Long distance television

A very weak Adelaide signal on my Sony TV too. That usually only picks up signals during strong ducting

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A rarity for 44 Adelaide to be the only decodable Adelaide signal in Renmark tonight

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This address in Walgett seems to love it’s regional TV.

This set up looks as though it’s pulling in signals from all 3 NSW/QLD regional TV markets (Southern NSW, Northern NSW and Regional QLD).

I don’t think I’ve seen one like this before

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So, the top VHF yagi is for Mt Dowe, the bottom (third down) vertical VHF array is for Mt Cenn Cruaich, and do you think the second yagi is Mt Mowbullan (in its Channel 10 days)?

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Yes re top two high gain VHF antennas - I was thinking that the second top UHF yagi that is pointing away in the pic might be trying for either Goondiwindi (although low powered) or maybe Passchendaele (Southern Downs) - but would imagine at nearly 400 km that could only be received with some tropo, though it is very flat out there.

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Passchendaele is more likely out there than Mowbullan, but I guess I discounted that as it’s not really a Band I/II antenna (for Channels 1 and 4). But I can’t think what else it might be - maybe it was just aimed at Southern Queensland then hoping for tropo enhancement?

Amazing the efforts people in the regions went to back in the day to get some kind of variety of television reception.

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Agree re Mt Mowbullan - too far for any real hope at nearly 490km.

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When I stayed in Lakes Entrance in 1979, the local channels were from Mt. Tassie, over 130 Km away. The motel’s antenna picked up both channel 4 and 10 as if they were local, i.e. no snow, except for the first night when there was heavy rain and the signal faded out.

Melbourne’s channel 9 was watchable overnight when it was the only channel on air. This was around 200 KM away. Though the picture was very snowy you could still see colour and the picture was reliable. I couldn’t pick up 0, 2 or 7 though.

During the day, sometimes TNT9 would punch through over channel 9 (around 400 Km distance). At other times, the two would interfere with each other and you would only see interference. I don’t remember a time when you’d only see channel 9 during the day, so I assume that TNT9 was always there, though it was only one week in summer so I don’t know how typical this was.

So I guess that with the right set up you could pull in TV signals from 200 Km away fairly easily, and maybe up to 400 Km regularly enough.

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I found a Illawarra Channels at West Pennant Hills are 7 10 and 9WIN Illawarra From West Pennant Hills

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Good one!

You should find (assuming you have a good line of sight to the south) that you should get the lllawarra channels frequently from there, if not permanently.

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Illawarra channels are easily received across most of Sydney and have been since the WIN4 days.

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reminds me of Shepparton where with three antennae can receive BCV8 Bendigo and AMV4 Albury in addition to the local GMV6/ABGV3 (even though all three commercial stations for most of the day had an identical programme schedule).
BCV aka TV8 (even though it is a network partner to GMV) and AMV had in my opinion a more polished professional presentation than GMV.

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So the reason is they can potentially pick up the (same?) signals from 2 different relays either side of them? Nice to have all options available, but not exactly ā€œgeniusā€ā€¦ :roll_eyes:
(note not a dig at you Petarkco just the clickbaity title of the author)

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Yep. And in Murchison not far away, there were even a few rigs that had antennas for Shepp, Bendigo, Albury, and Melbourne.

Other locations in Australia with TV from multiple directions and tall antennas included:
West Wyalong - Riverina, Griffith, Orange.
Urana - Riverina, Griffith, Albury, Shepparton.

Some locations before they had translator stations also had to have big setups to even get marginal reception. The Vic Mallee in particular, which had to rely on distant Bendigo and Ballarat reception. (Sea Lake is a good example)

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and don’t forget most SA regional towns 150-300kms (and sometimes further!) from Mount Lofty had huge antenna rigs to receive 7 9 & 10 from Adelaide. Driving from Melbourne to Adelaide you would notice them when you arrive in Keith. The below photo was taken there.

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I think I’ve also seen those tall Adelaide masts out west too on Google Street View, in places like Kimba.

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Lots of installations still in place.

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Some antenna rigs in Ballarat in the pre-aggregation era were able to receive not only the local BTV6 and ABRV3 but also BCV8 Bendigo and Melbourne channels. They would get channels on 0 (when SBS was on that channel) 1 2 3 6 7 8 9 and 10. Talk about spoiled for choice!

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Gympie in QLD and northern NSW were also places that would pull in the signal from Brisbane back in the day. I was in Toowoomba last week and even places with line of sight to Mt Lofty, new band 3 antennas were in place for Brisbane with no local UHF antennas to be seen. Not sure what the point is these days as programming is near identical except for local ads and local news.

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