Brougher Mountain - what's going on?

lawhec

What on earth has happened to Brougher Mountain recently? Living eight miles away from it with a high-gain Antiference aerial for stable Freeview reception, since Tuesday reception has been a mess! Snow on all four channels,swearing I was receiving the TX from about 50 miles away instead, with all Freeview Multiplexes bar one (Mux D) suffering from either continuous break-up or no reception! I've noticed on the Engineering pages on Ceefax that the tx is on reduced power until the 27th October. I remember a thread here earlier this year noting that Brougher had a couple of major faults, but none of them effected my reception this badly. Has something really big happened this time, and while I'm at it, is anyone who gets their TV from this transmitter also finding their reception affected too?

DMC

NC, how strong are the Freeview muxes from Brougher normally?

I dont get my terrestrial anymore from Brougher, so I cant say if there is an issue, sounds like there is.

loftus

It says on BBC ceefax 698 that brougher is on reduced power this week and will be for the next few weeks.

esquilax

Hi NC,

I'm located in Offaly and also have this problem - C4 is pretty much unwatchable at the moment. I thought it was weather-related till now.

lawhec

Whatever problem there is at Brougher Mountain, it must be big, as the signal levls are even worse now than last week! No teletext on any of the four main channels, blizzard of snow, smudging and ghosts. All DTT multiplexes are gone too except mux. D, which is now suffering bad breakup.

Reception problems are seemingly widespread - my village (the those that use Brougher - those using Strabane are lucky at the moment!) is complaing of terrible reception, Omagh town is also badly suffering - a columist in today's Ulster Herald (local newspaper) was giving off stink about this, calling for local viewers to receive partial TV licence refunds!

I've sent an e-mail to BBC Reception to see if they know the problem, but I'm taking an educated guess that there has been some big UHF aerial failure , with the maximum ERP being badly reduced to what it can handle at the moment (it seems to be down to about 1kw), and that FM aerials on the mast are also on reduced power at times - these aerials are 10m below the UHF aerials, and it's power would have to be reduced accordingly for engineers to reach the UHF aerials.

NC, how strong are the Freeview muxes from Brougher normally?

Pretty good damo usually where I live. The only multiplex that seems to give headaches is the UTV/CH4 multiplex on Channel 4, I get occasional breakup (a handful of times every day) but many others can't receive it consistently at all. I have grandparents who receive Freeview up in the Sperrins despite the DTG postcode checker saying they wouldn't receive any! In fairness, they haven't got any reception of UTV/CH4 and MUx D depends on the weather (the grandmother was keen on UK Brightideas!) but myself and an Uncle plan to put up a new high-gain Televes aerial (and bought an Antiference masthead amp) to help at least pull MUX D in, the only big loss from UTV/CH4 would be ITV2.
The only crossborder reception of Brougher DTT I've been told has been along the Fermamagh/Cavan border in around Newtownbutler

I'm located in Offaly and also have this problem - C4 is pretty much unwatchable at the moment

Count yourself lucky - I'm only less than a couple of handfuls of miles from the TX and it's barely watchable too!

lawhec

Got a reply back from BBC Reception, no big failure from somewhere - the UHF antennas are simply being renewed, which would make sense as UHF transmissions officially started just over 25 years ago at Brougher and it is usually this amount of time that the aerials last. The transmissions are currently on a tempoary aerial with obviously less power and less coverage.

Divis Mountain had this done a number of years ago and the BBC then claimed reception should have improved for many people - I wonder if this new antenna will give better reception to viewers in fringe areas in the Republic?

loftus

All this info has been on BBC ceefax 698 been on BBC for the last few weeks.

byte

Taken from www.bbc.co.uk/reception

Transmitters on reduced power:

BROUGHER MOUNTAIN all TV . . until 27/10

Here in Donegal, where reception is weak at best, the reduced power has been very noticeable, and I've heard many stories with people fiddling with their aerials to fix their reception! :eek:

Originally posted by byte
Taken from www.bbc.co.uk/reception



Here in Donegal, where reception is weak at best, the reduced power has been very noticeable, and I've heard many stories with people fiddling with their aerials to fix their reception! :eek:

Where are those Vertically polarised aerials around Letterkenny getting their signal? Limavaddy?
It's crystal clear like a mirror on the 4 NI channels.


mm

byte

Some get from Limavady I think, and some from Strabane.

Limavady, though is Horizontal, group C/D whereas Strabane is Vertical, Group B so it would be Strabane.

lawhec

Byt, could it be possible that it's the Sherrif's Mountain traensmitter in Derry is being used by those in Letterkenney rather than Strabane, as I know that Strabane is heavily shilded to the north (to help avoid ACI with Derry)?

As for Brougher, yes I know the problem has been on Ceefax 698 but usually if transmitters go on reduced power it is normally no less than 6db down (i.e. quarter power) - the current signal strengths I'm getting make it look more like 15-20db down (i.e. 1/100th of the power) - BBC2 is terrible and is barely getting a colour lock. I've seen Brougher be on reduced power before and it was never like this. Hopefully with good weather forecasted for the week those new TX aerials will be working properly and Monday can't come too soon.:cool:

byte

I guess it would be possible in some areas of Letterkenny to receive the Derry Tx. Hadn't actually thought of it tbh. I'm not too familiar with Letterkenny area and what they use.

I was at a house on top of the hill on the Ballybofey road and they were receiving signals from Limavady with a horizontal grid aerial. I guess it would depend on what part of town the house is.

Mike 1972

Its possible that those Donegal aerials are pointed at a deflector.

Most (but not all) deflectos transmit on the opposite polorisation to what they recieve on

towbar

Must be deflector as I have tried getting Derry on the Derry side of Letterkenny but very weak. If you look at the houses out on the dual carraige-way they are pointing across the water not towards Derry!! Anybody have any ideas what the channel numbers are???

Marconi

Those horizontally polarized aerials are used for receiving RTÉ and TG4 off a local Self-Help system in the Dromore area of Letterkenny. There are lots of such systems around the country and are all quite legal.

Most viewers in the Letterkenny area receive the UK stations from the Limavady transmitter - Strabane is screened by high ground to the south of the town.

byte

Yeah, I had found out that later from an RTE Networks guy I know.

towbar

But isnt there already a relay in Letterkenny for RTE which is vertically polarised?

lawhec

Originally posted by towbar
But isnt there already a relay in Letterkenny for RTE which is vertically polarised?

There is indeed, Mongorry Hill, 500w ERP for RTE1, RTE Network 2 and TG$. No TV3 though.

Brougher has now been back on "full power" now for about a month but it seems to be that little bit weaker here than what it used to be.