Freeview in Offaly - impossible or just difficult?

esquilax

Hi all,

I live in the midlands (near Tullamore) and used to receive pretty good analogue reception from Brougher Mountain until about two thirds of my aerial blew down. (You'd be surprised at how much you can still get with a third of an aerial, mind you).

I'm looking to go digital and FTA satellite is looking like the best solution. However, before I go investing in a satellite dish just to get two of my four channels in proper reception, I'd like to get a definitive answer on the terrestrial option (having just read the advice to the chap in Mullingar)

Could someone please tell me, for certain, that there is no way I would be able to receive NI Freeview this far south?

Given that some radio telescopes can pick up a mosquito's fart on pluto, surely the technology exists to pick up a marginal digital TV signal broadcast less than 100 miles away. I'm quite high up and would get a quad array of aerials if that's what it takes...but would even that be enough?

Finally, does anyone know if they intend to increase the power of DTT transmissions in the near future? Will this only happen once analogue is switched off?

Any help or opinions appreciated.

esquilax

lawhec

Could someone please tell me, for certain, that there is no way I would be able to receive NI Freeview this far south?

I would never say never - but I would say that your chances are pretty minimal. Just how good was your previous "best" reception? If was with very little snow with perfect/near perfect decoding of teletext, then the chances of picking up Freeview from Brougher Mountain would be POSSIBLE - not committable, but possible.

Given that some radio telescopes can pick up a mosquito's fart on pluto, surely the technology exists to pick up a marginal digital TV signal broadcast less than 100 miles away. I'm quite high up and would get a quad array of aerials if that's what it takes...but would even that be enough?

Could well be possible. However some considerations on your given location would need to be taken into account. Since you say that you live quite high up in Offaly, I'd say there a possiblilty of receiving UHF transmissions from Mount Leinster and Three Rock, which use the same analogue channels for transmission that Brougher uses for Digital. Especially in such a fringe area, if an analogue signal is co-channelling with a digital signal, the digital signal will suffer badly, your only hope perhaps being a SABRE array (the BBC are now decomissioning their array in the Channel Islands, they might sell it for a knockdown price )

If it is possible, then at your location a receiver with a sensitive tuner will be a must. The Setpal receiver have a good reputation for this, the new Echostar receiver is quoted to have an even bigger sensitivity than the Setpals but the features of the receiver leave some to be desired.

In fairness, it sounds like a lot of effort and cost with no certain results. A FTA satellite setup for BBC or a FTV card with Sky Digibox sounds less troublesome, other folks here can point your in right direction for this.

esquilax

Originally posted by Northern Correspondent
I would never say never - but I would say that your chances are pretty minimal. Just how good was your previous "best" reception? If was with very little snow with perfect/near perfect decoding of teletext, then the chances of picking up Freeview from Brougher Mountain would be POSSIBLE - not committable, but possible.

Not perfect visually, but decoding of teletext on BBC1 and ITV was generally perfect. For some reason CH4 and BBC2 were always a bit weaker. But never mind, because...

Could well be possible. However some considerations on your given location would need to be taken into account. Since you say that you live quite high up in Offaly, I'd say there a possiblilty of receiving UHF transmissions from Mount Leinster and Three Rock, which use the same analogue channels for transmission that Brougher uses for Digital.

...I didn't notice the frequency overlap here, and since I am currently picking some channels weakly (TG4 and TV3) from both of these transmitters, that's enough of a "no" for me.

Thanks NC for such a comprehensive reply!

esquilax

watty

If you have a mountaintop and a 40m dish, i'd say you can get freeview.

Pluto is far away, but some radio telescopes use entire valleys or extinct volcano or arrays of very big dishes. And there is NOTHING inbetween.

The record for terestrial WiFi LAN is 116km

The record for 24GHz transmission by 3m dish each end and only 100W is earth to Moon and back from Czech Republic to USA. I think that over a millon Km.


Terrestrial is tricky. All those pesky hills, trees and buildings. Plus all the Earth therma noise, builing thermal noise and electrical inteference from Colour TV sets, cars, motorbikes, and Power lines.

It will get worse if ESB is allowed to go ahead on its PLT schem to deliver Broadband Internet over powerlines. This creates terrible interference. Wireless LAN makes far more sense in Rural areas too far from Exchange for ADSL.

Mike 1972

Didnt realist the ESB were contemplating PLT

Some of the UK electricity companies have proposed it as well but the broadcasters are finally starting to wake up to the issue of interference and are petitioning OFCOM not to allow it.

Even ADSL can cause a lot of problems for AM listners and many UK stations (Virgin, Talksport, Fivelive etc) are still AM only

BrianD

Can you get freeview in south Co. Meath? Parents get the UK channels from a rooftop aerial. Just curious!

Originally posted by BrianD
Can you get freeview in south Co. Meath? Parents get the UK channels from a rooftop aerial. Just curious!

I think DMC tried it in Meath and to no avail.
That would have been the moynalty/Kells areas

mm