‘Time of year’: storms blamed for poor TV Reception

TV RECEPTION

David Gardiner

Journalist

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Poor TV reception at this time of the year is caused by stormy weather.

TV antenna installers in the Douglas region have received a higher than usual number of calls from all over the Shire complaining about poor TV reception and digital signal breakup over the past two weeks.

Complaints were posted on several social media sites, saying there was signal breakup and ‘pixelation’ across the range of commercial and public broadcaster channels available in the region.

Referring to the quality of TV reception mostly from Channels Seven, Nine and Ten, and to a lesser extent ABC and SBS, some post examples were: “shocking”, “unacceptable”, and “yes, pixilated and drops out since the storm a few days back. Although seems better tonight than it has been, been forced to stream TV for a few days.”

One or two posters suggested they had heard that lightning had struck the ‘comms’ tower at Flagstaff Hill in Port Douglas.

But Paul Turnbull of Newell-based Aerials Up North said he had been told by Channel Seven and Douglas Shire Council that a lightning strike to the tower was not the cause.

Mr Turnbull, who has been installing and servicing TV antennas for about 25 years, said the problem was actually caused by a higher than usual amount of atmospheric pressure variations during heightened storm activity along the Queensland coast.

“It’s certainly on the mend, it’s getting better,” Mr Turnbull told Newsport.

“Channel Seven came up on Monday last week and worked on the transmitter and changed a few things but it didn’t fix a thing.

“It’s atmospheric pressure, caused by the storms.”

Mr Turnbull said it’s a typical occurrence around this time of year – November and December – when there are more pre-summer storms affecting broadcasts along the line of repeater-transmitters starting from Brisbane.

So far this year, it was apparent there had already been more storms than in previous years.

Public urged to contact broadcasters

Douglas Shire Council owns the Comms Tower at Flagstaff Hill and has confirmed that there have been no reports of damage to it.

“Council is the owner and is responsible for maintenance. However, the quality and strength of the TV signal is the responsibility of broadcasters,” Douglas Shire Mayor Michael Kerr said.

“Council has received a number of complaints about the TV reception in Douglas Shire and has contacted the relevant broadcasters about the issue.

“We are encouraging anyone who is experiencing ongoing problems with their TV reception to contact the relevant broadcaster.”

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