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Media watchdog to visit southern NSW after TV signal complaints

ACMA will visit the Nowra area to perform a field investigation following complaints about television reception.

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2014-01-21_0044The Australian Communications and Media Authority will visit the Nowra area this week to perform a field investigation following complaints about television reception.

Local viewers last week complained to media and politicians about reception drop-outs.

ACMA says some of the problems were caused by transmission work in preparation for the channel retune.

Here is the statement from ACMA:

The ACMA is aware of a number of TV reception complaints from viewers in the NSW Southern Highlands and parts of NSW south coast, particularly around Nowra and Shoalhaven. The ACMA is currently investigating the reported reception issues and working with the Department of Communications and relevant broadcasters on identifying the cause.

Some of the reported reception problems have been caused by the planned intermittent outages of the services from the Bowral/Mittagong transmission site, between 9am to 3:30pm from 15 to 17 January. The work on this transmission site was carried out in preparation for upcoming change of the channel frequencies of the services from this site (retune), as the final step in the move to digital-only TV. The Department of Communications is coordinating the communication with affected communities to inform the general public about retune activities and outage information. More information can be found on mySwitch website http://myswitch.digitalready.gov.au/ and retune website http://retune.digitalready.gov.au/.

Other potential causes of the reported television reception difficulties include localised interference and/or specific signal propagation effects during certain weather conditions. On occasion, during periods of hot weather, TV signals from distant transmitters could propagate further than normal and cause intermittent interference to local services. This anomalous form of radio wave propagation is seasonal by nature.

11 Responses

  1. @Adam 21-1-14 8.59pm
    Thanks Adam and yes I fully understand this, but this only raises more questions, such as if different networks feed off different towers and produce different quality signals etc., does that mean that one particular tower is in a prime location that provides quality and reliable signals etc. and the other isn’t?

    Or does it mean if two towers are in prime locations but Kms apart, and if Digital Signals are virtually ” Line of Sight Reliant” for optimal performance, and does this mean that the ” Accredited Authorised Antenna Installer” has chosen to favour one tower over another or opted for somewhere in between, or suggested two antennas, but then the problem arises with ” Triangulation” ie. laterally inline with two towers or at eg.90 degrees, wouldn’t the logical digital solution be, to have all transmitting from the same prime tower with only…

  3. the wollongong area isnt much better . i constantly get drop outs .the reception of prime 7 is especially bad . the reception keeps breaking up dosent matter what the weather is. the signal is poor . bad weather is even worse. i have a relatively new tv and a digital antenna the old analogue reception was much better and more reliable

  4. @Bazza: There has been plenty of advice as to why this retune is occurring. It is to make better use of the broadcast spectrum that is available (i.e. Channels 6-12, 28-51) while freeing up UHF channels 52-69 to be sold off as capacity for other technologies e.g. mobiles.

    Before the retune frequencies were spread across the spectrum in various areas, also not helped by having to share spectrum with analogue TV. The retune will “restack” these frequencies into more efficient blocks. In the capital cities this will mostly mean a switch back to VHF-only transmission (except for Community TV).

  5. @Adam
    I partly agree with the power/quality downgrading as this also occurred in the analogue era and I have several hours of assorted old video tapes showing the distinct difference in picture quality or from no picture,to adds suddenly appearing, most times clearly and loudly! but only for the duration of the add break or ever so slightly longer.
    Now that the analogue TV transmission has completely gone, I am slowly editing to DVD from Hdd USB recordings, the exact same occurrences happening again, but because of the digital cliff effect the picture quality is immediately good or nothing at all with no in between lower quality.
    So could the downgrading be networks trying to operate at the lowest economic cost to themselves and not energy retailers as you suggest, this may also explain the ABC’s and SBS’s better reliability.

  6. It’s rather precious the way they blame “seasonal” effects. Didn’t these seasons exist before they decided we should change to digital?

    I’m waiting for this “retune” that they have yet to adequately explain why we need. It’s going to cause pandemonium, particularly with older viewers.

  7. The one explanation that seems to missing in this continuing saga is ” Despite Extensive Prior Advertising and actual Countdown Warnings of these planned intermittent outages ” viewers still complained, so I ask is this what happened ??
    Or is it that the B/S just seems to go on and on from all concerned, especially it seems from one of ASIO’S secret service branch offices, the Dept of Communications and as in the myswitch mob, and my sympathy and understanding is fully extended to the poor buggers who man the phones to answer questions/complaints about decisions/actions and deliberate misinformation made by those hiding away in their cowards castles.
    This entire analogue TV switch off has been a word for word carbon copy, of the great con job in the lead up to the switch off of our analogue phone network, that possibly came from the same castles?

  8. I would call some bullshit on this

    Most likely the sites are not running on proper UPS and backup generators or they were powered down to half power. To protect the power grid

  9. i think the whole of sth NSW should be investigated.. Canberra… Albury… Wagga signal areas have a history of awful signal problems… and all stations give different reasons

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