Receive Australian tv on west coast?

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gareth41

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#73575 16-Dec-2010 12:29

Back in the early days of tv it was possible to receive VHF at night from Aussie on northlands west coast, so ive heard. We have a holiday house (bayleys beach) over looking the tasman sea about 30m above sea level, would it be possible to receieve aussie VHF analogue and possibly DVB-T at night with a high gain directional antenna pointed at the north west? we have line of sight to the horizon

gehenna

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#418072 16-Dec-2010 12:31

Why you'd want to is beyond me, having lived there the quality of their TV is atrocious. Even NZ's channels and programming are better.... which is saying something.

farcus

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#418082 16-Dec-2010 13:03

you can get SBS off of optus D2 satellite - that woudl be much easier to obtain and much more consistent.

sbiddle

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#418083 16-Dec-2010 13:06

Picking up signals from Australia is something that happens mainly during Summer when signals bounce due to atmospheric conditions. It's a freak thing - and not something that will happen all the time.

If you want Aussie TV get a dish.

Speedy885

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#418159 16-Dec-2010 16:05

Why would you want aussie tv? is there a specific program they broadcast only in aussie that you want to watch? maybe buy the DVD, as it would be much cheaper than a high gain antenna system. Also there would have to be special atmospheric conditions for it to happen as VHF signals are not necessarily able to be received at the horizon no matter how much RF power the transmitter has.

mckenndk

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#418181 16-Dec-2010 17:05

Just buy a satellite disk etc off trademe and use that there are plenty of websites that tell you what way to point it etc if no one near by has a disk.

If you go for a bigger dish and point it the right direction you will be able to get channels from a few different countries.

Dion

old3eyes

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#418218 16-Dec-2010 18:59

The only decent ozzy channels around are ABC and SBS. SBS on the sat has some good docos..

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Old3eyes

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sbiddle

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#418225 16-Dec-2010 19:22

mikelday: Why would you want aussie tv? is there a specific program they broadcast only in aussie that you want to watch? maybe buy the DVD, as it would be much cheaper than a high gain antenna system. Also there would have to be special atmospheric conditions for it to happen as VHF signals are not necessarily able to be received at the horizon no matter how much RF power the transmitter has.

VHF skip to NZ is actually a huge problem, particularly in the lower VHF frequencies. Both Police and Fire here in NZ have encountered huge issues in recent years as the ESA band (~75MHz) repeater input frequencies in NZ are the same as the transmitter output frequencies in Aussie. This has caused huge issues during Summer when the atmospheric conditions are right.

gareth41

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#418233 16-Dec-2010 19:38

just wanting to have a try as an experiment, since ive heard that its possible. Already have SBS and Ten on a sky dish, although Ten is only there sometimes after a blind scan then it dissapears a day or two later.

wreck90

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#418237 16-Dec-2010 19:48

Much cooler than getting a dish though.

Speedy885

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#418243 16-Dec-2010 19:58

sbiddle:
mikelday: Why would you want aussie tv? is there a specific program they broadcast only in aussie that you want to watch? maybe buy the DVD, as it would be much cheaper than a high gain antenna system. Also there would have to be special atmospheric conditions for it to happen as VHF signals are not necessarily able to be received at the horizon no matter how much RF power the transmitter has.

VHF skip to NZ is actually a huge problem, particularly in the lower VHF frequencies. Both Police and Fire here in NZ have encountered huge issues in recent years as the ESA band (~75MHz) repeater input frequencies in NZ are the same as the transmitter output frequencies in Aussie. This has caused huge issues during Summer when the atmospheric conditions are right.

Wow what a coincidence those frequencies are the same! although wont be a problem soon as aus is converting to digital TV and police/fire are now getting digital radios. Amazing what you can find out on GZ.

xarqi

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#418387 17-Dec-2010 09:46

farcus: you can get SBS off of optus D2 satellite

That's Optus D1, same as the NZ FTA channels and Sky.

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farcus

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#418414 17-Dec-2010 10:25

xarqi:
farcus: you can get SBS off of optus D2 satellite

That's Optus D1, same as the NZ FTA channels and Sky.

oops - sorry - of course D1
my mistake

lannykaster

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#421102 23-Dec-2010 20:19

gareth41: just wanting to have a try as an experiment, since ive heard that its possible. Already have SBS and Ten on a sky dish, although Ten is only there sometimes after a blind scan then it dissapears a day or two later.

i can recieve SBS/1 and SBS/2..... how do you get TEN????

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SteveON

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#421121 23-Dec-2010 21:36

Yes it is the same satellite but you need to be in the range of the transponders. If you can see D1 it does not mean you can receive all its downlink; satellites have many transponders pointing to different regions.

pjamieson

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Chorus

#421309 24-Dec-2010 12:11

The frequencies you can pick up from Aussie (generally in the middle of summer) are the low frequency VHF channels, ie: VHF-L Channel 1, 2 & 3 around 50 MHz. I used to pick these up on the (proper!) West Coast (South Island) when I lived there in the 90's with an FM Aerial (actually even when it wasn't even pointed at Aussie - as we used it to pick up FM from Chch!). I also picked Aussie FM stations, and some stations from Northland (88 - 108 MHz)! The same phenomenon exists every night with AM (0.06 - 1.6 MHz) although these are mostly drowned out by NZ AM.

These frequencies have long wavelengths that can bounce off the Ionosphere given the right conditions. The main TV stations broadcasting on these channels (like TV ONE in alot of places in NZ) with enough power is ABC TV and possibly SBS. But as has been said these are being switched off due to ASO. I don't think DTV broadcasts on this band in Oz, but I think it does on the higher VHF Channels (200+ MHz) and obviously UHF 600+ MHz which you would definitely be unable to pick up here.

As everyone has said the best bet is to invest in the Digital world (satellite), as even if you could still pick these channels up, it won't be for much longer.