Long distance television

Probably more likely explained by the fact that WIN owns C91.3

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That’s true, but its licence area is entirely within the Sydney TV1 licence area, which is served by TCN (Nine) & TEN (Ten).

In any case, C91.3 still has a strong advertising/sponsorship relationship with Nine News Sydney, even after WIN had long lost the Nine affiliation.

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Yep, I have one of those deep fringe UHF aerials pointed at Knights Hill and even though they are quite directional and Mount Sugarloaf is almost 180 degrees in the other direction, my signal quality can go down from 10 to 0 when there’s tropo.

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I mentioned in another thread that I see commercial for Western Sydney businesses on Illawarra TV, like Car City in Minchinbury.

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My memories of TV DXing go back to a time when the first sign of tropo into Brisbane was slight horizontal bars caused by co-channel intereference on the ABQ 2 picture from ABDN 2 Coffs Harbour. Tropo would also cause changes in signal strength from Nambour, Lismore and Darling Downs and sometimes Wide Bay. A couple of occasions MVQ6 also came in.

SpE of course was more interesting. TV persisted on FM frequencies for many years and ABNT 3 and GTS 4 were regular pick ups while various stations from NZ, Victoria and NSW were received on Channel 1.

Now Wide Bay at about 250km is the most common tropo signal received with Rockhampton UHF a very rare catch.

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From the radio DX subject:

Again we see the problem of ACMA letting the industry take the lead with restack planning instead of being decisive to ensure it didn’t happen.

The problems are more because the ACMA decided to sell off some of the UHF spectrum to telcos.

If Sydney SW / NW / Picton / Kings Cross and Manly were included in a SFN, they could then restack Illawarra and Newcastle and eliminate cochannel interference. Having to include a spare frequency for each Channel block takes up spectrum that will probably be never used.
If they got rid of the spare on VHF they could open up more spectrum for Dab+
and restack the UHF band to eliminate cochannel.

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Yes, I agree a SFN for ALL Sydney repeaters is a good idea and could solve the Newcastle-Wollongong issue. Though I’m thinking there must be a reason why there isn’t one.

If not, it would need to be Newcastle that moves to Block D, as Milton/Ulladulla repeaters are also on Block D.

I think the spare VHF channel will be used for a permanent T2 broadcast, running in parallel with the current DVB-T format which will eventually be switched off.

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ACMA and it’s predecors have been aware of the cochannel issues between Newcastle and Wollongong TV since Analouge VHF. So I don’t understand why they continually cochannel each of them.

ABCN and ABCW where both assigned Channel 5a. When tropo occurred when I was living in southern Sydney, horizontal lines would appear across 5a with both channels sometimes received at the same strength. Newcastle 5a would have caused some interference in parts of the Illawarra during strong ducting.

When the Illawarra stations moved to UHF and cochanneled with Taree interference occurred but not severe.

It all came to a head when Newcastle and Wollongong tv went digital and when strong ducting occurred people in Newcastle and the Illawarra lost their local signals. With the Port Stephens and Nowra translators severely affected.
It is a pity something could not have been done as the broadcasters choose to protect the Central Coast rather then cochanneling Wollongong tv with them.

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If/when the transition to DVB-T2 broadcasting happens, somehow I could imagine ACMA trying to get broadcasters to share multiplexes (I guess similar to what’s happening with DAB+ Digital Radio right now) so even more spectrum can be sold off to the telecommunications companies!

Wasn’t it Seven/Nine/Ten (moreso than regional broadcasters) who wanted the Central Coast retransmissions of the Sydney commercial channels protected from co-channeling?

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Yes, that’s right re Central Coast protection, as @RFBurns has posted here before.

And yes, I think VHF 10 will become a multiplex for T2 for all 5 networks (like DAB Radio) as you said.

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Plus stacks of interference on the WIN3 translator in Wollongong from NBN3.

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And there’s the reason, the metros influenced ACMA, forcing the regionals into an undesirable allocation.

ACMA needed to reject their planning and try scenarios of alternatives, some which have been mentioned in today’s discussion.

When one goes on holidays, they take a very important piece of equipment - a pair of rabbit ears, HDMI cable and STB.

This has enabled me to scan in the Mt Mardi and Brisbane channels whilst up here in Surfers Paradise.

The other advantage is to overcome shortcomings with the apartment complex’s MATV system - more about that in that thread.

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Viewer photo of TV antenna (and rainbow) at Yandina seen on Seven Local News Sunshine Coast; approx 100k north of Mt Coot-tha.

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Looks like it dates back from the Channel 0 days.

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It looks like one of those band I, II and III antennas built to be able to be used anywhere fringe, able to cover FM as well as channels 3, 4 and 5 (and 5a).

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Some long distance reception from 1966. ATV0’s The Magic Circle Club is something of a hit with New Zealanders but not because it’s showing on any local station. It seems it’s making its way across the Tasman due to some long distance reception

Source: TV Week

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