Television interference issues in the Dandenong Ranges? Despite close proximity to Mount Dandenong, the beautifully hilly landscape of the Dandenong Ranges (including Belgrave, Upwey and the Dandenong ranges) does not immediately equate with straight forw

ard television reception. Two of the main transmitters in Selby and Upwey frequently are interrupted by poor signals. There are hundreds of potential signal issues, with potential to cause signal breakup particularly during springtime storms. Here is a list of suggestions:

Don’t retune your television. We strongly recommend that unless you know how to manually rescan the affected frequencies, depending on the make and model of your television there is a very good chance that the television will see the lower frequency Mount Dandenong channels and attempt to lock these. Ordinarily this would not be an issue, however if your aerial is not designed for these frequencies, you will end up with a weaker signal than you started with. A band pass filter can help with filtering out the non block c channels as can a manual channel scan. For more information, please go to: https://myswitch.digitalready.gov.au and check your television manufacturer’s website for all relevant information.

get a technician with a spectrum analyser to check the different available television transmitters in your area, antenna type, location, and ensure that signal levels are well above the digital cliff edge.

Get the technician to check suitability of cabling for UHF. As is often the case, inferior splitters and coax may have been used from When analogue and Mount Dandenong were the ONLY choice. As the local Upwey transmitter is a low power tranmitter on UHF the quality of connections, splitters and coax is crucial. Your television reception is only as good as your weakest link. Whilst checking this sounds like it may be a waste of time, there is no point replacing an aerial and leaving other dubious issues in your system, particularly as these parts are the unseen, often unchecked parts of the equation that make the sum of the components be it a good set of figures or not!

While they are there they can check for noise from faulty equipment, and LTE long term evolution 4g cell phone signals. Whilst this may not altogether remove the possibility of occasional breakup, a good signal will help to ensure far greater stability of television reception.

Amplifiers that are faulty or poor connections are often also aggrevated by strong winds and the vibrations caused.

A quality aerial should be designed to cope with the issues of your location, be it a scattered signal or other clashing broadcasts. Beamwidth, gain, frequency response, return loss are just some of the main factors that ought to be considered in an aerial. In an amplifier intermodulation distortion (noise), gain, minimum input level, and of course durability are all important factors. What does this mean? Price alone is only one factor. Performance is application vs performance requirements, which is often counter balanced by price. Televisions are not cheap, an aerial is and a good system will likely outlast any television by a factor of at least 2:1. Quality workmanship,

Once you are certain that your television system is free from faults, there may be cause to contact the broadcaster and the ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority), be aware that trees and buildings can scatter signal causing ghosting (as it was called on analogue or signal dropout on digital). It is for this reason that we recommend using a skilled technician, without having accurate information, the ACMA and broadcasters may be reluctant to help. After all, they rely on accurate information, and may choose not to help resolve an issue that is internal in your system.

Andrew Lacey from Antenna IQ has the answers. With over 21 years of local expertise and the latest high performance spectrum analysers, he has the data, products, and the know how to fix all your television reception issues. Precise antenna choice, correct location and build of aerial has a massive effect on the performance and reception of all television stations.

Andrew not only carries a wide range of quality digital antennas from the best suppliers, he also knows how to get your television, surround sound, sound bars, dvds, and bluray players all communicating to each other using CEC and ARC technologies. He can also install multiroom sound, home theatre and even mount televisions. Foxtel and other video distribution technologies are no challenge, including C and Ku band foreign language services.

Should you have any television or entertainment requirements, Andrew Lacey is the technician more locals use.