Welsh digital switch over-Irish reception questions answered

whizbang wrote: »

Hi Folks, probably stupid question but cant see the light.
I am receiving channels 42 and 49 regularly (all day) last couple of weeks. the channel lineup for these mux's appears to be the same as the Preseli transmitter but i cant see any signal on any of the other frequencies listed for Preseli.
its an old rusty drunken grid, with mostly useable Arfon. Which should be replaced soon, but with what? I was hoping for Blaenp..f, but nobody seems to have any luck with that. My question really is if i had a better aerial, what should i aim for?

Is it that you just noticed that you were picking these up recently or do you think that 42 and 49 were there off and on a lot of the time?
Your aerial is vertical and one of the lowest gain you can get and half knackered as you say.
Preseli is several degree's south of arfon and is horzontal.

A proper group B with a group B amp could be tested mounted horizontal to see what preseli is really like for you and if it's not reliable,you should at least get good arfon by remounting the aerial vertical and pointing it back to arfon.

I'm thinking the only obstacles to preseli in say greystones would be wicklow head and the high ground to the south of it.
However,the further away from there you are it is possible that the signal can weave around them.
Your problem then would be distance and earth curvature.

Worth a try though,see'ing as the group B will do arfon anyway.

Try the grid horizontal and bear it for preseli and see what you get as a start.
You could also try bear it up there for Blaenplwyf as a test.

There is a high pressure at the moment so conditions are not ideal as these signals will come in at times regardless of what you do due to there being a lift of signals in the athmosphere with this weather.

You need a group B unix 52 at least and preferably a unix 100 and a group B masthead amp and power supply unit and ct100 cable.
This is to be vertically polarised pointed at arfon.
You will need a 15ft pole and fixings for your chimney,a fairly strong pole.

The unix and amp should be all you need as it should also pick up the greystones saorview transmitter from stray signal coming in via the side or the back of the aerial.

We have them on bungalow chimneys down here tbc for years without a problem.
A 15ft pole is needed to hold their weight without stays,they've survived hurricane like storms over the years.
The 15ft pole would be the max used without stays around here and there are lots of them.
In fact the road beside me has six or seven of them all pointed to arfon

Doctors differ I suppose.

The cost is about 50 or 60 euros

It's inclined to cut out on grids sometimes.
Contracts wouldn't work well at all.
Unix 52's would work most of the time if not all of the time except with fog when theres sure to be cut outs.
I'm recommending the 100's because they are better obviously and we're used to them here and of course it's a case of making reception as bullet proof as possible,ie going that extra mile.
I always recommend having freesat as well [we do] as the cast iron back up.
The aerial is brilliant and easy for multi room.We have preseli BBC1hd and itv1 hd in all rooms.B and B'ers love the choice.

The unix 100's locally here would be legacy ones from analogue where sucessfull attempts were made to limit the grain in arfon analogue.
The road I mentioned has no line of sight to the sea just a mile away so they were essential.

Grids were very acceptable for most with analogue as most didn't mind heavy grain.
When I was using arfon,I went for twin unix 100 equivalents which brought in incredibly clear arfon analogue.

We of course switched them over to presely a few months before dso there and discovered beautifull preseli analogue from them but they are on a 45 foot pole with stays as we needed to up and over a small hill for a sea view.
At chimney height we had awfull co channel from cairn hill on preseli so hence went with the twins on arfon.
We only discovered the lack of cairn hill co channel up at 70ft [roof height plus mast height] or so when we were switching them over to preseli in july 2009 in readiness for the imminent dso there.

Dublin is more than likely out alright but louth should be fine with a unix 52 or something.
Not sure of the power of forth mtn off hand but it's traveling 30 miles or so and I'll guess it's only 200 watts.
The grids will be under pressure I'd say.