Sydney Digital FTA Channels

[OSIRUS]

I am in Sydney this week, & thought I would do a fresh scan of the Digital FTA Channels, & post it for anyone who is interested,

I realize that things are going to change very soon (later this year) with more FTA Digital Channels proposed,

Your channel list will be probably something similar,

All Channels are SD unless marked as HD,

SEVEN NETWORK (Ch6 analog)

7 7 Digital
70 7 HD Digital
71 7 Digital 1
72 7 Digital 2
73 7 Digital 3

NINE NETWORK (Ch8 analog)

9 NINE DIGITAL
90 NINE HD
99 NINE GUIDE

TEN SYDNEY (Ch11 analog)

1 ONE HD
10 TEN Digital
11 ONE HD (again)
12 ONE Digital

ABC (Ch12 analog)

2 ABC1
20 ABC HDTV
21 ABC1
22 ABC2
23 ABC3
200 ABC DIG Radio
201 ABC DIG Jazz

SBS (Ch34 analog)

3 SBS ONE
30 SBS HD
32 SBS TWO
33 SBS3
34 SBS4
38 SBS Radio1
39 SBS Radio2

D44 (Ch35 analog)

4 FTV Guide
40 NITV
41 D44 News
44 D44
45 Channel NSW
46 ACCTV
47 Teachers TV/Repre (Parliament)
48 Teachers TV/Senat (Parliament)
49 EXPO

All channels are good reception, D44 seems to have less signal strength for me, it may be broadcast with less power than the others, or my Antenna may not be facing exactly toward its transmitter

Scan done 26th July 2009

[mtv]

Yep, that's what we get, with the LCN's (logical channel numbers) as indicated.

I think you mean digital, where you have the RF channel in ( ) stated as analogue.

The analogue network channels (in order of your list are) 7, 9, 10, ABC 2, SBS 28. Also, community channel 31 which isn't on digital yet and D44 is only digital.

[gordon_s1942]

ABC sydney should still be on ch 2 VHF as analog unless they have turned it off and gone to 12.
That one marked ONEHD (again) in the channel 10 grouping is either the HD or SD version of the sport channel.
I think the dupilication is only available in Sydney and Melbourne, not sure of the other capitols but definatly NOT broadcast regionaly.
ABC on VHF 2 as analog, 12 VHF for digital
7 VHF analog, 6 for digital
9 VHF analog, 8 for Digital
10 VHF analog, 11 for Digital
and SBS up on UHF (28?) where its always been. WHOOPS !!Reread the posting, SBS is now ch 34 UHF
I was under the misunderstanding that the one of the ideas for going digital was to remove ALL TV transmission from VHF EVERYWHERE, city and country and all go onto the UHF band.
Obviously this is not so with the digital transmissions remaining on Band 3.
I am now curious to see if other countries like the USA that is currently going digital, if they are digital on the upper VHF portion as we are?
I was thinking that it could be interesting in years to come if everyone else went UHF only, with our small market it could make the price of a TV with a tuner to cover VHF as well as UHF, if available, rather expensive.
Or would we 'reverse engineer' and buy an add on VHF Tuner as we did when TV's had no UHF tuner and UHF was introduced into your area?

[OSIRUS]

Yep, that's what we get, with the LCN's (logical channel numbers) as indicated.

I think you mean digital, where you have the RF channel in ( ) stated as analogue.

The analogue network channels (in order of your list are) 7, 9, 10, ABC 2, SBS 28. Also, community channel 31 which isn't on digital yet and D44 is only digital.

Yes, I should have said the RF channel in, for Digital is ( ),

thanks

That one marked ONEHD (again) in the channel 10 grouping is either the HD or SD version of the sport channel.

The funny thing is that ONE HD is broadcast on both channel 1 (digital) & channel 11 (digital)
& ONE digital in SD is on channel 12 (digital) , ATM

Thanks for your input

[Lomax]

But which ones are unique? ie. do ABC HDTV and ABC1 show the same content in Sydney?

[OSIRUS]

But which ones are unique? ie. do ABC HDTV and ABC1 show the same content in Sydney?

Yes ABCHD & ABC1 show the same content in Sydney ATM,

Since posting the above we also now have

99 Go
72 7TWO
23 ABC 3

(ABC2 & SBS TWO were already unique channels broadcasting along side the main channels,)

7HD & 9HD used to show some different programing to the main channel (some of the time), but not so much anymore since the introduction of the GO channel & 7TWO

ABCHD & SBSHD are the same broadcast as the main channel

& as I pointed out above channel TEN Sydney has a slightly different line up then the country affiliated channels (i.e ONEHD is also broadcast in SD)

& the Digital 44 channels are all unique

Cheers

[gordon_s1942]

And except for Queensland, the 7TWO programing (or 6TWO Regional) has not been picked by by the regional licence holders yet and it seems they havent expressed any interset in doing so.

[dryfry]

I was under the misunderstanding that the one of the ideas for going digital was to remove ALL TV transmission from VHF EVERYWHERE, city and country and all go onto the UHF band.
Obviously this is not so with the digital transmissions remaining on Band 3.
I am now curious to see if other countries like the USA that is currently going digital, if they are digital on the upper VHF portion as we are?

There are some DTV stations in the USA in Band 1 along with band 3. Of course the Amercians had to use their own standard of ATSC not DVB like most of the world.
Plus Europe has DVB-T on VHF Band 3.
So We are not alone in being on VHF.
NZ has gone for DVB-T on UHF only.

[Fixxxer]

There are some DTV stations in the USA in Band 1 along with band 3. Of course the Amercians had to use their own standard of ATSC not DVB like most of the world.
Plus Europe has DVB-T on VHF Band 3.
So We are not alone in being on VHF.
NZ has gone for DVB-T on UHF only.

DTV should really only be UHF only, but I don't think we have the spectrum space in Australia to do that.

[mtv]

DTV should really only be UHF only, but I don't think we have the spectrum space in Australia to do that.

I agree that all UHF would have been a better option, however, the main reason for staying with VHF for metro areas was the existing VHF infrastructure at transmission sites and a greater compatability with existing receiving antennas and the theory that VHF has better penetration into buildings and carries further than UHF.

In reality though, a very high percentage of receiving antennas require upgrading to provide reliable reception of channels 11 and 12 (TEN and ABC digital respectively).

[gordon_s1942]

DTV should really only be UHF only, but I don't think we have the spectrum space in Australia to do that.

Band 3 and 4 (UHF) are allocated Australia WIDE.
Sydney already has a number of UHF translators to cover areas the VHF channels cant and as for OZ not having enough UHF spectrum, I think thats higly unlikely as UHF has a generaly shorter signal range along with low powered translators and directional beams, you can reuse the same channels again closer together more easily than VHF allows.
And the digital signal will contain the range even more so than the analog did.
Also UHF doesnt tend to skip long distances as VHF does although like all radio signals, given the right conditions it can and does.

[vmark]

Also UHF doesnt tend to skip long distances as VHF does although like all radio signals, given the right conditions it can and does.

You betcha it can, I've seen under very good tropospheric conditions (mainly in the summer months) Port Macquarie UHF Analogue TV signals in suburban Sydney (albeit a few years ago...) and using a MHU42 and a Hills TC-18 yagi.

Now what I look for are a few distant Digitals to see what effect it has.