Undoubtedly the question of a lunatic, but...

peejay1986

Is it possible to pick up any Irish digital channels from the UK mainland? I'm over in Chester at the minute and would love to have the Irish channels available to view.

My TV is LG 32LD450, I think it's MPEG4 compatible. Is there any way I could try manually adding them on Freeview?

winston_1

Yes, it's possible. You just have to move to the west coast of Wales.
You won't get anything in Chester however.

peejay1986

winston_1 wrote: »

Yes, it's possible. You just have to move to the west coast of Wales.
You won't get anything in Chester however.

Oh. I must be just out of range then. I'm 2 minutes from the Welsh border. Holyhead is only an hour away

Any idea on the frequencies so I could test it? Or is it all done automatically?

Peddyr

peejay1986 wrote: »

Oh. I must be just out of range then. I'm 2 minutes from the Welsh border. Holyhead is only an hour away

Any idea on the frequencies so I could test it? Or is it all done automatically?

You could try a manual tune on 54, group C/D H. Point aerial towards Holyhead, you never know... but I doubt it from Chester. You might get Saorview during lift conditions in summer...

Digifriendly

Not the question of a lunatic at all. However from reception reports on these boards I think you have to be on or reasonably near the Welsh coast to get ROI DTTsignal. However if you are on very high ground anything may be possible with the right equipment. Here in Moira (not exactly on the east coast of NI) I have picked up Caldbeck (NW England) and at my Church Hall Cambret Hill (SW Scotland) is receivable!

watty

A very big mast 90ft / 30m. Minimum You need to start at 45' / 15m with UHF aerials (i.e. above chimney) and typically double mast hight each time you want an improvement from a higher mast, if it's not simply to get over a tree or building.

4 x decent Blake aerials (correct group and polarisation) on it with matched lengths of coax to 2 combiner/splitters, then combining in a third. Decent mast head pre-amp just below that. All copper/copper double screened Sat coax. (TX100, PF100 etc).

Evesham once had VHF RTE reception into a local cable network.

Digifriendly

watty wrote: »

A very big mast 90ft / 30m. Minimum You need to start at 45' / 15m with UHF aerials (i.e. above chimney) and typically double mast hight each time you want an improvement from a higher mast, if it's not simply to get over a tree or building.

4 x decent Blake aerials (correct group and polarisation) on it with matched lengths of coax to 2 combiner/splitters, then combining in a third. Decent mast head pre-amp just below that. All copper/copper double screened Sat coax. (TX100, PF100 etc).

Evesham once had VHF RTE reception into a local cable network.

Great set up and fascinating to read but just wondering about co-channel interference as it would surely pull in many more signals than just RTE DTT or is co-channel not as much a problem with DTT as analogue?

watty

The higher the gain of the aerial, the narrower the angle of the beam and the more accurately it has to be pointed, so less likely co-channel than ordinary aerial, unless two sites with same channel in line in front of aerial.

Co-channel is worse, multipath OTH is hardly a problem on DTT vs Analogue. Adjacent channel is no problem generally.

AndyDXTV

I live in Eccles, Manchester and when I lived at my parents in the late 80`s could get RTE 1 and RTE 2 on VHF. They live on bit of a hill and I had a very big band 3 antenna with mast head preamp. There are no high ground between me and Dublin, mostly sea path and a bit of Angelse, Chester is no chance as the mountains of north wales are in the way unless by freak you could get a mountain top refraction signal but this is very location dependant.

galtee boy

watty wrote: »

A very big mast 90ft / 30m. Minimum You need to start at 45' / 15m with UHF aerials (i.e. above chimney) and typically double mast hight each time you want an improvement from a higher mast, if it's not simply to get over a tree or building.

4 x decent Blake aerials (correct group and polarisation) on it with matched lengths of coax to 2 combiner/splitters, then combining in a third. Decent mast head pre-amp just below that. All copper/copper double screened Sat coax. (TX100, PF100 etc).

Evesham once had VHF RTE reception into a local cable network.

Watty, just out of curiosity, would this aerial set up, work in reverse, as in, how far inland in Ireland might it be possible to pull in Freeview from Wales or South West England ? I'm in North Cork and when lift conditions are good, I frequently can pick up the BBC national radio stations from the North Hessary transmitter in Devon (160Kw) on FM and also Dab, but not as frequently for the Dab. I know its North Hessary from the frequencies. I know fm is a different animal to DTT, but would it be totally impossible from this far inland ?

watty

It depends on Terrain. Chester as has been pointed out might be more likely to get signals further away in England than from Ireland due to Wales being all Mountains installed in 1124 to keep the English out

"North Cork" is vague.

In Limerick (or maybe really Tipperary) they used to get Wales, Divis and Brougher. But that was from top of Keeper Hill
with a bay of 16 yagis

Also as you go up in frequency
Approx
100MHz = FM
200MHz = DAB
600MHz = DTT
the distance becomes rapidly poorer.

It's probably nearly impossible unless you are on a handy mountain top. It's much simpler to have a dish. All the important channels very reliably.

If you go for slightly bigger dish and multifeed you can receive easily four satellites on it and really broaden your horizons. Polish TV with English Subtitles. News in English from many countries. BBC World News as well as News 24. 100s of English and specialist Music stations (about 1000 FTA), such Dutch Golden oldies, German Jazz and Classical, Radio Canada and more.

Really nowadays it's pointless trying to get Terrestrial UK TV via aerial UNLESS you living someplace where a relatively ordinary chimney pole and Aerial works.

The Big masts and Quad arrays are history with Freesat/FTA.

galtee boy

watty wrote: »

It depends on Terrain. Chester as has been pointed out might be more likely to get signals further away in England than from Ireland due to Wales being all Mountains installed in 1124 to keep the English out

"North Cork" is vague.

In Limerick (or maybe really Tipperary) they used to get Wales, Divis and Brougher. But that was from top of Keeper Hill
with a bay of 16 yagis

Also as you go up in frequency
Approx
100MHz = FM
200MHz = DAB
600MHz = DTT
the distance becomes rapidly poorer.

It's probably nearly impossible unless you are on a handy mountain top. It's much simpler to have a dish. All the important channels very reliably.

If you go for slightly bigger dish and multifeed you can receive easily four satellites on it and really broaden your horizons. Polish TV with English Subtitles. News in English from many countries. BBC World News as well as News 24. 100s of English and specialist Music stations (about 1000 FTA), such Dutch Golden oldies, German Jazz and Classical, Radio Canada and more.

Really nowadays it's pointless trying to get Terrestrial UK TV via aerial UNLESS you living someplace where a relatively ordinary chimney pole and Aerial works.

The Big masts and Quad arrays are history with Freesat/FTA.

Thanks for all the info. I know a dish and freesat etc is much easier. I already have a Humax Foxsat PVR and it's excellent. It's just that it takes the dxing and pioneering spirit out of the equation, the "thrill" of dragging in signals from afar ! However, I don't want the roof of the house looking like something that NASA might use, just to get a pixelated signal four or five times a year, if I'm lucky.

Digifriendly

galtee boy wrote: »

Thanks for all the info. I know a dish and freesat etc is much easier. I already have a Humax Foxsat PVR and it's excellent. It's just that it takes the dxing and pioneering spirit out of the equation, the "thrill" of dragging in signals from afar ! However, I don't want the roof of the house looking like something that NASA might use, just to get a pixelated signal four or five times a year, if I'm lucky.

I know how you feel - remember the first time I managed to pick up BBC Scotland (Cambret Hill analogue) when I was living in Bangor along the Co. Down coast. Now here in Moira (c18 miles SW of Belfast) I have managed to get BBC 1 NW/BBC2 England (Caldbeck DTT) appear as placeholders on my Sony idTV as well as watch BBC1 Scotland/BBC2 Scotland/ITV Border (Cambret Hill DTT) on a Panasonic idTv in my Church Hall.

watty

I know people in Co. Antrim that for years could only get Scotland. Still don't get DTT or Five on Terrestrial.