Myswitch is suggesting that reliable coverage of Adelaide channels towards Renmark only goes about as far as Swan Reach, roughly where the blue border is (as below).
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It is to do with troposheric ducting
Will be interesting to see if the stations come into range again when the next front comes through next week
WIN TV from Wide Bay on RF channel 10 received during opening tonight at 250km. This was received using UHF antenna horizontal polarisation (Wide Bay is vertically polarised). Coincided with enhanced FM reception from north into Brisbane.
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In Loxton and other Riverland towns, with a âbackyardâ tower, amp and high gain antenna, regular reception of the VHF Mt Lofty signals is possible, many still do, Iâve chatted with locals out of curiosity when holiday it on the area. WIN isnât a well liked outfit there, having destroyed RTS 5A and their local news, residents have long memories and rightly so.
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Great discussion @Rob and @captaincupcake, love reading of historical coverage. Aust did well back then, much better than now with digital and many sites not taking up the full power allocation from ACMA.
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The legacy Brisbane aerials that @tamago_otoko mentioned are visible in Warwick when you drive the residential streets.
Especially south of the CBD, nice elevation there towards the hospital on the SW corner. Much of this half of the town is on a NE facing slope which helps the path to Mt Coot-tha.
On the road from Freestone (reccomended bypass to the notorious and now very slow speed limit of the Eight Mile intersection) to Yangan, Emu Vale, Tannymorel and Killarney, elevated farm homes have Bris aerials. Not so in Killarney which is a true black spot with no Bris FM or digital tv/radio signals. Different story on the road out of Killarney to Teviot Falls/Boonah.
On the Granite Belt, plenty left on the highest part from Dalveen to Applethorpe and localities west of them that are elevated further.
High profile examples on the highway between The Summit and Applethorpe, very well preserved installations on guyed masts above homes, usually double stacked band III yagis.
Remember that these are prosperous farming areas, so they werenât short of money for the installs and itâd be needed due to the distance and terrain path.
Thereâs also a few in Stanthorpe which is > 100m lower in elevation with a slope towards Bris against it.
That said, I noticed a great installation in what appeared to be perfect condition on Denham St towards Lock St.
Thereâs a few in Stanthorpe, well preserved with the climate and other localities of the Granite Belt north to Dalveen.
Same for the Freestone to Killarney route.
Would make good to be reused for FM reception with the ch 4 overlap.p
PS apologies for the multiple posts, they are on different topics and the device Iâm using to type isnât flexible like a desktop computer.
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That could be somewhere in the Illawarra, more specifically the northern suburbs of Wollongong, in which the UHF antenna is pointed towards either Knights Hill or Brokers Nose.
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That setup was a very common sight around the Illawarra 30 years ago. I have vivid memories of my father yelling âis that any betterâ from the side of the house as he twisted the pole in the ground the antenna was attached to.
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We still have a number of those in my Newcastle suburb, since we are on a hill, thus no guyed mast is needed.
Some also have a mast head amplifier.
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Growing up in Wollongong, I thought this was common everywhere! We had an identical setup but our aerial was fixed on the roof so it was no easy task to twist anything around. Besides, we were in the southern suburbs so our reception was dogsâ bollocks until we got the UHF aerial set up.
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A few Band II antennas in Oberon too, presumably for WIN4 which put out a decent signal towards the Blue Mountains. The Hampton pub also had one; the LOS back towards Wollongong and Sydney there is excellent.
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CBN8 had a translator at Garlands Hill, Portland on Channel 4 that was horizontally polarised on 100 watts. Not sure if those signals could be picked up at Oberon or Hampton but given that WIN4 was like a blowtorch, I wondered how they were able to use Channel 4 there given the potential for interference.
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I would think CBN4 would be shielded from WIN4 by the Blue Mountains.
CBN4 would have been decidedly weaker than CBN8 in Oberon I reckon, so no point in trying for it. The Band II on the Hampton pub is definitely aiming SE.
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This pub?
The building next door also has a mix of antennas. Vertical and Horizontal, conflicting with the direction of the ones next door.
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Ahhh, memories. After storms or in summer when tropo was causing issues or just when things seemed to be a little out of whack. Dad up on the roof and me on the TV and with the tuning wheels. âHow about now?â, âHowâs that?â, âA little to the leftâ etcâŚ
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Yep Iâve been to Hampton pub they show the channels from Wollongong. A lot of houses in the area get the Sydney channels as well.
If you go up Hassans walls mountain in Lithgow you can get Wollongong and Sydney reception with a pocket tv perfectly.
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Sounds like a good DX spot.
Thatâs interesting about Wollongong TV because the Mt Canobolas (Orange) TV channels are on the same Block C (UHF 35-39) channels.
And Canobolas is only 110 kms from Hassans Wall vs 132 kms from Knights Hill (Wollongong) and operates at a higher power (350kw vs 250 kW).
If you were in a different spot up there you could probably get that instead.
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