Yes, I’m at Charlestown, and I can get them fine here.
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Looking to get a long distance UHF antenna to recieve Central Coast/Illawarra TV. I’m located on Sydney’s Northern Beaches my nan lives across the road and is able to pick up Prime7 Wollongong from time to time. Only thing which is putting me off is the hillish area i’am in and more down low then up high.
When i used to live on the Gold Coast i could pick up Far Northern NSW channels easily via the Lismore transmitter but considering it’s much more of a flat area up there to where i’am at the moment it makes sense.
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Good luck, it’s great having both metro and regional TV to watch.
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I’d give My Switch website a go to start with.
myswitch.digitalready.gov.au
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I remember when we talked about that when I was trying to get Melbourne Metro in Traralgon. I doubt I will bother now with the new affiliations, but I am trying to figure out a way to inject the IPTV streams into my TV Guide. I’m sure there is a way to do it.
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Another long-distance TV anecdote (from analogue days).
I got to know this family and in conversation it came up that the guy was a big cricket fan but at their house in suburban Brisbane they could not receive channel Nine - it was a grainy ghosting mess. This was despite them spending large sums on the problem and having a massive antenna.
The problem was they lived at Manly overlooking the bay ($$$) and were shielded from Mt Coot-tha. In those days each channel transmitted from its own tower and while 10 and ABC’s towers were high enough to give perfect reception, Seven’s was marginal while Nine’s tower was too low to give a signal to that area because of its position on the mountain and further away.
All the streets around had huge antennas but watching cricket was impossible.
My solution was to get a modest UHF antenna and aim it north to receive the Nine translator for North Brisbane/Southern Sunshine Coast on channel 39 (?) where, especially with their high antenna, they could get perfect reception. This also improved Seven’s picture.
Even now the area has massive installations - though now of course all the stations are usually from the 10 and ABC towers. Not sure why the installers don’t use the Sunshine Coast solution now.
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It was UHF 37 that QTQ was broadcasting its analogue signal from the Bald Knob translator.
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Yes just looked it up. SBS was on 34, ABC 40 Seven was 52 and 10 was 57
Can be seen on this band scan
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MySwitch also suggests that the Brisbane SE TX down near Yatala may also be suitable for the Manly area.
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Yes. I saw that the other day when I check out what it might say. Of course that is a DTV filler because (basically) digital TV coverage is not as good as analogue. It wasn’t previously needed.
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Yeah there’s those few spots around town where you can be quite shielded from Cootha. And in hilltop Manly if FM is anything to go by your reception from Bald Knob or even Nambour would be good enough for watchable TV.
The one that gets me in Brisbane is the houses in Chapel Hill, literally right at the base of the Mt Coot-tha forest, that have given up on reception from the towers 2km away in favour of UHF all the way from the Gold Coast. I think I remember seeing one in my travels that may have even had an old Band I/II antenna pointing at Toowoomba.
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That would be a great spot to get Gold Coast reception on the side of Mt Coot-tha. On the other side of the mountain, The Gap was always an area with reception problems.
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In Sydney, people close in to Gore Hill sometimes had antennas pointed at Wollongong as reliable reception from close in wasn’t good. This is back in the analog days.
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That was the case in many parts of Sydney too, including the inner south, inner west and outer west.
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When was suspected TV DX not actual DX? I have a story about that. Some years ago one evening, I noticed a very weak signal on UHF41 showing a just noticeable picture from SBS. Tropospheric conditions were elevated that evening with Newcastle TV coming in quite well (this was in far North Western Sydney). I checked the ACMA list and the only thing I could come up with was SBS41 Richmond/Tweed (Lismore). But there was nothing on UHF44 (Prime) or UHF47 (NBN). 6 and 8 on VHF were blocked by local DTV. It was assumed that I had somehow gotten SBS41 from up that way.
A few days later and I switch it back onto UHF41 and through the snow I see someone navigating a Foxtel menu. Turns out it was one of my neighbours Foxtel box with some significant RF leakage from the modulator! Oh well.
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Almost had Ten Mildura this morning in Renmark on 212.500Mhz (formerly Nine Mildura), just enough to show up on the signal bar but not strong enough to decode
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Decided to come up to Nelson Bay for the night to try some FM and TV DXing.
Weather is cool and overcast… I have a 4th floor north facing apartment hotel room and pics below are some Middle Brother results (124 km away straight line).
No ABC or SBS, they appear briefly on the set top box signal meter but no lock. Prime7 will scan in but no picture, WIN10 and 9NBN are much better thankfully. Reasonably solid with occasional pixelation, pics below including set up.
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A circuitous path, however DDA could have relayed the Lismore commercials. Tenterfield is on the New England Hwy and shares an area code with the Northern Tablelands, however Lismore is the state seat. From analogue days, it was more a case that Mt Nardi was less complicated to relay.
Pre Mt Mackenzie as a translator, SDQ-4 from Passchendaele Ridge covered the area well.
There were a few frustrating years after SDQ went UHF with aggregation for Jan 1991 and before the NNSW market aggregation began in mid 1992 later saw an eventual roll out of commercial translators.
Much of NSW north of the Gwydir and east of Moree to the Great Dividing Range lost ‘local’ commercial TV when SDQ was shunted onto UHF and even more so upon ATV closure.
Except Ashford with Prime. Wonder why NEN agreed in the day to install a translator there?
High gain UHF to Passchendaele Ridge wasn’t as reliable.
Residential streets in the SE quadrant of Tenterfield have a few legacy installations of tall, three legged towers and stacked antennae; trying for Brisbane TV. Those were the days. Installations far south as Grafton.
Prior to the BSA, licence areas weren’t defined as strictly to Census collection districts. High gain antennae, fortuitous coverage in more elevated parts of Tenterfield would mostly resolve a watchable RTN-8 signal, however RTN/NRN never saw Tenterfield as a prize as it took until aggregation for all to set up.
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Hepburn charts look interesting for tomorrow morning in Renmark, widespread high-strong ducting over Adelaide and Renmark. Hopefully it actually pans out this time and isn’t another dud
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And it’s a dud again
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