Ah yes...... I wish I had a nickel for every time I've tried to explain that to somebody. A wideband amplifier does just what it says and amplifies everything you feed into it, noise and spurious signals included.

The dual-use of VHF/UHF in Ireland (and most other countries) certainly makes the situation more complicated.

In the days of 405-line VHF television in the U.K., people often needed two antennas. In all but a few places, BBC and ITA (Independent TV) had their transmitter sites in different locations, so rooftops often had a band I (BBC) aerial pointing one direction and a band III (ITA) pointing in another.

By the time the UHF 625-line network was planned in the 1960s, the BBC and ITA had agreed to co-site their transmitters to use shared facilities, and the band was planned so that an eventual four networks could be broadcast from every site, the channels assigned in groups to allow higher-gain aerials to be employed (hence the four channels in this area being on 55, 59, 62, and 65).

It was only BBC2 on UHF at first, so many rooftops then added a third antenna for that, but when BBC1 and ITA went onto UHF from the late 1960s onward, it was possible to abandon the two tons of rooftop art and receive all three (later four) stations on a single UHF antenna.

This is one area where British planning was actually excellent, for once. [Linked Image]

It's just a pity they've made such a mess of it in recent years with the fifth network and digital. [Linked Image]