JJJ is on air from Mt Alexander now. Decent signal strength too.
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Mount Alexander FMs back on this afternoon - all ABC services plus Hit and Vision Australia Radio.
MMM appears to have switched over too with updated RDS
PS: Triple_M
PTY: Rock Music
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Audible on some of the Melbourne TEF servers, so it must be pumping something decent out. As is 89.5 and 91.1
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Even with local radio up and running, ABC have the ability to do this if they want. All of the satellite-fed ABC radio services can be switched to emergency programming if desired.
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Good for Perth and WA.
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WIN has mentioned they’ll be an 8 hour outage on Mt Alexander tonight while they continue some works on the site.
Signal strength is less than before the fires atm, and many are still whinging about no reception, probably because their antennas and/or cabling is stuffed.
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If you’re going to spray paint a Nine building, a dick and balls would have been much more appropriate.
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My guess would be that they ran some loose coax to the antenna to get back on air quickly. That would explain the lower power as the coax wouldn’t be able to handle a higher transmit power.
They likely now installing more permanent rigid feeders would would have been custom designed and will be able to handle higher power.
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By sounds of it, the commercials have migrated over to the ABC/SBS BAI site?
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Yes. At least as a temporary measure. But I’ve heard rumors the Commercial TV tower may be condemned. It is 64 years old, and a patched-up rig as it is…
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What kind of tower was the BCV one? Guyed or Lattice etc?
Can imagine it’ll take a long time to get a new tower built, hopefully they’ve got insurance for it.
Or stay on the ABC tower permanently if there is capacity for commercial TV and radio to broadcast at their normal power at some point?
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I think both towers on Mt Alexander are guyed masts but happy to be corrected by those who know more.
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Both towers are guyed masts. The 177m BAI tower was built in 1991 for TV aggregation and FM radio to replace the old 140m tower built in 1963 for ABEV-1. The old tower also broadcast ABC-FM from 1982-1991.
The BAI tower broadcast all the high-powered UHF analogue TV stations. But just broadcast ABC and SBS DTV after 2011. There is also a high and low power FM radio array, and a dormant ABEV-1 array.
The BCV-8 tower was built in 1961 and was originally just 80m, but extended and reinforced in 2005 with a new UHF antenna for commercial DTV and is now 122m tall. It also got a new BCV-8 VHF array that was only in use for 5 or so years. It also had a south-facing UHF array for BCV-38 analogue TV broadcasting from 2001-2011.
I think it would be possible to broadcast all UHF DTV stations from the BAI tower in future, TBH. Just write off the old commercial site and leasing space in the BAI facility with new combiners is probably the best way forward. That said, the commercial site also carried a lot of other comms and relays.
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Last night’s maintenance hit a few snags…
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The old Channel 10 offices in Newcastle are set to become apartments for rich wankers
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Back when it had SC Ten signage… early 2010s
It’s also where NEW FM’s first studios were.
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ABC Adelaide will be moving into a new arts hub in the CBD, along with Country Arts SA, State Theatre Company South Australia and State Opera South Australia, which will be finished in 2031
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