Ah yes, sorry, I probably should have said Band II, as it was designed for 3-5A.
Re SBS for Merewether, yes, the reception should have been much the same as the others, but for some reason, it was slightly worse… Which shouldn’t be that unusual as I have heard many a story over the years about people getting some channels better than others from the same site (eg. an aunt of mine who lived at North Rocks in Sydney said she couldn’t get TEN-10 but could get the other Sydney channels plus WIN-4).
I moved to my current Charlestown location in 2014, I would have LOVED to have been here during the analogue era to see what analogue reception from Sydney, the Central Coast and Wollongong would have been like even with rabbit ears.
Yes I was aware of that reasoning, and it makes sense too - the old BTV6 signal did used to cover a massive chunk of Western Victoria, which a TX site closer to town couldn’t have done. And in all likelihood even if it was at one of those mountains nearer to Ballarat, it would have sent all its signal west and been flea-powered to the east/south to avoid messing with Melbourne.
Still, in relating this back to the original question, it was a bit of a surprise/disappointment when I initially thought I was a chance of getting TV from ~70km away, only to find it was in fact from ~140km away and I had much less chance as a result.
Speaking of 140 KM, back in the 1970’s, before Lakes Entrance had its own translators, it used to get its TV from Mt Tassie, about 140 Km away. When I stayed in a motel there for a holiday, the picture was great, as if it was from nearby, apart from the first evening when ABC would go in and out when it rained.
That’s pretty impressive. My grandparents lived in Bairnsdale and in the 90s they still had the VHF aerial for Mt Tassie reception (UHF had since come to Mt Taylor for the Bairnsdale area by that point, but the old aerial was still there). Even then though, with a decent mast and an amplifier the reception of GLV8 was grainy - I can only imagine in Lakes it must have been even more difficult again to receive.
Not really long distance as such, but when in Mandurah WA today, noted that only maybe 1 in 4 houses had their TV antenna pointed at the local Pinjarra relay, which has Perth and regional WA TV signals - most had a Perth VHF antenna only, just mounted a bit higher above the roof line than further north.
But did see this motel that had the works, Perth VHF, Pinjarra UHF (vertical yagi) and Bunbury Band I VHF.
44 Adelaide coming up with “no service” yesterday morning in Renmark although too weak to decode/have anything show up on the EPG. Signal strength and quality were both 1 which has formed a picture earlier this year
DX season is no fun for the TV transmission techs in The Mallee or Western VIC areas: ducting plays havoc with the inputs to translators across the region with the DX co-channel stations often overpowering the inputs. Various things have been tried including high gain input Rx antennas where the co-channel station is on a slightly different azimuth to the wanted signal and even reducing the receiver sensitivity. All usually have very little success. When the inputs start breaking up often the tech’s get alarms but sometimes the co-channel station just goes to air on the translator.
Truly a job I don’t miss. Unless you like airports at 5AM, 1000 miles of bitumen and motels, avoid!
Currently in Mount Gambier, and wondering how many of the legacy analogue VHF antennas pointed at Western Victoria are still used for digital TV.
I could see appeal in getting programs 30 mins earlier year round and for Melbourne AFL coverage.
Conversely, when I passed through Hamilton VIC yesterday there were only a few VHF antennas pointed at Mt Gambier (no UHF ones though), the VHF ones would be of no use now that digital TV is on UHF.
Back in the late 70’s when I stayed in a hotel in Lakes Entrance, the only local channels were 130 Km away yet the reception looked local, except for the first night when the signal went in and out during a rainy period.
Meanwhile, overnight, you could receive Channel 9 Melbourne, about 200Km away, thought he picture was very snowy.
During the day you could sometimes receive TNT9 from Launceston, although most of the day it would interfere with GTV9 so you couldn’t see anything. After TNT9 closed you could watch GTV9 overnight.
Also during the day when I was there you could often receive TV channels from NZ on the lower channel numbers like Channel 0, and they were as good as local, not even fading in or out!!
few different channels auto-logged on my Grandmother’s TV in her room at her aged care facility that I wasn’t familiar with (all displaying no signal) (Berri S.A). Channels were called "CHANNEL 3, CHANNEL 4 and another one called CHAPEL), no idea where those would be logged from
They would be internal no? Whether they are used or not or just relics of another time who knows. The “CHAPEL” channel I assume is/was a feed from their services in their/a chapel each Sunday, so the other channels might have been what was playing in the cinema (if they have that) or old movies/shows or another former/proposed internal feed. That or they came with the system and are thus sitting vacant.
Yes, if you miss a programme on the Victorian stations you can catch it half an hour later on the SA stations. Also handy for news junkies: you get ABC, Seven, Nine and Ten evening news bulletins (SBS is a national bulletin) from both Victoria and SA. A total of nine different bulletins to choose from. And if the Showdown is on WIN Seven SA you can also get St Kilda v Essendon on Seven Victoria at the same time without having to get a Kayo/Foxtel subscription.
a relative who’s been living in Paringa (across the river basically from Renmark in a hilly area) for the last year recently auto-logged every Adelaide channel on their TV except for CH44. I always thought that area would be iffy in terms of long distance TV due to the terrain, although their antenna is pointing towards Loxton out over an area with next to no obstructions
I see on Street View there’s some houses at ground level in that area with tall Adelaide masts from the analogue area.
If they are up on the hills with a good line of sight to the west as well, they might be able to get semi regular Adelaide TV reception with a high gain VHF antenna aimed in that direction too.
