Question about the Waikato Te Aroha Transmitter

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Question about the Waikato Te Aroha Transmitter

PaulZA

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#113532 19-Jan-2013 17:03

Hey guys....

I posted a similar question about this a while back, however I decided to repost, because I've got another question on this.

Long story, we were in the Waikato (Whangamata) for a few days this week. On the drive home, we tuned into Classic hits 98.6fm in Whangamata, and we expected the signal to drop out as soon as we approached the Bombay hills. However, we all got quite surprised, because the signal didn't drop out at all, we can still pick up the FM signal here well into West Auckland. From both the Waikato Life FM station, and Classic hits. I haven't tried others yet. Although it works better in the car. The system in the house will get it better, if I had to get a proper FM antenna for it...

I just want to know why can you pick up FM from that transmitter, so well into Auckland?

This would be expensive, (and not worth it) but if I got the right antenna boosting equipment, would I be able to receive Freeview from that Te Aroha Transmitter?

Thanks

knoydart

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#747432 19-Jan-2013 17:14

Te Aroha DTT services can be received up in Auckland, well in parts of it. If you have a look at the Freeview coverage maps, you see great coverage heading north from the site which fires it north past the usual boundary of the Bombays.

When the DTT restacking took place in May last year, a handful of viewers around the Hillsbourgh area were affected by the changes as their best coverage (due to the geography) was from Waikato.

oxnsox

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#747447 19-Jan-2013 17:31

FM radio signals are broadcast at (say) around 100mhz. Freebie signals are around 400mhz.
These frequencies both behave quite differently when it comes to range and "bending" around/over obstacles like the Bombay Hills. And of course they both have quite different signal technologies (bandwidth and modulation).

In summary not really a simple comparison

pjamieson

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Chorus

#757115 7-Feb-2013 21:12

FM Frequencies in a location are generally 0.8MHz apart. Regions are set such that next to each other they overlap 0.4 apart, eg: AKL vs Wai. so that removes the interference. You take the fact that Te Aroha is about 1k (within the top 2% of broadcast sites n NZ) tall and several of the Waikato stations can be received in AKL. Especially if you have a decent receiver.