the area north of Wexford town.

rb25

Thurston? wrote: »

What height do you have these aerials at? You're using an already existing mast? Are you sure you're making all the cable connections properly?

Aerial is about 20 feet high on the end of 2 story house & pointing towards the Mount Leinster mast.

That's the only thing I could change now is to put in brand new cables.

The Cush

rb25 wrote: »

Slightly off-topic but what I don't understand is that I get the BBC and all the english channels via the old Sky satellite dish that I have hooked up to the alien tuner box but I need an aerial for the Irish channels. Why are the Irish channels blocked via the satellite?

The cost of programme broadcast rights.

This from an Oireachtas Committee discussion a few years ago

The trouble with those wideband satellites is that they have a very big footprint. If RTE were to be put up on a wideband satellite, its services would be in the clear to the UK, France, Holland and many other countries. One might ask why that should not be done, to which I would respond that we do not have the resources to purchase the rights to enable us to broadcast into those countries. We buy programming that allows us to broadcast to 4.5 million people. We do not have the money to broadcast to 100 million people. Therefore, the option taken by the BBC when Freesat was launched is not available to us.

http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/Debates%20Authoring/DebatesWebPack.nsf/committeetakes/MAJ2010071400003?opendocument

Thurston?

rb25 wrote: »

... the only thing I could change now is to put in brand new cables.

Yes, I should have suggested that after you mentioned you'd re-used an old cable.

You say cables plural here: what exactly is between the aerial & the Alien receiver?

rb25

Thurston? wrote: »

You say cables plural here: what exactly is between the aerial & the Alien receiver?

Aerial cable & one of those powered booster boxes. I removed the booster box too as a test today but got no signal at all then.

The Cush

rb25 wrote: »

Aerial cable & one of those powered booster boxes. I removed the booster box too as a test today but got no signal at all then.

Is the powered booster box a distribution amp or a power supply for a masthead amplifier located near the aerial?

If its the latter did you bypass the masthead amp also?