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Full Freeview on the Divis (Northern Ireland) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps54.607,-6.009 or 54°36'24"N 6°0'34"Wsa_postcodeBT17 0NG

 

The symbol shows the location of the Divis (Northern Ireland) transmitter which serves 440,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Divis (Northern Ireland) mast?

Divis transmitter - Divis transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 25/03/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
_______

Which Freeview channels does the Divis transmitter broadcast?

If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.

Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C27 (522.0MHz)551mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) Northern Ireland, 2 BBC Two Northern Ireland, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 14 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C21+ (474.2MHz)551mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 UTV (SD) (UTV), 4 Channel 4 (SD) NI ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 NI ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 UTV +1 (UTV),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C24 (498.0MHz)551mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Northern Ireland, 102 BBC Two HD Northern Ireland, 103 UTV HD (UTV), 104 Channel 4 HD NI ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H -3dB
C23 (490.0MHz)551mDTG-850,000W
Channel icons
20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -3dB
C26 (514.0MHz)528mDTG-850,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -3dB
C30 (546.0MHz)528mDTG-850,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LBT
 H -13dB
C36 (594.0MHz)528mDTG-125,000W
Channel icons
from 29th September 2014: 7 NvTv,

NIMM
 H -40dB
C48 (690.0MHz)551mDTG-10W
Channel icons
from 4th September 2019: 53 TG4, 54 RTÉ One, 55 RTÉ Two,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Divis transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Newsline 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT2 8HQ, 1,044km northeast (51°)
to BBC Northern Ireland region - 46 masts.
regional news image
UTV Live 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT7 1EB, 1,044km northeast (51°)
to UTV region - 46 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

Chapel FieldsTransposerCentral Belfast61 homes

How will the Divis (Northern Ireland) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20122012-134 Mar 2020
VHFA K TA K TA K TK TW T
C1BBCtvwaves
C21C4wavesC4wavesC4waves+D3+4D3+4
C23SDNSDN
C24ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCBBBCB
C26ArqAArqA
C27BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C29ArqB
C30LBT
C31BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C33com7
C34com8
C36_local
C48NIMMNIMM
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off

tv_off Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 10 Oct 12 and 24 Oct 12.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4 500kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 50kW
com8(-16dB) 12.7kW
com7(-16.1dB) 12.4kW
LBT(-20dB) 5kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*(-23.4dB) 2.3kW
Mux C*(-24dB) 2kW
Mux D*(-24.9dB) 1.6kW
NIMM(-47dB) 10W

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Divis transmitter area

Oct 1959-May 2006Ulster Television
May 2006-Dec 2014UTV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Divis was not an original Channel 3 VHF 405-line mast: the historical information shown is the details of the company responsible for the transmitter when it began transmitting Channel 3.

Comments
Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:49 AM

PJH: OK. I am waiting for Ofcom to confirm any new figures.

link to this comment
Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Friday, 20 December 2013
G
Gavin
9:24 AM

I live in Newtownabbey in the Carnmoney Hill fill-in area. However I have bypassed that tx to get the additional services from Divis, and am receiving COM7 well with 60% strength / 100% quality.
Earlier this week I was receiving test tx from the local TV on C30, but with signal at 27%/10% it was mostly break-up. Last night however the signal on C30 was much stronger at 46%/80%, but with occasional severe dips to 10%/10%. Anyone else seeing this and any idea what is happening? Presumably the signal is being tweaked?

link to this comment
Gavin's 8 posts EU flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:32 AM

Gavin: Considering the fact that this transmitter is only on test and is not due to go into service until next year, then the fluctuations seen in the signal level could well be as a result of the equipment being tested as engineers have a free hand in this type of situation.

However, as far as your location is concerned, I tried out quite a few test p/codes around your area and with none of them indicating that you would be able to have reliable reception from C30 transmitter even when in service, although this can be verified or not as the case may be with knowledge of your post code.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
G
Gavin
10:44 AM

Thanks for the reply. The coverage maps on this page show me on the edge of really good Divis reception for all muxes, with C30 signal a bit weaker than the others. Seems to tie in quite well with the signal I was getting last night since I have:
PSB muxes at 75%/100% (strength/quality)
COM4-6 at 70%/100%
COM 7 at 62%/100%.
I was just wondering if anyone else was monitoring C30 and experiencing similar fluctuations - since as you point out the tx is only on test. Should be interesting to see what the signal ends up being here due to the radiation patters depicted on this page.

link to this comment
Gavin's 8 posts EU flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:20 PM

Gavin: Well yes! so long as you have selected LBT and blown the picture right up, although you can obtain a more detailed prediction of reception by clicking on the undermentioned link, entering your post code and checking the "detailed view" box, this method retaining your privacy as far as exact location is concerned, although any predictions seen have always to be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt as no-one can give a 100% accurate prediction of where an UHF/RF signal will, or will not be received.

That said, the other aspect of knowing a post code is that it enables a detailed terrain check to be carried out for the purpose of determining if the signal received at a given location is via line-of-site or not, because if not then that received is via diffraction (bending) and can, dependant on other factors, be susceptible to the reflective effects of seasonal changes to the terrain, i.e: the so called "summer and winter" effect.


Digital UK - Coverage checker

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:30 PM

Gavin: Having read over my previous reply I just noticed my grammatical error of "site" being typed in when obviously "sight" was being referred to, I shall put this down to pre Christmas fatigue!

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
P
PJH
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

11:47 PM

Gavin: I'm in the same position as you. Carmoney Hill is only a few miles away and I can see the transmitter from my bedroom window (I'm in Jordanstown).

Did a quick manual scan and found nothing on channel 30. Is it off air now ?

Com 7 coming in well although signal strength well down on even the commercial muxes, but with no break up.

Digital UK indicates no reception from channel 30 at this location, which is strange as they give me good coverage of the NI mux from Black Mountain. In practice Black Mountain is well down on the Commercial muxes from Divis, even though they're claiming variable reception for these.

I'm actually receiving Carnmoney Hill off the side of the RTE aerial.

Clermont Cairn is by far the best signal at this location. I get multiple signals from RTE !

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PJH's 240 posts GB flag
Saturday, 21 December 2013
G
Gavin
5:43 PM

Hi PJH
C30 is still on right now. Today I'm getting mostly 40-50% strength and 70-90% quality, with some short dips to 50% quality. Still getting a few picture dropouts though.... so quality must be dropping lower than that.
Yea no probs with COM7 though :)
Thanks for the link jb38, I have looked there before, gives good reception on COM7 on C33 but no mention of C30. However the same site says I have good reception from the Black Mountain NIMux, but I can tell you I can't get a thing on C39+, probably due to the strong signal from Carnmoney Hill on C40!
As for Clermont Carn, signal is great with a Antiference XG16EW + masthead..... diplexed with the Divis aerial.

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Gavin's 8 posts GB flag
G
Gavin
5:46 PM

BTW my Divis aerial is a cheapo Maplin job from >20 years ago. I'll wait and see what the final signal is like on C30, and if there is any programme material worth watching thereon, before thinking about changing it ;-)

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Gavin's 8 posts GB flag
Sunday, 22 December 2013
P
PJH
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

1:27 AM

Yep, now getting the local TV multiplex on channel 30 but badly broken up. Hopefully it'll improve on launch.

Currently my Humax box is giving a 43% signal with 10% quality.

I find signals strength meters on STBs very subjective as no two models.are ever the same.

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PJH's 240 posts GB flag
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