Donegal - Freeview?

towbar

Anyone picking up freeview in letterkenny area?

DMC

I know of one person in the Carrowkeel area, so it may be possible in Letterkenny.

lawhec

It's been years since I was in Letterkenny - but to have any chance of receiving freeview, you'll need to have an aerial pointing at the Limavady transmitter, end of story.

towbar

I'm on the Limavaddy transmitter allright but signal is weak.

Carrowkeel - isnt that up beside Quigleys point and if so it is looking directly at Limavaddy so I would assume it would easily get a strong signal. I am another 15 miles or so from there.

Do you know if the person in Carrowkeel got a signal easily or if they are they using a high gain aerial and amp?

Are there any shops in Derry that will allow you to return the box if it does't work? Argus say they wont accept boxes back, also request a UK postcode.....


Thanks for the help

byte

If your analogue signals are weak, I wouldn't hold my breath for it to work.

Anyway, some electrical stores in ROI sell Freeview boxes. I've seen the Daewoo box wiht "Setpal" technology. The Daewoo (and similar clones) is supposed to be better in weaker signal areas. Try McEwans or somewhere to see if they can get ya one.

DMC

Originally posted by towbar
Carrowkeel - isnt that up beside Quigleys point and if so it is looking directly at Limavaddy so I would assume it would easily get a strong signal. I am another 15 miles or so from there.

Do you know if the person in Carrowkeel got a signal easily or if they are they using a high gain aerial and amp?

Are there any shops in Derry that will allow you to return the box if it does't work? Argus say they wont accept boxes back, also request a UK postcode.....

Ooops, I meant Quigleys Point. I blame an old map...

IIRC, its a low level indoor aerial, no fancy rig at all. He may advise himself in person here....

West Briton

Yes, my parents live in Greenbank, just outside Quigley's Point, and I've an ex-ITV Digital Nokia box.

One of the bizarre things about living with Lough Foyle across the road is that both Analogue and Digital Limavady come across better with an indoor aerial than with the practically useless flat plate wide band aerial in the attic.

If I could have the indoor aerial on the window sill instead of on the telly, my DTT results would be even better. As it is, all the muxes are prone to car and lorry interference, and the ITV/C4 mux on Channel 58 suffers badly.

Prior to the increase in power and change in QAM I used an expensive but effective square, flat indoor aerial with an amplifer, which was the only kit that worked consistently. Price around €45 in Maplins. As it had to sit on the window sill looking out, my house proud mother kept putting it away whenever I wasn't in Donegal, with the result that the delicate soldering holding part of the works in place kept breaking.

I was up last weekend and found that a non-amplified conventional indoor UHF aerial worked well enough on all the muxes except ITV/C4. Signal strength was 3-4 on most, with 1-2 on ITV/C4. Unfortuately to get full strength signal I would have to leave an aerial in the window with the shortest possible length of cable. Another weekend's work.

Given that the wick has been turned up considerably on the non-ITV muxes, it might be worth a punt to get a box in Dixons, with the warning that 1. You are not guaranteed trouble free reception and 2. Be prepared to experiment.

In other words, Buyer Beware.

byte

Would I be right in thinking that the ITV/C4/C5 muxes use QAM64, making them harder to receive unlike others like BBC which use QAM16?

lawhec

Irishbyte, the 64QAM Mux that both ITV/CH4 and SDN use seem to tend to make the multiplex more interference prone than anything else, but the 16QAM Multiplexes do seem to be that wee bit stronger overall. On my Panasonic Box for DTT from Brougher Mountain, all 4 16QAM Multiplexes all come in with a quality of at least 9 (10 is the maximum, the strongest seems to be Multiplex B on Ch.26), the SDN Multiplex on Ch23 averages between 6.5 and 7.5 while the UTV/CH4 on Ch34 gets around 4.5 to occassionaly 6 on a good day - but it is VERY hard to get without the right aerial set up. In terms of actual singal you need to have at least 2 on the bar for the picture to be steady without break-up.

A recent thread on D****** S** is currently taking about the reception of the UTV/CH4 Multiplex in Northern Ireland and certainly it seems to be poor in many parts where all other Multiplexes work perfectly - except for one guy in East Belfast where it's the other way round!

From personal experience, Freeview/DTT is very much a worthwhile upgrade for viewers without Satellite or Cable, and a good complementary one if you are like me who already have Sky!

Barryo

May be off topic but the freeview postcode search seems to have been updated - my nearest postcode in N.Ireland that was previously listed as having nocoverage is now listed as having reception of all channels - has anyone else tried this lately ??

Anyone using the service in fermanagh ?? I'm just a mile from the fermanagh border in cavan - planning to try 'freeview' out but apparently Argos refuse to accept boxes back if coverage is'nt available..

towbar

Tried installing a Grundig GDT1000 today. Some success but cant get bbc1 or 2 or ITV or UTV - get Cbeebies, bbc 4 and bbc parliment. Any ideas suggestions - is there a list of channels so I might tried manually installing?

Will get you posted as I make progress

towbar

Looks like I am getting Mux A and B only. According to a site I found all muxes at Limavaddy transmit at the same power. Any views?

rlogue

The ITV/C4 mux from Limavady is at a lower power so you might struggle with it.

What aerial and amp are you using?

Can you get C9 from Limavady?

towbar

Dont get Channel 9 - didnt realise it was available off Limavaddy transmitter.

I am using a Televes PRO 75 and masthead amp.

I am getting full signal strength on channel 67 which should be Mux 1 but it is showing a red bar on bit errors - so it looks like something else locally is transmitting on 67. Any suggestions ideas?

MUX A and B are coming in with about 75% signal strengeth and bit errors avg. 14

Richard

Originally posted by towbar
Dont get Channel 9 - didnt realise it was available off Limavaddy transmitter.

I though that Channel 9 was from Sherriff's Mountain. Or is it from Limavady too? (or are they one and the same?)

lawhec

Towbar, can you get TV3 and TG4 from Truskmore with reasonable strength at your location? If so then co-channel interference is most likely wiping out Muxs C & D (60 & 63).

I can't think of any reason why you are getting full signal strength on ch67 but a red bar on the bit error rate as there are no local transmitters that I know off in the area using that channel - unless a deflector is using it. I know that the Grundig when tuned into an analogue signal will give a signal strength readout but will show 0 in the bit error bar.

Ch58 (ITV/CH4) - it could be possible that the Fanad relay is causing problems as AFAIK Network 2 broadcast on that frequency from there.

Barryo - whereabouts in Fermanagh are you?