South Island analogue switch off, this Sunday 28 April

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B1GGLZ

1961 posts

Uber Geek

#809961 2-May-2013 08:51

gareth41:

No amount of power used will every get a radio signal beyond the horizon

Rubbish.
HF signals bounce off the ionosphere/troposphere all around the world and back again. How do you think the Titanic's SOS was heard over the horizon?
I can often talk to Ham operators in Australia on 50mhz (near TV Ch1) during the summer months using just 10 watts or less..
Propogation is possible via ionosphic bounces and sometimes troposhpheric ducting.
And in fact TV signals from CH1 (46 - 51mhz) did (and still do in the North Island) cause considerable interference in the bottom end of the 6m Ham band. The signals are/were received in Australia and other countries during the same summer periods.
Depending on the time of day and the atmospheric conditions it is easily possible to talk around the world on frequencies up to about 30mhz. Higher than that it becomes increasingly difficult but NZ Hams have (rarely) talked to Australian Hams on 1296mhz.

Flippikat

156 posts

Master Geek

#810401 2-May-2013 18:59

grant_k:
I can't help wondering what future uses will be found for the vast tracts of VHF frequencies that have been, or are about to become, deserted. They are capable of travelling for very long distances compared to cellular phone signals, yet the bandwidth is much more limited, so effective throughput is less. However, for slow speed telemetry, VHF can still be useful.

Well, there's always digital radio - depending on whether the economics stack-up..

grant_k

3539 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#810411 2-May-2013 19:18

Flippikat:
grant_k:
I can't help wondering what future uses will be found for the vast tracts of VHF frequencies that have been, or are about to become, deserted. They are capable of travelling for very long distances compared to cellular phone signals, yet the bandwidth is much more limited, so effective throughput is less. However, for slow speed telemetry, VHF can still be useful.

Well, there's always digital radio - depending on whether the economics stack-up..

Agreed. But unless something radical changes I don't think we'll ever see it in NZ. As was recently pointed out on another thread, the advent of streaming radio via the net has pretty much killed any chance of DAB in our market. The window of opportunity has now closed, as the business case for making that level of investment doesn't exist. More's the pity...

Flippikat

156 posts

Master Geek

#810950 3-May-2013 18:07

grant_k:
Flippikat:

Well, there's always digital radio - depending on whether the economics stack-up..

Agreed. But unless something radical changes I don't think we'll ever see it in NZ. As was recently pointed out on another thread, the advent of streaming radio via the net has pretty much killed any chance of DAB in our market. The window of opportunity has now closed, as the business case for making that level of investment doesn't exist. More's the pity...

Digital radio probably won't get any traction with the big 2 commercial operators, because the extra capacity it could offer MAY open the door for other operators, eroding any advertising income that they currently have.

RustyViewer

296 posts

Ultimate Geek

#810990 3-May-2013 20:17

New Zealand is too small for too many radio stations. I'm amazed we have as many TV stations as we do. There's plenty of radio stations on the FM and AM bands now - more than enough.

I wouldn't be surprised if they shut down AM at some point though.

Flippikat

156 posts

Master Geek

#811048 3-May-2013 22:30

RustyViewer: New Zealand is too small for too many radio stations. I'm amazed we have as many TV stations as we do. There's plenty of radio stations on the FM and AM bands now - more than enough.

I wouldn't be surprised if they shut down AM at some point though.

We only have so many stations now because of the auctioning of frequencies in the 1990s making it easier to pick up a license - if you have the cash to bid, it's yours.

Networking stations from Auckland (inserting regional advertising for each market) has no doubt driven down costs & raised revenue as well.

The only problem is that a virtual duopoly in commercial radio has meant that for every 'Radio Network' station, there's a Mediaworks competitor:

Newstalk ZB v Radio Live
Radio Sport v Live Sport
ZM v The Edge
Hauraki v The Rock
Flava v Mai FM
etc.

That's left little room for any niche formats like Country Music or Jazz - although stations like Coast & The Sound have tweaked their formats a little to stand out from the throng.

alasta

6704 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#811202 4-May-2013 14:52

RustyViewer: New Zealand is too small for too many radio stations. I'm amazed we have as many TV stations as we do. There's plenty of radio stations on the FM and AM bands now - more than enough.

I wouldn't be surprised if they shut down AM at some point though.

That would be a shame. In a lot of NZ cities it's hard to get line-of-sight to an FM transmitter so if I'm in the car and want to listen to talk radio then switching to AM is an ideal solution. The only problem is that AM picks up major interference from the trolley bus wires in Wellington.

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asasinz2

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#811203 4-May-2013 14:56

Interesting to read this thread. I can claim credit to uploading the Analogue switch off video on Youtube. I am surprised more people in the South Island ddin't do the same.
In order to record that video I had 4 devices that could record setup. An old VCR, a DVD recorder, an Laptop with a TV tuner card and desktop computer with a TV card, all equipment I previously owned.
I was intending on including TV1, 2, 3 and Southland's CUE TV. I decided on CUE TV over Prime and FOUR since both those channels would have been screening Infomercials at the time and no other part of the country would be able to capture this. CUE TV I didn't included simply they didn't go off air on Sunday morning, I actually kept the VCR recording CUE for hours later but missed out on capturing the shut down simply because they didn't shut down until Thursday at the latest. CUE broadcast from Forrest Hill instead of Hedgehope where the other networks broadcast from.

I wasn't expecting a big fanfare when any of the networks went off given the shutdown took place at 2am and most of NZ TV now screens the same content our regional split now coves the entire South Island and is only used for the purpose of advertising.
Regional channels like CUE perhaps could have done so.
It appears only the USA went to the trouble of shutting down during the local news and showing footage of someone flicking the switch at the transmitter.

Hopefully more will record the North Island going off the air and with the idea of recording a split screen of Digital and Analogue one way to do this may be if you have a TV with Picture in Picture and that TV can output its picture to another device this may be the way to go.

RustyViewer

296 posts

Ultimate Geek

#811210 4-May-2013 15:34

It would be nice if there was some sort of ceremony in the final switch off. The North Island switch off will be the major one because that is the majority of the population, and it will be interesting to see who gets caught off guard there.

hdinsider

552 posts

Ultimate Geek

#811231 4-May-2013 17:10

RustyViewer: It would be nice if there was some sort of ceremony in the final switch off. The North Island switch off will be the major one because that is the majority of the population, and it will be interesting to see who gets caught off guard there.

There's not much that can be done. The transmitters are controlled remotely and are fed from a common point in the studios.

The reality is that from the broadcasters perspective, it's transmission as normal on DTT and DTH.

don't mess with me.... i'm the hd insider....

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