Long distance television

Fantastic info, thanks for sharing. I could just see two towers on the aerial image so presumed one was either side of the border to meet the requirements. In reality being right on the border it could as you say send one signal north and one south, and the other may be mobile.

In terms of power, the ACMA document gives the GC services 1kW ERP horizontal and the Murwillumbah services 500W vertical, both directional. Given that the NSW regionals run different time zones/channels into QLD I presume they run off separate antennas too (same as the QLD stations)?

Not sure if it’s accessible to the public there but I should go check it out one day. I’ve been to Best of All Lookout just to the west a couple of times but never Bilborough.

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The regional techs would probably understand the program arrangments at Springbrook better than me - most low power sites get program off-air from a high power site fed by fibre or microwave from their playout system. Presumably the Murwillumbah stations would be off-air from Mt Nardi.

A interesting feature at the Springbrook mobile hut was a huge 4m scrub Python that lived there - it must have got water from the air conditioning condensation - it followed a tech in the door one night and refused to leave when he finished. TV hut had a big red-belly under it too.

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It’s an SFN with Mt Nardi, so can’t see how.

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I haven’t been there since the analog got turned off so there may actually be fibre in Springbrook now - the old analogs were definitely fed off Mt Nardi. They may have also re-configured the site for the Restack so the digital may have changed since then too such as antenna configurations. The TxA and BAI techs would have documentation and would be the only source of truth.

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Some people in that area can get both with one antenna if they are in a good signal spot and have a good antenna

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Yeah Springbrook (Murwillumbah) is a low powered transmitter designed to fill in the Mt Nardi black spots. I’m in Banora and I use Springbrook for Northern NSW channels instead of Mt Nardi cause the hill to the south of me blocks it.

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Back to the original question, what transmitter should I use, Springbrook or Mt Nardi/Currumbin? *

*P.S Can mods please edit this to turn into a poll? Thank you :slight_smile:

Mod edit:

  • Springbrook
  • Mt Nardi/Currumbin

0 voters

Mt Nardi and Springbrook (vertical) carry Lismore stations. Springbrook (horizontal), Currumbin, & Mt Tambourine carry GC and Brisbane stations. As for where you should aim your antenna on Thursday it really depends on how the signal is from each transmitter we can’t really vote on that.

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And most importantly, what side of the hotel you are on… if you are on the east side, you will have a lot of trouble getting Springbrook, as that is west. Same is likely to be true for other sides of the hotel, eg it will be very hard to get Mt Nardi if you are on the northern side.

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Because of the SFN, you may end up not really being sure where the signals are coming from, just that you can receive them.

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Hi everyone:

Just an update on the channels. I have got the Lismore channels on my set top box but not the Gold Coast ones. This may be because the signal might be pointed towards Mt Nardi or because of the different polarisation, as it glitched when turned vertically but when I made it horizontal it worked.

Haven’t tried the Gold Coast channels yet, but will try soon.

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Not really “long distance” but I noticed on Nine’s “The Block” (filmed in Gisborne South, VIC) that the partially renovated houses have high gain VHF Yagis pointed at Mt Dandenong, so get Melbourne TV channels.

I hopped onto Myswitch to see what other TV signals the town can get, and was surprised that Bendigo wasn’t listed, but Shepparton appeared to be a slim possibility.

The TV geek in me likes using that site to see what transmitter options may be possible in overlapping areas… I’m guessing I’m not the only one here who does!

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Haha yeah, I think I made a comment here a few months ago wondering which way someone’s two antennas were pointed, while watching footage of them being airlifted by helicopter from the roof of their flooded house. Fair to say I may have had my priorities a little out of whack…

On Gisborne, pretty sure it’s too far on the Melbourne side of the Macedon Ranges to do Bendigo very well. Once you get up around Macedon/Woodend the Bendigo signal really starts to take hold.

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Some relatives of mine used to live in Gisborne many years ago. On a visit to the town in 2008, I saw my relatives old house and noticed a UHF phased array aimed towards Bendigo on just a standard mount so it is possible.

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Yeah I’m certainly sure it’s possible. Another well-known DXer used to receive BCV8 from Mt Waverley back in the day, and even I could get a faint signal from the Bendigo analogue UHFs in Camberwell, so it can get into parts of Melbourne too. But generally speaking, once you’re that side of the range most antennas are pointing towards Melbourne.

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I stumbled upon the addresses of “The Block” houses for 2022 (191, 197, 223, 225 and 241 McGeorge Rd, Gisborne VIC) and I decided to put them each into MySwitch and see what differences there are in TV reception.

They are all identical (being “Good” for Melbourne, “Moderate” for Bendigo and “Poor” for Shepparton), except 225 has “None” for Shepparton.

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Finally some action in Renmark




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Some brief activity tonight in Renmark on the back end of the cool change, quite unusual for signals this low to decode and form a picture


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Great opening tonight in Renmark, every set of channels from Adelaide including 44 Adelaide on the UHF bandwidth. Clearest that’s ever been












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Great catch!

What set up do you have?

Is That all just on a UHF antenna pointing at Loxton from Renmark?

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