Group B aerial for Clermont Cern and Kilkeel?

soporific

I have to replace the failing wideband aerial on the roof and feel tempted to experiment. Would a group B yagi (18 element) bring in Clermont cern as well as Kilkeel, even if I direct it at Kilkeel? I know Clermont is group c/d but channel 52 should blaze in easily on a group B and perhaps channel 56 as well. The real issue, I guess, is the angle of reception. If i focus the aerial at Kilkeel, do i risk losing all hope of channel 56 from Clermont? Has any boardies in the Louth/Meath area tried out this tempting solution??

castle2012

Are you far from the border . I'm living in Meath and picking up both killkeel and clarmount from a cheap Ariel in the attic I purchased for €14 quid in power city last year

soporific

I'm in meath too - Mornington. I went ahead and bought that group b aerial, whcih arrived about an hour ago. Had a quick test outside at ground level to see if it pulls in the two RTE muxes and it worked fine. I'll try it out in the attic and see what happens. Good to hear that you had success so inexpensively. The aerial I got is a Blake sr18, whcih cost about 60 quid with delivery from UK.

castle2012

Great stuff , have you pulled in killeel ?

soporific

I spent half an hour in the attic trying to get kilkeel without luck. I have a labgear masthead amp - but still made no difference. So I'll have the climb the ladder to the roof tomorrow. It's amazing how different locations give different results. I live in a bit of a dip in the road so reception has always been iffy - but people I know only a few houses away have ivy on their aerial and they never have a problem with kilkeel!

castle2012

soporific wrote: »

I spent half an hour in the attic trying to get kilkeel without luck. I have a labgear masthead amp - but still made no difference. So I'll have the climb the ladder to the roof tomorrow. It's amazing how different locations give different results. I live in a bit of a dip in the road so reception has always been iffy - but people I know only a few houses away have ivy on their aerial and they never have a problem with kilkeel!

I know this may sound silly to some but When I connected up first . I used a mast head amp and got no joy I took out the amp and plugged the coax directly into the Ariel and it started picking up kilkeel . I think there channel 39,42 and 45 .

Thurston?

castle2012 wrote: »

When I connected up first . I used a mast head amp and got no joy I took out the amp and plugged the coax directly into the Ariel and it started picking up kilkeel

Maybe it's a grouped amp that was wrong for Kilkeel, or maybe you had a dodgy connection somewhere that resulted in it not being powered?

soporific

Wow! I thought it was good getting kilkeel with a basic aerial in the attic from meath - but without any amp!! That's amazing! I used to have a SLX 4-way distribution amp with the old wideband and had nothing but trouble every winter or rainy day. Once I swapped it for the masthead amp, things improved but still lots of interference. That's why I'm trying the grouped aerial to see if I can make it 100 percent reliable.

soporific

castle2012 wrote: »

I think there channel 39,42 and 45 .

That's right - they're in the Group B range. The SR18B aerial I bought has a peak gain (13-14 dBd) for channels 45-55 so it brings in Clermont (channels 52 and 56) even though they're in group C/D. I've been researching this aerial stuff for a few weeks trying to figure out how to get decent BBC reception on the one aerial with RTE. One thing i learned is grouped aerials keep out unwanted interference better than widebands and perforrm better than their gain figures suggest.

Thurston?

You're right (obviously) to optimise for Kilkeel, it being by far the lower powered transmitter, though the grouped aerial (obviously again) won't help with co-channel interference from other transmitters which will likely be a problem when atmospheric conditions encourage it.

That said, I'd say your previous 'interference' problem was purely down to low signal levels at the aerial, with the amplifier having nothing to work with.

soporific

I haven't put the aerial into its final position yet (too dangerous on a ladder - gonna rent a height for hire thing in a week or two when painting the house). But the group B aerial certainly brings in both transmitters. Actually, reception from clermont cern is already a few percentage points higher (as measured on DVBViewer on the PC) than it was with the old wideband. The angle of acceptance on Meath coast seems to be fine for both transmitters. So for anybody else getting iffy reception, this might be a solution.

castle2012

soporific wrote: »

I haven't put the aerial into its final position yet (too dangerous on a ladder - gonna rent a height for hire thing in a week or two when painting the house). But the group B aerial certainly brings in both transmitters. Actually, reception from clermont cern is already a few percentage points higher (as measured on DVBViewer on the PC) than it was with the old wideband. The angle of acceptance on Meath coast seems to be fine for both transmitters. So for anybody else getting iffy reception, this might be a solution.

Did you get sorted in the end ?

soporific

I've put off the painting - so the aerial relocation got put off as well. i might try in the next few weeks before it gets too cold so i'll give an update then!

Mylow

I am not that from you Soporific, I am in Grange Rath. i am also looking at trying to get signal from Kilkeel. I have aerial guy coming this week to test. I will update you how I get on.