Probably getting radiated from Artarmon at that height, staying at the Meriton?
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Yep, you guessed it!
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I’ve been wondering why, with VHF digital TV, pretty much all high gain / fringe antennas are now Yagis, whereas in the analogue era, phased array antennas were more common. And as most phased arrays never really accomodated VHF 2 anyway. Any thoughts?
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Only guessing, is because VHF phased array antennas are very hard if not impossible to buy now, Yagi’s are dime a dozen. Fringe Yagi’s have more elements too in case a bird or weather breaks one off, you won’t have so much reception problems. They work slightly differently as in how the get the signal & increase gain, but maybe as unlike the old days, most people watch local TV now, so making a few VHF phased array antennas would be cost prohibitive?
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Some had extra elements like this that helped to get VHF 2 or even they were more for Band II FM maybe?
But in general, regional areas were focussed on band III anyway to get metro 7 and 9 (and later 10). A standard band III Hills CA16 array or DY14 yagi were the popular choices. The local ABC would have been available on another band I or II channel in those days so there was little benefit trying to receive metro VHF 2.
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Always interesting to see old photos of Wollongong and the Hunter, where people jerry-rigged whatever setup they could to get enough elevation for an acceptable signal. South of Wollongong, Berkeley was in an especially bad spot, and the fringe Yagis were out in abundance.
We had one on top of our place that was eventually disconnected when we bought a new TV in the mid-90s, and I can remember the antenna falling away piece by piece over the next 10 years or so. Every so often you’d hear a bang on the roof, go outside and another arm had fallen off.
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I’d say that those antennas generally predated FM radio at least for the initial roll out of TV.
Some regional areas were also trying to get ABC 2 as well as 7 and 9 because it took a few years for TV to reach places.
For example Wide Bay did not get TV until 1965 so large antennas were installed to get Brisbane TV. Later antennas were also used to receive Darling Downs because there was a good signal path to those stations as well.
Installations had to be very high and were usually two phased Yagis for Brisbane and the same for Darling Downs. Later, extra elements were available to add to the Brisbane antenna to receive 0 if required but by that time 6 and 8 had started locally.
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I remember travelling from Gold Coast airport to Surfers Paradise and seeing some very high-up TV antennas. Can’t remember if they were on top of tall masts or actual mini-towers. This was in 1985. Despite having 150,000 people, the Gold Coast didn’t have any local TV repeaters until two years earlier.
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Yes, masts of 5 to 10 metres to receive Brisbane TV were common down to Tweed Heads (the taller ones were further south).
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It was only when the UHF band became available that here was enough spectrum for repeaters on the Gold Coast. The southern parts could receive Lismore 6 and 8 better than Brisbane so that 6, 7, 8, and 9 were in use with 10 and 11 carrying channels in adjacent areas. Viewers down to Kingscliff and further south had antennas for Brisbane TV.
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My grandparents lived at Miami on the Gold Coast from the late 60’s and lived in a low set house (new build then) with tall mast and VHF antenna. I can recall being old enough from the late 70’s into the 80’s and onto a colour TV in 1981 the picture being unbearable. Coax eventually replaced the ribbon cable - picture (and sound) still woeful and nearly unwatchable. In 1985 my grandfather strangely purchased a VHF/UHF combo to install (sold locally retailers had no idea in those days). Still no luck. Even at age 12 I knew that was meant for Brisbane local TV from when SBS arrived. Finally in mid 1986 they got an installer in and would you believe all 6 channels from a UHF antenna gave perfect results.
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Similar situation on Sunshine Coast - big dual band VHF phased yagi’s pointing at Mt Coot-tha from Caloundra right up to Gympie in the 60’s and 70’s, then eventually Wide Bay TV put VHF translators in at Gympie(Tozer Hill) and Dulong Lookout(Nambour). People still kept their phased arrays so they could get 3 commercial channels from Mt Coot-Tha.
The other place you still see DX TV antennas is towns like Wagga in NSW that are AFL towns so they want TV from Victoria.
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Most of Wagga is shielded from Albury by Willans Hill.
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There is a place here in Shepparton that has 3 Yagi pointing at different directons ( One to Mt Major for GMV6, One for Mt Stanley for AMV 4 and one for Mount Alexander for BCV8)
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AMV4 is Mt Baranduda, but roughly same direction anyway
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Thanks, I went 50/50 and choose the wrong one.
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Lol! You could have phoned a friend! 
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My experiences of visiting the Gold Coast for holidays were mostly in apartments that varied in the quality of the TV set up. Most went to some effort to deliver TV from both Brisbane and Lismore. The biggest issue in most cases was interference between 6, 7, 8 and 9. The close to the NSW border the worse 7 and 9 got and vice versa heading north. One place at Coolangatta there was little to no reception from 7 and 9. Usually 0 and 2 were easy to get because of being in band one and the signals travelling further though both could suffer from co channel interference. ABQ’s problem was the proximity to Grafton’s channel 2.
The antenna setups were usually good enough that there was some reception from channel 10 at Nambour on some days.
Conversely, people on the Sunshine Coast will go setups for Brisbane would get 6 and 8 from Lismore to varying degrees.
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