Area covered: Co. Louth, Co. Down, Co. Armagh, South Co. Antrim
Multimap.com
map of the Clermont Carn site - note that the access road runs parallel to
the border for much of its route! Thanks to the ever-dilligent Mike Byron for
the link...
Opened in 1981, Clermont Carn is sited
in Co. Louth, less than 1 km from the border with Northern Ireland.
Clermont Carn has a power of 300kW, which allows its signal to reach down as far
south as North Dublin and as far North as Belfast. The transmitter uses UHF,
with RTE One on channel 52, Net 2 on channel 56, TV3 is on channel 66 and TG4 on
channel 68.
Clermont Carn has recently had a new aerial
system installed (see picture above) and this has boosted coverage into Northern
Ireland greatly.
The boosted signals now reach as far
north as Ballymena and into most, though not all of Belfast. The scheme has cost
RTE IR£500,000 but RTE now increase their coverage to 60-70% of Northern
Ireland's population. From my own observations, there is a
reasonable RTE One and RTE Two signal from Clermont Carn in much of Belfast although
a masthead amp is necessary. TV3 and TG4 don't fare as well however. This site's
Bangor correspondent struggled in the past to get good Clermont Carn - but with
the installation of the new aerial system at Clermont Carn those on the Gold
Coast can now get watchable RTÉ.
RTÉ are conducting DAB tests from
Three Rock and Clermont Carn for the first three months of 2006. At present six
stations are being transmitted intermittently; RTÉ Radio 1, 2FM, Lyric FM,
Raidio na Gaeltachta, Today FM and WRN Europe.