Bouddi & Wyong are vertically polarised, but the Gosford translator is horizontally polarised. From Bayview/Church Point, the Gosford translator is around the same general bearing as towards Mt Sugarloaf, so viewers there get the Sydney, Central Coast & Newcastle channels. 
Ah I see. Iâve also seen quite a few vertically polarised UHF aerials around the Palm Beach area pointing north.
MySwitch indicates the Illawarra transmitters gets up to the Northern Beaches as well. If it wasnât for the co-channeling, it might be possible to get Wollongong + Central Coast + Newcastle + Sydney in parts of the Northern Beaches.
Yes, my understanding is that the Northern Beaches rely on Bouddi rather than Gosford for TV reception in cases where they canât get the main Sydney wide signals or Manly/Mosman relays.
Which is also why Prime7 and NBN have restricted power to the south from Bouddi.
SC10 has never transmitted from either Gosford or Bouddi, on analogue or digital.
Correct. Gosford is relatively very low powered.
Yes, I would be surprised if too many people on the Northern Beaches are (aside from the aforementioned few with line of sight to Gosford straight up Pittwater) picking up any Newcastle channels from Gosford or Bouddi.
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Any out of area reception with the current weather for most of eastern Australia?
Nothing out of the ordinary for me. Had a signal from Wide Bay WIN on 10 but could not decode it; Had TVQ 36 from the low power Currumbin relay at good levels a couple of times.
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Nothing for me either, the ABC Bendigo and Geelong Grant Radio FM signals have seemed to disappeared
Wide Bay WIN on 10 decoded in Brisbane tonight; approx 250 km
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Itâs very hard to do much TV DXing these days, since the restack, the TV spectrum has shrunk significantly, and where I am (Newcastle) thereâs only 7 vacant frequencies, most of which are âsparesâ (VHF 10, UHF 29, 34, 45) in many NSW regions or only used at low power (49, 50, 51).
The latter 3 have stations from the NSW Southern Highlands (Mt Gibraltar) which are a faint hope for me, but only once have I been able to get my telly to scan in SBS 49 from that site, but I still couldnât get a picture.
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The best options for me are 10 from Wide Bay and 36 from Rockhampton. The only other free frequencies are 28 and 51 neither of which has much prospect - Mackay might be an outside chance on 28. Though on a couple of occasions the 1.8kw SE Brisbane relays 29-33 have been overpowered by Darling Downs, so you never know! Iâm expect CQ again on FM tonight - already started.
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From opening scene of Wake in Fright. Filming location incl Broken Hill. Looks like a band III phased array with a broken Band I addition? A guess would be legacy antenna for analogue 2 and 7?
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Correct, phased arrays were used frequently for fringe locations around Broken Hill.
A few google clicks reveals the set for the movie was based at Horse Lake on the railway line between Broken Hill and Menindee (thanks train buffs).
This is 65km away from the Wyman St TX in BH. Typical distance of antennas Iâve seen on the Barrier and Silver City Highways.
These installations were done in the day well before satellite. Those in such locations were extremely remote and were glad for any TV, however poor the signal. Plus who knows what the weatherâs doing? Long distance TV might have popped up from time to time.
The analogue ERP was 7.5kW. Those in rural areas, squeezed all they could out of that coverage.
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Thanks for the insight. I imagine that 1 and 4 from Port Pirie would have been regular DX catches given their vertical polarisation and frequencies.
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Though that antenna is Band III, whereas Spencer Gulf VHF1&4 is Band 1.
And the orientation is a bit offâŚ
Perhaps GMV 6 or BCV 8 could be received on it?
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The antenna does have a Band I add on to it (rear reflector is 1/2 missing). Having often picked up GTS 4 on FM in Brisbane during openings I thought that might be common there. There would probably be a mix of stations on 0 and 1 on some days in summer.
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If the enhancement is strong enough, I think it should still be able to pull it in. I picked up One from New Zealand in Sydney even though the signal was 90 degrees off angle to the antenna on the roof - and this was with just a run of the mill metro combination VHF/UHF aerial.
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As @TV.Cynic has commented, the phased array VHF 4 stack antennas had a Band I add on. Plenty within the GTS-4 coverage area, many remain on masts, rusting away now with little use for them.
These are all isolated areas, GTS is the edge of terrestrial TV coverage, beyond that and itâs Imparja/SC with no SA news at 6pm (see Ceduna news yarn on Youtube). Most such antennas wouldâve been up long before satellite too.
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The local Newcastle Band 1 VHF / UHF antenna on my apartment building that is pointed at the local Mt Sugarloaf site is tonight picking up Seven, Nine and SBS from Sydney, but not TEN or ABC.
However, it is NOT getting the local channels. I havenât spoken to my neighbours but I bet thereâs more than a few people wondering whatâs going on⌠not many would realise that ducting is causing the Wollongong channels to wipe out the locals.
Lucky for me my rabbit ears picks up Sydney pretty well most of the time, and tonight they are all showing 100% signal strength as well 100% quality. No Newcastle channels on that either, though it is picking up the local Warners Bay-Belmont North repeater SFN okay, which has the Newcastle feeds on them. I have also lost the Central Coast channels now.
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Where does the translator source its signal from? Sugarloaf yet its RX antenna didnât fall victim to ducting?
I THINK they are fed separately, at least on 9/NBN, as I remember them being in syncâŚ
Prime7 and WIN MAY be fed off air since I think they were maybe half a second behind the Sugarloaf TXs.
I would daresay IF it is being off air, their receiving antenna is set up to minimise ducting issues.
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