Power increase on Ballarat terrestrial ?

[admin]

Just curious on this one.....

I have a Sundtek USB tuner plugged in to my Vu Duo satellite box and while doing a FTA channel rescan this morning it pulled in all the terrestrial channels for Ballarat and Melbourne. I live in Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula and receive Melbourne FTA and have never had any Ballarat channels scan in.

So I am wondering if they have upped the power there for any reason ? My antenna is pretty crap as well and I am in a poor terrestrial area which makes it all the stranger

I am wondering if an antenna upgrade might be worth doing.....all though they scan in they are borderline on the side of not watchable.

Cheers
Sanity

[mickstv]

I'm going to say it must be just the right weather conditions making the signal travel further.



Cheers
Mick


EDIT : I just did a rescaned the Samsung and picked up Ballarat as well. I'm approx 150K north of Ballarat so it is just weather conditions.





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[admin]

Thanks Mick

[mtv]

I can confirm there's been no transmission power increases at Lookout Hill (Ballarat TX site) so as suggested, it's just conditions.

There's quite a bit of VHF/UHF 'ducting' happening at the moment..... some is helpful eg: receiving DX stations, but some is interfering with other transmissions, especially SFN's (Single Frequency Networks).

[admin]

I can remember 20 odd years ago that people here used to have tall masts to pick up analogue country tv,due to no Melbourne FTA signal. Presumably it must have been Ballarat.

[mtv]

I can remember 20 odd years ago that people here used to have tall masts to pick up analogue country tv,due to no Melbourne FTA signal. Presumably it must have been Ballarat.

It's probably more than 20 years ago, Sanity

Also, more likely to be Mt Tassie in Gippsland, which can be received reliably from many areas of Melbourne, particularly the Mornington Peninsula.

Tall masts were also used down your way for Melbourne, before local translators were installed.

[admin]

It's probably more than 20 years ago, Sanity

Also, more likely to be Mt Tassie in Gippsland, which can be received reliably from many areas of Melbourne, particularly the Mornington Peninsula.

Tall masts were also used down your way for Melbourne, before local translators were installed.

Unfortunately it was still that way exactly 20 years ago I was living with my girlfriend (now my wife) in the Rosebud South FTA deadspot area for about 12 months when I was 24 and I am now 44. The only FTA channel you could receive was the ABC unless you got country TV.

I think you are right, Gippsland does ring a bell in regards to what they were receiving. Melbourne TV has always been ok down here (I have lived here since 1975) unless you lived in Rosebud South or some parts of Safety Beach. Residents petitioned for decades to get something done about it.


It looks like it didnt stay for long, they have all dropped to 0% signal and are gone on a rescan so definitely weather conditions. Also I remember Warbo commenting on how much more sensitive these Sundtek tuners are compared to most built in tv tuners so that might also be why it scanned in on such a poor antenna as well.

[gordon_s1942]

Afrer reading Sanitys post it brought to mind another posting re using VHF for Digital and wonder what effect atmospherics could have on it.
When I looked at the Myswitch site I misinterpertated the notice about the ABC and older antenna's by first thinking Sanity's area was getting coverage from another location but its only the ABC changing frequency.
While it would be interesting to do a bit of Dxing but with just over 12 months to go before the changeover begins and who knows exacly what may occur during that time, at the moment it really is just an interesting occurance to look out for untill then.

[beerman]

...more likely to be Mt Tassie in Gippsland, which can be received reliably from many areas of Melbourne, particularly the Mornington Peninsula.

Although I am not familiar with the area, I'd have to agree with MTV that it's more likely to be coming off Mt Tassie. Are you to the East or West of the local translator at Cnr or Besgrove St and Boneo Road at Rosebud? If West then your antenna will be facing Mt Tassie in line with your local translator.