Are you on the Central Coast receiving the Sydney signals through the local translators?
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No, Iâm based in SW Sydney - this has come as a shock tbh
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Is this off Razorback or Gore Hill / Artarmon?
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Razorback, I believe
Back when there was analogue TV, I would receive Illawarra channels
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I able to receive ABC 41 from Razorback but the signal quality is much lower than normal which is caused by CCI from the translator at Medowie near Raymond Terrace north of Newcastle.
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Now that Middle Brother fm is getting weaker. and there is no CCI from NBN 12, signal quality on ABC 12 Sydney has returned to normal.
Tonight is a warm up for the most intense Tropo between Sydney and the MNC due tomorrow night. It will be interesting to see what damage it does to ABC 12.
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Rockhampton UHF tonight for brief periods
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Not surprising some of the DTV channels were wiped out, Tropo is back this year after a long break & itâs really strong.
I was on call last night & no alarms or reports from viewers (other than here) about reception issues around Central Coast or Sydney, but the tropo from afar would stop viewers receiving the channels on the same frequency, e.g. the VHF channels from Artarmon co-channeling with Middle Brother as your TV set is looking for specific saved set of data to decode which wonât match the tropo signal & if itâs getting multiple at similar strength then error correction will fail & youâll get a black screen.
As far as the translators that get their input off the air from Artamon normally, the receivers in those donât look for all the same stored data, essentially only the frequency & Modulation/Guard interval settings, so if the receiver got a stronger/better tropo reception, the transmitter would just transmit that tropo signal instead of the one intended.
So as youâve alluded too, lets say for example Razorback, if the ABC Razorback transmitter had a stronger/better input reception of NBN 12 from Middle Brother, then the people of South West Sydney would be watching NBN rather than ABC from Razorback. But if the transmitter input was of similar strength for both signals the transmitter would be trying to transmit both channels at the same time, so the viewer would get a black screen as the error correction would fail & it couldnât decode either channel successfully, theoretically though I think our MER monitors on the transmitter output would set off alarms, but that never occurred last night.
Iâm not on call tonight or over the weekend, so I can enjoy the tropo without having to worry about transmitters not working or viewers complaining.
Though I probably will get listeners complaining about hearing Triple J instead of Coast FM Gosford.
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I wonder if there are any domestic or publicly available STB receivers that work like this?
That might allow me to watch Wollongong here in Newcastle.
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Have had a similar thing happen in Brisbane a few years back when the Wide Bay vertically polarised Band III channels impacted Brisbane VHF. WIN from Wide Bay makes a regular appearance on vacant channel 10 (including last night).
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I donât think so & yes it would be good to be able to do that, though if you had both signals at about even strength & quality, youâd still have the issue of the error correction failing & having a black screen, as itâd be trying to decode 2 different lots of data.
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I think my issue with Razorback is the Medowie translator being received off the back of my UHF tv antenna which then wipes out Sydney SW reception.
Razorback is marginal at best and my UHF antenna is only designed for 28-39 not tbe Razorback frequencies so it does not take much to wipe them out.
Also My LOS to the north is excellent, no obstructions until the Castle Hill / Dural plateau to the NE. This is why Newcastle ducting can be so extreme at my location.
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No hint of Coast fm at all yesterday, Triple J Middle Brother was dominate on the car radio and on the dx setup.
I think the ducting will be stronger tonight if the ducting forecast maps are correct.
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Ohhh my goodness!!!
First time Canberra DTV into Newcastle!!
Taken with some gymnastics and a 4 element handheld yagi plugged into my oversized 43 Inch TV / PC monitor! Never really thought it was possible!
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I also notice quite a lot of new builds with new yagis for Brisbane signals north of the Bald Knob coverage area, many along the coast on the David Low way from Coolum to Noosa.
The large Noosa Waters estate has long had a cabled distribution system with lattice tower off Gibson Rd and yagis atop.
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Awesome catch considering you have Sydney and Middle Brother CC on the same frequency.
What was the signal strength and quality for 9 Canberra (WIN)?
I have received Canberra tv into Sydney once. It was ABC TV when they were on Ch3 pre 1996. It was received in Oatley with rabbits ear antennas. I remember the strength was similar to NBN3 black and white with snow, unfortunately the audio through the tv was Sydney community radio stations.
But I could get clear audio through my hifi with a fm antenna cord going up the wall.
This was my trick too for NBN3 I could always get a black and white picture through our tv antenna, and had to tune to 91.7 for the audio as the community radio stations still nulled NBN3 audio even with the strongest of tropo.
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Thanks! Both were around 50%, just enough to get a watchable picture which only lasted a few minutes, but the antenna placement was very tricky, it had to be in just the right position. I am also shielded from Middle Brother, as I live on the southside of an apartment building.
The weird thing was with the antenna in the horizontal position, I could still get Sydney at the same time (and by changing the LCN back to 1x, 7x or 9x). Sydney was slightly weaker than average at the time, which may have helped.
I always thought Iâd only get one or the other at the same time, not both.
I also tried for 10 Canberra, ABC and SBS, but couldnât get those, only 7 and 9.
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After seeing some of the tropo catches of New Caledonia over the last few days, Iâm wondering if the DVB-T signal from there could possibly make it across.
Thereâs a 5kW transmitter for NoumĂ©a (Mont Koghi - same site as 90.0 FM), H pol on channel E46 (674MHz). 8MHz European channel width, that sits just below Australian 7MHz channel 49.
Thereâs also Mont Coffyn (same site as 89.0 FM) on E41 (634MHz / H / 1kW).
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An old one from a VHS tape (not my recoding). Circa 2001.
Prime from around Foster (ads for Great Lakes Cinema 3) into Newcastle.
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I could get ECN-8 Taree in Newcastle quite well at times during tropo even on a horizontal Band 1 antenna pointed at Newcastle.
But if you are talking about the Forster UHF relay into Newcastle, thatâs a great catch!
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