Please help someone who is not well versed in the technical side of broadcasting.
Metro, regional and remote services use alternating LCN sets primarily for signal overlap. However, what happens in regional markets when signals overlap, both for localised transmitter feeds on a single station, and for overlapping regional markets (e.g. NNSW and SNSW).
Wouldnât they all just go in the 350 and up range?
The channels with the lowest signal go to LCN 350-
Yes except for ABC & SBS which use the same LCNs.
As youâve suggested there are overlap areas including with repeater transmitters, and even if the rebroadcasts are on different channels theyâll send the same LCNs.
As mentioned in one of the threads recently (and early on in the Long Distance Television thread) when there are multiple channels with the same LCNs tuners prefer the stronger signal and store the others in high-numbered, 350+, LCNs
The 350+ range should however only be used when there is a real difference between the two stations with the same LCN ie different service areas. If multiple signals are received but all from the same broadcaster in the same region, only the strongest should be listed.
So would that mean that if the metro stations merge with their regional affiliates in the future, based on this operation (with no affiliate owners), would they be able to use the same LCNs like ABC and SBS do nationwide?
When I was in Hobart for a holiday last month, the TV at the hotel room I stayed in had 9Gem on LCN 50, 9Go! on LCN 55 & 9HD on LCN 800. As for the WIN channels, WIN SD was at LCN 81, One at LCN 83 & 88, WIN Network (the placeholder that lists all the WIN channels) at LCN 84, TVSN at LCN 85 & Gold at LCN 86.
The only Nine Tas (TDT) & WIN channels that were in the correct LCNs were Nine SD (LCN 5 & 51), WIN SD (LCN 8), WIN HD (LCN 80) & Eleven (LCN 82). At least that same TV had ABC HD included & at the correct LCN (20). 
Is this how youâd like it to work?
Because it doesnât do that.
350+ is an automatic technical measure in the tuner; tuners have no idea if the content is the same or not; LCNs (and the channel titles) are meant to distinguish that, and overall - in percentage terms - areas with multiple signals of good strength should be quite low.
But any automated system can only do a best-guess based on logic programmed into it, and sometimes it wonât be what a viewer wants.
When the programme content is the same it doesnât matter which gets relegated to 350+, and thatâs usually the case (e.g. for repeaters), and for ABC & SBS (apart from the state border areas), but obviously there are times/areas where it does matter, such as where news programmes are different, for example in the Gold Coast where all three commercial neworksâ main channels have such differences (e.g. NBN9âs NBN News vs QTQ9âs 9News Gold Coast & Brisbane).
BTW when I was in Hobart earlier this year the hotelâs TV had stored plenty of duplicates in 350+ and they appeared to have as strong signals.
The operative word is âshouldâ - that is the Australian standard, some tuners donât fully comply.
However, the tuner does know if the transmissions are the same as each has a network identifier. If the ID is the same, so are the transmissions. For example the QTQ relay on the Gold Coast has a different ID to the Brisbane transmitter but the Sunshine Coast relay has the same ID because all the programming is identical. ABC and SBS have different network identifiers for their metro and regional broadcasts so in fringe metro areas the regional station will be stored in the 350 range.
Yes, both my Samsung TV and Panasonic PVR will only store the strongest signal of that LCN Channel name.
But my Topfield STB will store multiple transmssions of that LCN Chnnael name into the 1000+ channel range.
Excuse me while I call One Nation for commentâŚ
Iâd be interested to know what their reply was!
A "Please Explain " perhaps?
Do you reckon they hate kebabs (not because theyâve tried it) but because itâs middle eastern lmao
and because its not fish and chips
the only reason Hanson refuses to eat a Halal Snack Pack
My Panasonic TV does do this. I get Sydney signals from Artarmon + Kings Cross and Illawarra signals from Knights Hill.
At my location, the Kings Cross signals are the weaker signals, so whilst they scan, they donât show up at all on the channel listings, as the TV recognises that theyâre exact copies (using the network provider data). ABC and SBS from the Illawarra, however, do show up in the 350+ range, as they have a different network provider listed (e.g. âABC NSWâ for Illawarra instead of âABC Sydneyâ).
There are actual differences between ABC/SBS Sydney and the regional versions. For example, SBS has different ads. Or when ABC had an promo for NewsRadio, the Sydney broadcast had its frequency shown on screen whereas the regional broadcast didnât. The regional signals are also a few seconds behind the Sydney transmissions.
On the other hand, my Sharp TV doesnât follow the Australian standard and also puts a copy of all the Kings Cross transmissions in the 350+ range. This makes it reach channel 399 and after that, the excess duplicate channels simply donât show up.
On my cheap no name $29 STB I would get duplicates of all channels with the same numbers. In north west Sydney I could receive the main Sydney channels from Artarmon and the translators in north west & south west Sydney, I also got Wollongong channels from Knights Hill and a very weak copy of those from a translator. I had to go through the channel list of 130 odd channels and delete most of them - it was a real pain.
Something else has changed with the SBS playoutâŚ
It seems that the feed for SBS NSW is now running ahead of SBS Sydney (based on a PiP comparison of VHF 7 from Sydney and the local Newcastle UHF 38) by about 1 to 1.5 seconds.
Iâm not sure if this has been caused by any of the MPEG 4, Viceland or Arabic Radio changes, but it was the other way around last year before these changes were made (Sydney being ahead)âŚ
Just checked - same in QLD with the regional stations ahead of metro.