There are some salvageable things but its not looking good, can we all just take a moment to thank the CFA and the hard working engineers who now have a mammoth task ahead to bring everything back for Bendigo and surrounds. The broadcast technical community is with you.
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How will Bendigo viewers/listeners get TV and radio services now? Streaming or VAST? In the case of the latter, Bendigo viewers could end up seeing ads for Alice Springs and Mount Isa businesses for a period of time
I would say streaming, there are contingency plans but they could take weeks
Coverage has now wrapped up for now
Yep, indeed it’s still off-air. There’s only 774, 594, 97.7 and 106.7.
ABCNR is also off-air there so I doubt anyone would be hearing that.
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Hit 93.7 Yea has also seemingly gone off air sometime today
That’s very unfortunate to hear, having heard it go off (was listening to 91.1 at the time via tropo) and what the fires were doing I had expected the worst.
Is the mast itself still standing on the site, or has it also collapsed? I would imagine being exposed to that much heat would have not done it any favours.
Towers on Mt Alexander are still standing.
But big job ahead with the rest. I’m wondering if a temporary tower and TX setup can be arranged in the short-medium term?
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Mast still up, arrays have some damage its more ground level tx stuff
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There are contingencies for LP services but could be weeks
Glen Dinsdale (ABC QLD Emergency Broadcast coordinator) doing regular updates during national programming on North QLD stations.
Updates overnight at this stage will be every hour - updates at half past the hour will include a cross to the BOM.
I imagine these will come into play
Mobile broadcasting assets to backup local radio during natural disasters and power outages
ABC North QLD Breakfast presenter Michael Clarke will be doing rolling cyclone coverage from 5am QLD time.
Edit - coming from the Townsville studios.
FWIW, rest of Jan is a better timeframe than I thought.
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Just chiming in quickly and briefly…
Residents in Bendigo are not without TV completely. Sure, reception of local TV transmissions in Bendigo is now impossible thanks to the Harcourt fire, but beyond all of this, there IS another option…[1]
Residents in the Bendigo area (depending on their location) can still pick up UHF Ballarat TV signals which will have news and information on the bushfires (via the ABC, WIN News Western VIC and the Seven/Ten noodles, as well as through the metro bulletins from Melbourne). With the right equipment and antenna, reception of these transmissions from Ballarat is 100% possible in the Bendigo area for those seeking terrestrial TV for emergency information and coverage right now.
Thanks everyone. 
if they either don’t wish to stream the Melbourne TV stations or they have a poor internet connection ↩︎
Updates now coming from the ABC’s Renmark studios in SA’s Riverland with Matt Stephens (ABC Riverland breakfast presenter).
Agreed.this is good advice, something I would never say to you normally considering your ban from this site. But u got it right @bacco007 he’s back
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They list every frequency out in the state even though the cyclone is relevant to maybe half of them at most.
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