Long distance television

Also better to have something with more VHF elements for greater signal gain. Something like this:

https://www.hills.com.au/p/FB608009A

They even still make the old stacked dipoles!

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One like this would be alright, has a high gain of 14dB compared to 7-9dB

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How well would one of these work for receiving VHF stations from the Red Cliffs/Mildura area? (the antenna pictured has a VHF gain of 9.5 dB). My father lives on a rural property approximately 88.3km from the Red Cliffs tower, he has a tower that used to pick up Red Cliffs/Mildura (88.3km) and Loxton (65.8km) but the cables are broken and the top antenna has seen better days. He currently is using a satellite for VAST, would it be worth upgrading the antenna system for the extra stations that VAST doesn’t have?

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I would suggest going to My Swith web site. Enter the exact address and see what the coverage is like. If you check on the left hand pane there is an antenna guide that suggest what gain of the antenna required. It might even suggest a different transmitter site. Let us know what the results are as we could then better answer your question.

image

https://myswitch.digitalready.gov.au

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I love the Myswitch website. The geek in me loves seeing what other signals my rellies around the country could be watching, and how far the various signals can go.

I just wish it was kept up to date. Last time I looked (it’s down right now), it still listed WIN as the Channel Nine affiliate.

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Off topic, but I’ve always loved the locality of Carwarp just south of Red Cliffs(see map above). It’s hot enough out there to warp your car after all.

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I’m surprised it’s still online in its current format considering we’re 5 years+ since switch-off has occurred.

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Picked up 7FLIX from Crafers tonight just out of Renmark, peak of the signal in the pic before it started to fade out.


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Here’s a good website to check out, shows the chances of tropo ducting

http://dxinfocentre.com/tropo_aus.html

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Correct and I’ve stayed in one, an Airbnb with Mt Canobolas reception instead of Sydney. In Eltham Park Ave.

Perfect view west, Orange commercial FM and Bathurst and Lithgow on mobile phone radio + Sydney digital on handheld.

It sure did. WIN was used in many Blue Mtn motels instead of TCN for 9 programs.

Oberon is a fantastic town for Sydney and Knights Hill signals. Digital radio, FM, TV, all wonderful. Find me an Airbnb with a Sydney antenna and I’ll have another excuse to visit.

Or Murrayville in the western Mallee for Mt Lofty reception.

Hills for you, Matchmaster for me, see Page 10:

https://matchmaster-au-assets.objects-us-east-1.dream.io/downloads/catalogues/digital-tv-antennas_catalogue_2016-2017.pdf

14dB maximum gain and a whopping 3.19 metres long.

Yes, that’s it. Does need a modification of a bar below to support the 3.19m length, but is a great performer.

Yes @Shaun1997, great website, good ol Hepburn.

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No Mount Canobolas or Knights Hill channels at the Hydro Majestic (Medlow Bath) even though the LOS to both of these is pretty good. I was getting 50 dB for the Knights Hill nationals and around 40 dB for the Canobolas nationals on my Tecsun FM radio, in a room riddled with interference no less.

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Bit of tropo ducting around this morning just out of Renmark.

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I’m getting all the Newcastle commercial networks right now just north of Campbelltown! :slight_smile:

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Great catch!

I had the TV screen in my hotel room go blank on Channel Seven for a few seconds during the cricket yesterday afternoon, making me wonder if Sydney was getting any co channel interference from Middle Brother, given the strong FM reception from there. Though I’m not sure if the signal here is coming from Artarmon or Kings Cross.

It only happened once though.

Have any of our Sydney correspondents had any issues with TV reception?

On a similar note, I hadn’t had any local TV reception at home since Monday due to the ducting.

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last night at Port Mac watching the cricket, very glitchy.

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During last week’s openings on the FM band, I occasionally checked the TV for any enhanced reception. What that did was reinforced the difficulties with long distant DTV. Was able to get Wide Bay TV on Ch10 a couple of times at a distance of 250 km. This is the only spare frequency on VHF in the area and a fairly common occurrence. There were also some things happening on UHF but none resulted in a decoded signal. E.g., Ch43 from Nambour signal quality disappeared, my best guess is the a station at Gympie on the same frequency was interfering. The biggest mystery was the now vacant channel 28 was showing a DTV signal present. Best guess is Mt Dowe SBS as FM from there was strong at the time.

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Is UHF 43 a Sunshine Coast SFN?

If so, I often have an issue with that here too, whereby for me UHF 40-44 and 46-48 are normally the Wyong signals, but during tropo most of them go missing. The one least likely to go is WIN on UHF 48 because they are only transmitting from Wyong (and not Gosford or Bouddi).

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Not Sunshine Coast but Nambour (Dulong) and Gympie (Black Mt) are a SFN

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Had 7FLIX Adelaide (Crafers transmitter) for a brief moment not long ago just out of Renmark, picture was a garbled mess as it wasn’t a very good signal.

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Little bit of tropo around tonight around Renmark S.A.

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