How far does Dover transmitter DTT Get out?

fmradiotuner1fmradiotuner1 Posts: 20,478
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In Clacton and my aerial is pointing at Sudbury yet Dover signals seem really strong to channels 50 and 51 coming at 100% and this on loft aerial.
All the time.

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  • DazziebatDazziebat Posts: 68
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    I live in Southend-on-Sea and we can get both Dover ,Bluebell Hill as well as London and Sudbury !
  • Fairyprincess0Fairyprincess0 Posts: 30,038
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    When you said 'out', I though you meant out into sea. If you had a boat with a tv, and Ariel on it, how far into the channel could you pick up the signal?
  • technologisttechnologist Posts: 13,334
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    The analogue signal used to get all the way to France ...
    and fairly reliably as the Calais relay was how the Low Countries cable systems got their BBC TV !!!!
    (and when the Tunbridge Wells Opt came in BBC WW paid a lot to reinforce the feed to Dover! )

    But I imagine now with new antenna that it will not radiate too much towards France or the Netherlands as it just has to cover 190 degrees or so! .. as DSAT now feeds the cable head ends.
  • technologisttechnologist Posts: 13,334
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    N.Dean wrote: »

    Thanks. I had another look ... And the telling photo is the last on on this page
    http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/gallerypage.php?txid=709&pageid=255

    They use 3 sides of a pentagon...
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 8,345
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    When you said 'out', I though you meant out into sea. If you had a boat with a tv, and Ariel on it, how far into the channel could you pick up the signal?

    The signal may be beamed primarily inland to avoid interfering with foreign countries, but will probably be receivable a good few miles away.

    Depending on the type of Ariel you have on your boat, it should definitely help when it comes to washing your clothes or kitchen dishes, but is unlikely to have any impact on your television reception, though it could be used to clean any dirt off the TV aerial to make it look nice and shiny :p
  • FranglaisFranglais Posts: 3,312
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    Joking aside, I presume the Dutch and Belgian network services pay a tidy fee to the BBC for this service?

    What about ITV? If they can receive the BBC prior to network distribution surely they can also receive the other channels from the same Dover transmitter?

    And, lastly, BBC on the Dutch/Belgian network but nobody seems to mention the French distributing it too as, after all, France is much nearer to Dover than the others. Or maybe they are not interested or don't have the ability?
  • DWA9ISDWA9IS Posts: 10,557
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    Franglais wrote: »
    Joking aside, I presume the Dutch and Belgian network services pay a tidy fee to the BBC for this service?

    What about ITV? If they can receive the BBC prior to network distribution surely they can also receive the other channels from the same Dover transmitter?

    And, lastly, BBC on the Dutch/Belgian network but nobody seems to mention the French distributing it too as, after all, France is much nearer to Dover than the others. Or maybe they are not interested or don't have the ability?

    France's analogue tv was quite different to the rest of Europe and UK. But I believe that there digital tv is the same as the rest of Europe and the UK now.
  • BizmanBizman Posts: 749
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    Winston_1 wrote: »
    Ariel is, after all, washing powder.
    Not to be confused with Arial, a typeface. :)
  • technologisttechnologist Posts: 13,334
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    Franglais wrote: »
    Joking aside, I presume the Dutch and Belgian network services pay a tidy fee to the BBC for this service?

    What about ITV? If they can receive the BBC prior to network distribution surely they can also receive the other channels from the same Dover transmitter?

    And, lastly, BBC on the Dutch/Belgian network but nobody seems to mention the French distributing it too as, after all, France is much nearer to Dover than the others. Or maybe they are not interested or don't have the ability?

    Yes BBC world wide collects a very tidy sum for the BBC channels to be available ....
    And the fact that they do so is in the BBC /pact contract etc...
    ..... And of course it went up as all BBC PSB channels are available ..... Rather than just BBC 1/2.

    I don't think that the continentals wanted ITV .... And the advertisers do not like out if region overspill let alone into another country.....

    The Dutch and many in Belgium speak English ..... The French do not !!!!
  • Mark CMark C Posts: 20,733
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    I don't think that the continentals wanted ITV .... And the advertisers do not like out if region overspill let alone into another country.....

    ITV (TVS) was available very briefly on the continental cable networks, also
    from off air pick up of Dover, but AIUI the Dutch and Belgian commercial channels
    objected, and it was withdrawn.
  • DWA9ISDWA9IS Posts: 10,557
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    Winston_1 wrote: »
    But that would not matter as they would convert UK or other countries channels at the headend.

    Digital is slightly different as they use DVB text rather than MHEG.

    there is no difference in the audio and video signals in digital though, they would work on any European DTT box, Im sure, unless its TV signals on VHF, as the UK boxes arent designed to work with VHF frequencies.

    The analogue conversion I suppose would be OK, but I dont know how it would have worked turning a negative modulated signal into a positive modulated signal? I can see the colour signal change being easy enough though, as I think French TV stations used PAL for editing and till it got to the broadcast point, so they would have been used to that.
  • DWA9ISDWA9IS Posts: 10,557
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    Winston_1 wrote: »
    Demodulate and then remodulate.

    oh yes silly me its only the RF signal that's ether negative or positively modulated, as a straight composite signal its essentially the same except for the colour signal, which is then redone.

    Oh I suppose that the audio would also need demodulating and remodulating too, as UK system had FM sound carrier and the French had AM as SECAM used an FM carrier.
  • DWA9ISDWA9IS Posts: 10,557
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    Winston_1 wrote: »
    The Secam FM subcarrier was nothing to do with the sound. Russia still uses Secam and the sound is FM.

    Oh ok I thought it was so there wasnt interference, but as you say Russia did it fine so thats obviously not the reason why!
    what was the reason then? as Im sure they were different, was it just France wanting their TV system to be completely different to others in Europe?
  • SteveMcKSteveMcK Posts: 5,457
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    lotrjw wrote: »
    was it just France wanting their TV system to be completely different to others in Europe?
    To some extent. SECAM colour was invented in France, PAL was invented by Telefunken in Germany. In the De Gaulle era, just after the war, there was no way France was going to drop a French system in favour of a German one. The older black & white service on 819 lines used AM sound, maybe they stayed with that for 625-line service to simplify the dual-standard TVs? The UK fortunately didn't make that same call for 405/625 line sets.
  • CentreCentre Posts: 23
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    Has there ever been any reports of anything from Dover being received anywhere in Belgium during tropo conditions? :confused:
  • FranglaisFranglais Posts: 3,312
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    Centre wrote: »
    Has there ever been any reports of anything from Dover being received anywhere in Belgium during tropo conditions? :confused:

    I recall, a while back, there being a vid clip on You Tube of somebody in France or Belgium receiving off air UK TV.

    Not sure if the clip is still there or if there are other similar clips still available to view?

    Not even sure if it was the old analogue transmissions or today's digital TV.
  • ftvftv Posts: 31,668
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    Mark C wrote: »
    ITV (TVS) was available very briefly on the continental cable networks, also
    from off air pick up of Dover, but AIUI the Dutch and Belgian commercial channels
    objected, and it was withdrawn.

    I used to stay regularly in a hotel in Calais which had BBC1,2 and C4 on the TV in the room. Out of interest I asked the receptionist why there was no ITV. She replied that no-one had ever asked for it:o
  • mw963mw963 Posts: 3,064
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    Curiously enough since DSO the hotel that we stop over at in Calais (B&B chain, they take our cat as well!) no longer receives a usable signal on the BBC SD MUX, although ITV/C4 are there. Before DSO the BBC worked perfectly well.

    They have one of their three UHF aerials pointing NW at Dover, and I checked with the (very aimiable) owner, who confirmed that in spite of a retune the BBC signal wasn't good enough now, and there wasn't the level of demand from occupants to make it worth trying to find a solution. In any case, the "antenniste" had advised that the problem might be down to co-channel interference from another transmitter on the continent which would complicate things still further.

    In fact this was confirmed by the fact that I did briefly see a pixellated BBC picture, but for most of the time just a blank screen.

    Which suggests that the post-DSO aerial (more pics here)

    http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/gallerypage.php?txid=709&pageid=1613

    is doing its job.
  • DWA9ISDWA9IS Posts: 10,557
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    Curiously enough since DSO the hotel that we stop over at in Calais (B&B chain, they take our cat as well!) no longer receives a usable signal on the BBC SD MUX, although ITV/C4 are there. Before DSO the BBC worked perfectly well.

    They have one of their three UHF aerials pointing NW at Dover, and I checked with the (very aimiable) owner, who confirmed that in spite of a retune the BBC signal wasn't good enough now, and there wasn't the level of demand from occupants to make it worth trying to find a solution. In any case, the "antenniste" had advised that the problem might be down to co-channel interference from another transmitter on the continent which would complicate things still further.

    In fact this was confirmed by the fact that I did briefly see a pixellated BBC picture, but for most of the time just a blank screen.

    Which suggests that the post-DSO aerial (more pics here)

    http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/gallerypage.php?txid=709&pageid=1613

    is doing its job.

    That Hotel could use a satellite if they really wanted a usable BBC service, but I guess if they dont have the demand then there is no point.
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