Tenterfield’s issues with television signal fade are now hopefully a thing of the past with digital microwave links now bringing the signal from Tamworth rather than the terrestrial feed from Lismore.
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The district has long suffered the plight of interruptions to TV viewing, particularly in the mornings and evenings of the warmer months. Spring was heralded a changeover to the new system, with the microwave link now leapfrogging up New England to Mt McKenzie.
Local communications guru Nathan Ross said Tenterfield viewers for the most part have wanted a transmission with New England content for many years, but this wasn’t possible given the nearest transmission tower in Glen Innes. The signal instead came from Mt Nardi in Lismore, complete with news and advertising from the coast.
Mr Ross said the transmission path was long and prone to dropouts, causing issues in Tenterfield and generating a lot of complaints.
“Everything was tried, but it didn’t help.”
The signal now being received at Mt McKenzie is coming from microwave links up the chain of transmission towers from Tamworth, and won’t be weather-affected.
Mr Ross helped with the installation of equipment up on Mt McKenzie to get the signal into position to transmit over town, and was on standby to make sure nothing went wrong during Friday’s changeover.
“Everything went perfectly,” he said.
Viewers will now find some stations in a different position, such as WIN 10 moving from position 52 to 50. Late-models TVs may have already detected the repositioning and tuned in accordingly, but some TVs and set top boxes may need to go through an automatic channel tuning or, at worst case scenario, manual channel tuning.
Marian Rogan is thrilled that some action has been taken. She was at the forefront of letting broadcasters know that the standard of free-to-air reception in Tenterfield was not acceptable.
Like others she turned the TV on Friday morning to see a blank screen and thought, "Here we go again”, but switched to another station to discover an ad from Gunnedah. After returning she found a host of New England stations.
She said the upgrade to microwave is a credit to people power.
“If people instead of just sitting back and complaining actually put pen to paper, it can make a difference,” she said.
“I’m so excited to see something being done. We’ll see how it goes.”
Deputy prime minister and member for New England Barnaby Joyce was one of those who received a letter from Mrs Rogan. He welcomed the changes and was pleased a solution has been put in place.
“The government and the broadcasters have listened to the people of Tenterfield and have worked together to address the ongoing signal drop-out problems in Tenterfield,” he said.