In the 70’s before there were any local repeaters, people in Lakes Entrance would receive ABC on channel 4 and GLV10 from the main transmitters serving Gippsland from the Latrobe Valley. Assuming they were at the same location as the existing transmitters at Mt. Tassie, this would have been a distance of over 130 Km. When I stayed in a motel there while on holiday, the picture was fine, not snowy or anything, except on the first night where one channel faded out occasionally.
That same TV could consistently receive GTV9 Melbourne overnight, though the picture was snowy. When it was on the air, it could easily receive TNT9 Launceston at certain times, but at other times, nothing, presumably because the two stations would interfere with each other. It even received TV channels from New Zealand at times on Channel 0 which were very good quality, i.e. not fading in and out and hardly any snow.
In 1980 when ATV0 Melbourne became ATV10, GLV10 Gippsland became GLV8 and Lakes Entrance got a repeater on Channel 11. I don’t know when they got a UHF repeater for ABC TV.
According to the 1991-92 Department of Transport & Communications’ Annual Report, Lakes Entrance got their UHF repeater for ABC TV on 30th July 1991, in the lead up to the main ABC TV service out of Mt Tassie changing from VHF 4 to UHF.
I was playing around with the Myswitch coverage tool, and one of the transmiiter options for Marulan NSW was… Marvel Loch, WA! Hmm, I wonder how many Marulan residents have tried that!
Would the change of ABLV from 4 to UHF have roughly coincided with Mt Taylor becoming a translator for the Bairnsdale area as well? Many older antennas around Bairnsdale aimed west for not just fortutious Melbourne reception but Channels 4 and 10-then-8 as well. But by the mid-90s all aggregated commercial stations and ABC/SBS were definitely on from Mt Taylor.
I also had experiences receiving GTV9 and TNT9 together at Airey’s Inlet, depending on which direction the rabbit ears were pointing
Once SBS vacated Channel 0 in Melbourne we got TV1 from New Zealand at least once and TVQ0 from Brisbane a few times. I don’t recall ever getting WIN (RTQ0) from Toowoomba but I suppose technically it could have been a remote possibility in the right conditions.
We used to get patchy reception of GLV10 from Gippsland but once it went to Channel 8 we lost it but when aggregation happened we could get average/poor reception of the UHF stations from Mt Tassie.
Its on UHF 29, so I’m not sure where this is from without my ACMA spreadsheet open. I don’t think it’s Bega as that should be “South Coast” not Wollongong???
Thanks, but I’m pretty sure Taralga (and Crookwell) both relay Canberra, not Wollongong.
Edit: Did a search on the ACMA PDF on my iPad, it would have to be Taralga, there isn’t anything else it could be (unless it’s unlisted). It’s 250 watt, so at 231 km away, that’s a fair hike for a DTV signal to go with just 250 watts.
I do recall reading, I think it was on this forum, someone down around the Southern Highlands/Wollondilly area picking up WIN Newcastle from the Wallaroo Hill site near Medowie. Only a 500w site. These things are possible.
I think that might have been @RFBurns who regaled about NRN-45 from Medowie being received at Razorback Range near Campbelltown as the other Medowie stations that are co-chanelled with SW Sydney (UHF 40-44) were causing interference (or something like that). Is that what you were thinking of?
I had to do some work in the Southern Cross building at Mt Barrow once and the old TNT9 transmitter was sitting there half demolished - it is the biggest TV transmitter I have ever seen. Took up the same space as 3xDTV high power Tx’s. It was an NEC tube transmitter possibly 2x20Kw in parallel. No wonder it covered a big area plus Mt Barrow is one of the highest sites in Tasmania. Prior to that the biggest analogue TV transmitter I had seen was the 2x20Kw solid state NEC’s for ABN2 at Gore Hill.
It would be interesting to hear from anyone who knew the history of the TNT9 transmitter.
