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Full Freeview on the Brougher Mountain (Northern Ireland) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps54.422,-7.462 or 54°25'17"N 7°27'43"Wsa_postcodeBT78 3SG

 

The symbol shows the location of the Brougher Mountain (Northern Ireland) transmitter which serves 36,000 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 Brougher Mountain (Northern Ireland) mast?

Brougher Mountain transmitter - Brougher Mountain 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 Brougher Mountain 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
C29 (538.0MHz)365mDTG-20,000W
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
C31+ (554.2MHz)365mDTG-20,000W
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
C37 (602.0MHz)365mDTG-20,000W
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 -10dB
C21+ (474.2MHz)365mDTG-82,000W
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 -10dB
C24 (498.0MHz)373mDTG-82,000W
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 -10dB
C27 (522.0MHz)373mDTG-82,000W
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

NIMM
 H -13dB
C30- (545.8MHz)365mDTG-111,000W
Channel icons
53 TG4, 54 RTÉ One, 55 RTÉ Two,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-11 QPSK 32KN 2/3 10.0Mb/s DVB-T2 MPEG4
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

The Brougher Mountain (Northern Ireland) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: .

If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.

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

regional news image
BBC Newsline 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT2 8HQ, 1,048km northeast (50°)
to BBC Northern Ireland region - 46 masts.
regional news image
UTV Live 0.6m homes 2.5%
from Belfast BT7 1EB, 1,048km northeast (50°)
to UTV region - 46 masts.

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

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20122012-134 Sep 2019
VHFA K TA K TA K TA K TA K T
C5BBCtvwaves
C21+SDNSDN
C22BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves+D3+4
C24ArqAArqA
C25ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCB
C27ArqBArqB
C28BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCA
C29BBCA
C30-NIMMNIMM
C31D3+4
C32C4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C37BBCB

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 100kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 20kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-17dB) 2kW
NIMM(-20dB) 1000W
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-23dB) 500W

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Brougher Mountain 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. Brougher Mountain 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Radiation patterns withheld

Comments
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

3:28 PM

BROUGHER MOUNTAIN transmitter - Over the next week Brougher Mountain main transmitter: TV (analogue) working normally, TV (digital) working normally, Radio (analogue) working normally, Radio (digital) working normally. [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Monday, 25 June 2012
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

12:28 PM

BROUGHER MOUNTAIN transmitter - Over the next week Brougher Mountain main transmitter: TV (analogue) Liable to interruption, TV (digital) Liable to interruption, Radio (analogue) working normally, Radio (digital) working normally. [DUK]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

12:28 PM

BROUGHER MOUNTAIN transmitter - Over the next week Brougher Mountain main transmitter: TV (analogue) Liable to interruption, TV (digital) Liable to interruption, Radio (analogue) working normally, Radio (digital) working normally. [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Friday, 24 August 2012
J
Jimmy
12:28 AM

Huge problems tonight on B. Mtn.
All analogue related:
BBC1 and 2 OK albeit without NICAM.
UTV no picture or NICAM, static on MONO audio.
Ch4 no picture, NICAM but silence, also silence on MONO audio.
Ceefax off air.

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Jimmy's 1 post IE flag
Tuesday, 23 October 2012
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

9:19 AM

At switchover the Brougher Mountain transmitter will be off air from midnight until 6am on 24th October 2012 - see UK Digital switchover ends - Northern Ireland completes on 24th October 2012 | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice for full details...

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Thursday, 25 October 2012
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:15 PM

The Commercial (COM) channels (which are on 21, 24 and 27 from Brougher Mountain) don't have as great a coverage area as the (Public Service) PSB channels. The small "filler-in" transmitters don't carry them and of those that do they tend to be on lower power than the PSBs, which is usually half-power. This generally means that those on the fringes can receive PSB only. It certainly does not mean that half of viewers are PSB only!

However, up until now I wasn't aware of a full-service transmitter with such marked differences between power of PSBs and power of COMs. The information provided on this website is taken from official sources and I checked the relevant Ofcom document and it does indeed say that COMs are 2kW from Brougher Mountain whereas PSBs are 20kW.

Add to that the fact that the COMs are each on channels which neighbour the more powerful PSBs and there would appear to be a recipe for some being unable to receive the COMs, not because they aren't powerful on their own, but because the higher power signals will be likely to desensitise receivers to the lower power ones.

To understand this, consider the receiver "looking" at channel 21. Nearby, on C22, is a high power signal which is likely to desensitise it. This is a bit like going out when it's dark and having car headlights shining towards you; as a result the surrounding area that is darker is more difficult to see because your eyes adjust to the bright light by reducing in their sensitivity.


An attenuator put in line with the aerial lead may help. If an amplifier is in use, turning it down or removing it may do the trick. An attenuator simply acts to reduce the signal level which is the opposite of an amplifier so there may be little point in having both.

The only thing I can think is that they are so short of channels that 21, 24 and 27 have to be used. Of course these are used by Divis for its PSBs so there will be overlap of the two transmitters (normally at least), but the Brougher COMs being severly restricted will help mitigate interference with Divis viewers.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Friday, 2 November 2012
D
Don
8:58 AM

Hi I live in the Lisbellaw area and i know that the transmitter is now live,about 60 percent of the villager's were receving digital TV from the Brougher transmitter since it was first switched on with little or no problem's except for the odd weather related one where signal would break up some had to use Group A Amp's others were ok now all we have are the signal's from the lisbellaw Transmitter is there any way round this as a lot of people are very dissapointed has the signal been redirected away from the village your help would be much appreciated.Regards Don

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Don's 2 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:24 AM

Don: After switchover, the Freeview network is a two-tier system, as you have found out. Whilst all transmitters carry PSB channels and so serve the same areas as the former analogue, a lot of small transmitters like Lisbellaw don't carry the COM channels. For a list of which are PSB and which are COM, see:

DTG :: DTT Services by Multiplex

The other thing is that of those that do carry the COMs, they are on lower power than the PSBs and hence some on the fringes can only receive PSBs.

From Brougher Mountain there is a very marked difference between power of PSBs (20kW) and power of COMs (2kW). Most that are different have COMs at half power to the PSBs.

If people were receiving the pre-switchover digital from Brougher Mountain with their aerials directed to the Lisbellow relay (which at that time only carried analogue), then from an engineering point of view they were lucky. For reception from Brougher Mountain a Group A aerial is required in areas where the signal is not so good, as I assume it is so in your general area which is why the local relay was installed.

Unless reception of the COMs is possible from Brougher, then there is no advantage to be gained from receiving from it when the signal from the local relay is available.


The marked difference in the strength of PSBs vs COMs could be an issue with tuners desensitising themselves as a result of the high power signals thereby not being sensitive enough to pick up the lower powered ones. Careful adjustment of an amplifier or adjustment of an attenuator may strike a ballance allowing both to be viewed.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:28 AM

Don: For receivers with manual tuning (which all "should" have), try tuning in to 21, 24 and 27 which are the COM channels.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
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