My hunch is it would be Brisbane SE causing the interference, both vertical polarity, and the signal roaring up the coast with tropo.
Brisbane SE is at 1.8KW towards the north,
and Port Arkwright is only 340W maximum ERP towards the south. Maybe if one was horizontal and the other vertical CCI would be reduced.
I was suggesting the VHF setup is to avoid the SFN issues on UHF that have plagued the area. The main transmitter serving that location is Nambour that shares a SFN with Gympie and enhanced conditions can mess with the signal. Perhaps the new infill transmitter at Pt Arkwright could render these VHF relays redundant though it isn’t really designed to serve that far south and could be an issue for people with temporary antennas on caravans.
That would be a reason for the transmitters. If they get any co channel interference it would be from VHF Brisbane.
OZ Digital TV lists the caravan Park
| Affiliation | Callsign | Frequency | Power (ERP) | Pattern | Polarisation | Coverage Map |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC | ABC6 | 177.500 Mhz | Omnidirectional | Horizontal | – | |
| SBS | SBS7 | 184.500 Mhz | Omnidirectional | Horizontal | – | |
| Seven | STQ8 | 191.500 Mhz | Omnidirectional | Horizontal | – | |
| Nine | RTQ11 | 219.500 Mhz | Omnidirectional | Horizontal | – | |
| Ten | TNQ12 | 226.500 Mhz | Omnidirectional | Horizontal |
One would think with those VHF frequencies. Brisbane would be an issue.
Maroochydore is not that far from Brisbane. And in some circumstances you can still see VHF antennas from a bygone era on houses in the area.
Makes you think what happens in the park during tropo even with the retransmissions
Point Arkwright was a low power site and was an SFN with Peregian Reservoir and each site was a shocker - 5xNEC DTV’s powered down to 10W RF in a phone booth style enclosure with doors front and rear to access the gear. Aircon was a ceiling mount cassette style which would mean the rack and all the gear would have to be removed to replace it. Cost cutting gone mad, even mobile operators are not that stingy. Both have mush zones around them and only really cover shadows from Bald Knob and Dulong Lookout.
Maybe if Point Arkwright and Peregian we’re on different polarity, these mush zones could be reduced?
Yes that may have helped but I think the block of frequencies they used was also used elsewhere in the region on the opposite pol, hence Peregian and Arkwright being on the same pol and being a SFN back then.
The sites were built by a Regional TV JV called RBA and were done on the cheap without a proper hut to save costs.
The Peregian Beach translator pumping out signals at 340w ERP. It runs on a SFN with Pt Arkwright with input from Bald Knob. Although the receive antenna may suggest otherwise.
Ahh memories! The transmit antenna is the 2 white panels back to back at the top of the pole, the Bald Knob input is the white panel a couple of meters below the top and who knows what the Wisi UHF antenna at the bottom does?? Interestingly before the Restack when Bald Knob and Tamborine used the same frequencies, Peregian used to get input interference from Mt Tamborine. The spacious equipment shelter is visible at the base of the pole.
Having a high gain antenna and perhaps a low noise pre-amp on retransmission inputs is often not a good combination particularly when ducting occurs - too much sensitivity often gives a ducted signal the opportunity to interfere with the primary input.
These sites are not true translators - the input antenna connects via a filter to either a Rohde&Schwartz or Tandberg pro receiver then the demodulated ASI is fed to a NEC transmitter then up the pole via a combiner.
Another micro powered caravan park translator station at Coolum Beach. Same specs as the Maroochydore Beach translator. Signal input most likely from either Bald Knob or Dulong.
DXed both the Brisbane South East and Mt Coot-tha signals tonight from my north facing Gold Coast apartment. Mt Coot-tha was the easier of the two to get.
The apartment is shielded to the south, as other times when I’ve stayed on the Coast, it’s usually Lismore that is received instead of Brisbane SE (since they both use the Block B UHF channels 29-33).
Are you in Surfers Paradise?
I think there it would be the Mt Nardi and Mt Cootha channels fighting, as Surfers Paradise would be in the middle of those areas. However in Coolangatta (where I stayed in August) it is very easy to get Lismore channels and hard to get Mt Cootha as to my north the Gold Coast channels block the Mt Cootha signals, but to my south the Lismore channels arent blocked.
My hotel mainly got the Gold Coast channels in my apartment (no Lismore or Brisbane ones, so I used my set top box to get the former) however in the gym it got both Lismore and Gold Coast channels. Basically it was like this at the gym:
1, 10-19: 10 Gold Coast channels
2, 20-29 ABC Lismore channels
3, 30-39 SBS Lismore channels
5, 50-59 WIN Lismore channels
6, 60-69 Seven Lismore channels
7, 70-79 Seven Gold Coast channels (not NEN)
8, 80-89 NBN Lismore channels
9, 90-99 Nine Gold Coast channels
800+ ABC, SBS, WIN, NBN, Seven Regional Gold Coast channels
If I turned my portable antenna ears sideways, it got the Lismore channels, but when a family member turned them upwards “to get a better signal” the Lismore channels suddenly disappeared and I turned them back to the Lismore ones. I didn’t have the time to cap any Gold Coast stuff, so that is why you see Seven News Coast/NBN News North Coast videos instead of Nine News Gold Coast/NBN News Gold Coast/Seven News Gold Coast ones.
I am up at Southport, its possible to get both Lismore and Brisbane if you have line of sight to both as they are on separate frequencies.
Does anyone know if the Brisbane south-east transmitter at Darlington Range a retransmission of 7 Brisbane or 7 Gold Coast? As the location of the transmitter is located on the northern Gold Coast
According to the ACMA TV planning data spreadsheet, Darlington Range is fed off air directly from Mt Coot-tha.
It is Brisbane 7.
I received these when I was on the Gold Coast last week and the LCNs are labelled ‘7 Brisbane’, ‘Channel 9 Brisbane’ etc (UHF 30-32).
Speaking of channel 9, I set up my own digital TV transmitter on that channel using the Channel Master ATSC HD modulator.
The color bars are coming from a YouTube video on my NVIDIA Shield TV.
Some channel changes coming up planned on November 30th at one of the metro networks, in a starting move to what you guys have talking about/wanting for ages, not going to say much now, you’ll have to wait & see, then after these initial changes I’ll elaborate a bit further on future plans.
