We never really had any issues with analogue reception but one house we lived in was on a hill overlooking the Mersey River and every night when the Spirit of Tasmania (the original one, before the twin ferries started) left it would cause serious banding on our TV channels until it left the river, only from when it started moving to when it left the mouth.
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The picture quality there was probably as good as I ever saw anyone in Geelong receive ABV-2 in my lifetime, and that was at my old man’s place on top of a hill with a newly-installed multi-band antenna designed for Band I-IV. Typically for all of us down there the signal was much ‘spottier’ than that, as well as having lines across the picture
It was only when I first went to Melbourne to visit family did I realise that it was actually possible to watch Channel 2 without static. And of course once digital came around it changed everything
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Did they ever have UHF translators in Geelong before digital?
Yes - I know people in the NW suburbs with the same experience - despite good quality antenna SBS was always a problem on UHF - from what I could tell, line of site issues.
Even with the digital signal, the commercials were at an advantage at the top of the Ten tower that gave better coverage to that area, while SBS was lower down on the ABC tower at that time.
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In the early 2000s they installed some very low powered analogue translators for the blackspot in Newtown (on the hill at the Montpellier reservoir where the current digital ones are) but they were almost unreceivable for most of town. Until digital, TV was only from Mt Dandenong for all of town, unless you happened to be able to snag signal from a country station like Ballarat, or you were on the Peninsula and could receive Safety Beach signals across the bay
I remember the 1980s down at Aireys Inlet we had only the Mt Dandenong signal but if we pointed the rabbit ears the other way we got TNT9 from Launceston 
Apparently BTV6 was also possible but i never saw it
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BTV would have been tough down on the coast, but once you got inland the signal was quite good
Thinking about it, it amazes me that the decision was made to use Channel 9 in both Melbourne and Launceston, especially on the same polarisation. In the summer months we used to get co-channel interference to GTV9 from TNT. I also know many people in northern Tasmania that used to get frequent reception of Melbourne TV signals. And for years the use of the lower end of the FM band (91.5 et al) was blocked in Melbourne because of potential interference to/from ABNT3, so it’s strange that Channel 9 was co-channelled there
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IIRC. There was a QQQ (Seven Central) one on the Great Ocean Road and heaps around Geelong.
The spottiness only really happened in Melbourne. Especially Kensington where it’s around 5-20m above sea level.
We were going to go to Tasmaina for a day or two but that never happened. It would have been good to see what AM stations from Melbourne could be received.
3AW is a powerhouse for that, the only time it faded was around Charlton. I’ve never had an issue with Melbourne AM except for 3MP which I don’t listen to these days.
In places like Burnie they also used to listen to Melbourne AM radio stations because the local stations weren’t much option. On 3XY’s last day they were receiving messages and faxes from listeners in Tasmania who were sorry to be losing a station.
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Yes, it’s a wonder TNT weren’t given 11, the only high powered use of that anywhere else in VIC or TAS that I can think of would have been Albury/Wodonga.
My grandparents couldn’t get Briz31 at Mount Gravatt in the early 2000s
Didn’t channel 31 use to broadcast on a lower frequency than SBS?
And even then that didn’t come into use until 1991 when AMV shifted from 4
In the initial channel plans drawn up before television was launched, Launceston was earmarked for Channels 7 and 10. Turns out neither of them got used there…
Source: Australian Broadcasting Control Board 1956-57 Annual Report
Channel 31 is higher than 28
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Lower power for 31 didn’t help - 100kw compared to 700kw for SBS.
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Willis Hill now uses 7,8,10 and 11 for an infill transmitter.
Hence the bad reception?
Yes - plus Mt Gravatt hill was in the way and UHF signals don’t bend or refract very much.
when did reception actually improve for Channel 31?
Was this written pre- the use of 0, 5A and 11? Might explain it
Another option would have been to use 6 in Launceston and 9 in Hobart, instead of the other way around. Although 6 would still have interfered with Ballarat (and later the GLV translator at Foster)
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Yes it was written in 1956 so a lot of it would have been only tentative and most likely made obsolete when the new channels were added and possibly after some real-life experience once channels came on air might have also led them to review some channel assignments.
Actually now looking back at the list, very few of those regional channel plans came to fruition.
The use of channels 2, 7 and 9 in the capital cities was mapped out in the plan although curiously Channel 10 was even then assigned for Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Gippsland was originally marked for Channels 4 and 6, but it eventually got Channels 4 (ABC) and 10 (GLV) so that would have forced the Melbourne plan to be revised to include 0 when it was added to the dial.
Incidentally if anyone’s interested, the Annual Reports of ABCB, Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, Australian Broadcasting Authority etc can be downloaded from http://apo.org.au/
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