Canberra's distinct lack of aerials

I’m only Jon Stanhope when I’ve got my tiger print g-string on and Katy Gallagher is spanking me with a TV aerial.

Mr Evil, I’m still trying to work out if you are Jon Stanhope. I’ve never seen your two personalities at the same time together, so it must be true.

Benny/Brenton = same person?

“you are clearly spending close to the same amount of time as I am on here.”

Lemachet: “Trouble Maker”
Brenton: “Newbie”

Now me also being a ‘newbie’ im not entirely sure of the rank system, however I gather that the more posts one does, the higher their rank; and, subsequently, a different name.

So, correct me if im wrong, but according the RA rank system, your previous statement is utter bullshit -, amusing but bullshit.

As for the lonely part, http://www.adultmatchmaker.com – although your probably already have a profile – best of luck with it.

lemaChet 2, Brenton 0.

I didn’t find it offensive at all. However – you are clearly spending close to the same amount of time as I am on here.

You are correct though. I am a very lonely individual. Will you be my friend ?

Game over.

In all serious, I really don’t care. I found it amusing how people such as yourself, get so defensive after leaving comments on my “POST”, then find it insulting I would do the same. Obviously you have, way too much time on your hands sitting on RA all day.

Thanks for defining what RA was for, I was really confused about it there for a minute.

I only hope you don’t continue the obsession you have with this website, in your normal life cause, I think you will find you continue to be a very lonely individual.

Thanks for the laughs.

I think he needs to stretch out his hand, but not from clicking his mouse.

A whole heap of effort – think he’ll need to stretch his mouse hand out now after those 4 clicks? Perhaps if you cant see your toes under your gut, navigating to such a post is a ‘workout’

Actually, RA is not “your” blog.
It was “your” post.

And actually, i’d suggest that your posts were more useless, off the point, stupid, and childish than mine, because you actually went to a whole heap of effort to dig up old posts.

I only hope you don’t choose to carry on this grave digging fetish in your actual life.

Yeah it was payback, cause that was hard to figure out.

His comments on my blog were as useless as mine towards his story. Totally off the point and stupid and childish.

As for my aerial, it has pleased many a house occupant including lemaChet.

You dug up an old thread, and then proceeded to actually get the whole thing wrong ?
I wasn’t complaining about the numbers of aerials on roofs in any way.

… and if it doesn’t work you can always turn to the digital option.

Size it not important – it’s the reception you get when people see it that matters.

or is he just jealous because his aerial is smaller?

Maybe he can’t get it up?

His aerial, that is!

It really epitimises lame, and does nothing for his credibility on that thread to be doing this kind of thing.

Watch it Brenton, I have my tard brush out.

I’d say Brenton is having a go at the poster of this thread as payback ‘cos of an altercation on the Thai restaurant thread.

As you were surfing old stories on RA you decided to give this one of all things air ?

Next thing we’ll be hearing from the Monkey Bikes guy again…

I would just like to say, who gives a shit how many aerials are on peoples rooves. Seriously get a life you wanker.

So, I was walking downt the street today and I noticed there was oxygen in the air.

That last line I wrote is as interesting as your story.

Al it all depends upon where you live. For the great part of Canberra, ie anyone that can see black mountain or Tuggeranong hill you will be fine. If you cannot see it because of hills, like Fraser, parts of Dunlop and many other places an axternal stick is required. With STB’s it is half true. With them if you signal is marginal you will still get a crystal clear picture, but it may suffer pixalisation. STB’s work well in area’s where the signal is poor due to ghosting, but if the signal is low or marginal and STB will not help.

To go right back to Andy’s question, a lot of landlords are cheapskates. They have to pay 50% only of the connection cost of phones on a new place, and they get to keep the results.
And they don’t have to pay for antenna installation at all, even though again they get to keep the results.
You may take the antenna with you, but pretty hard to take the cabling and sockets…

A $70 standard definition digital set top box does a pretty good job on rabbit ears, but 7 gets quite dodgy at times. I understand that the digital signal strength is deliberately kept under-strength so it doesn’t interfere with the analogue signal…

Then there’s the risk of poking yourself inthe eye with the rabbit ears…

Technically, Canberra is in the regional digital roll out area. Which means we will see analogue transmissions end in 2012.

Wow… with a good crap filter you could almost glean enough correct information from the assumptions and mis-informed guesses to get a good reception.
If you consult any competent antennae installer their first question will/should be “Where do you live?” That determines the exact type and location of your antennae. That goes for digital or analogue ( which will be phased out by 2010).

You have to be careful with those things, if I remember correctly array killed Steve Irwin.

Apologies to the pedants, its an array, not an antenna.

Oh you mean a Shintaro Uda antenna 🙂

You forgot to mention that overfly-migratory birds might hit the mast and become concussed, therefore it is also an environmental hazard for birds that would have otherwise been caught by the natural selection wheel.

most homes in canberra have internal antennas in the ceiling space.

the most common type of antenna is a yagi.

reception in canberra is uniformly excellent.

a yagi will work ok for analog and digital.

avoind masthead amplifiers. they are not required in canberra. they cause problems over time and are a major source of TV interference, especially to the houses around you.

if you have interference occurring intermnittently – my money is on some uselss numpty who has installed a masthead amplifier instead of using a better antenna.

I know what it is . I just thought it was a bit over the top for just a TV transmission. 🙂

Rawhide Kid No 2, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEMPEST

In laymans terms, its a method of eliminating interference to the reception between your antenna and your television.

“Magnetically shielded cables and connectors” What the???

I’m in Belconnen and I have pretty dodgy reception. When we moved to Canberra, I was genuinely surprised that there was no aerial plug in the wall. We had to make a dash to the shops to get some rabbit ears. I might investigate the set top box issue.

My neibours have 3 of the friggin things..one UHF, one VHF and something that looks like it belongs on the side of the Millenuim Falcon. Before we got Transact we had rabbit ears…they did the job fine. When something works at an acceptable level, the desire to spend money on it decreases. Since a lot of Canberra is within sight of telstra tower I’d say a lot of people are just fine with whatever the indoor areal picks up.

If we find somewhere with a Fox antenna, I will investigate this option.. thanks S4nta 🙂

nope. there are spare bits on the older fox antennas where you can attach your co-ax cable to the dish. however, seeing your preference for not paying for technology i guess your stuck buddy.

I did a test, plugging my digital tv pc tuner card into both a roof top aerial with mast head amplifier and a 25 year old Thorn brand indoor aerial. The rooftop antenna gave a signal of over 85%, often up to 95%. The bunny ears were not too bad though, coming in at 75-80%. For digital, SD picture was good. HD suffered. Analogue though was crap, though I live in a bit of a black spot below Tuggeranong Hill translator.

WTF ? I barely understand what you mean, except the “for beer” part.

Unless you mean you got one of those adaptors from dicksmith, that adapts the “foxtel” plug to a coax “aerial” plug

I have cheated and stuck a kicker onto the foxbox one. its a bloody ripper. will send details for beer.

Personally, I don’t notice it so much, TV being something that sits in the corner most of the time.
My partner feels otherwise however.

I refuse to pay for transact, or foxtel, or anything like that.

I’ve noticed reception at various places i’ve lived at has been ok, but not great. Since we hooked up to the antenna on the complex roof, it’s crystal clear now though.

It was as much a question as to why they aren’t so prevalent here, and I thought it was the big needle like Maelinar said..

The other drawback with STBs hooked up to indoor rabbit ears is the tendency for them to respond harshly to ‘impulse noise’ from electrical appliances and so on. This will give you a broken picture for a couple of seconds, a frozen picture and/or clicks and pops in the sound.

Very irritating but the more expensive STBs perform better in this regard. Magnetically shielded cables and connectors should elimate it too.

First thing (almost) I noticed when I moved to Canberra – GREAT reception for the TV 🙂 Both standard and digital – single set of (cheap) rabbit ears – never missed a beat.

Agree with Ralph – depending on how crap the crap signal is, a STB may solve the problem. Naturally, they can’t work with a really lousy signal, but in my experience if the analogue signal is anything you might call “watchable” (eg, a bit of ghosting, some weird, lines, but not just a screen full of blurry fuzz), the digital picture will be perfect. Of course, when a digital picture does start to drop out, it tends to be a lot harsher on the eyes/ears than the gradual drop-off of analogue.

Also, if you want to see external antennae, come to Fraser – being positioned behind Mt Rogers, everyone has an external aerial, many on nice big poles.

We have a redundant one at our place you’re welcome to take away. Crapy reception is but a distant memory with top quality, crystal clear telly pumped directly into the lounge room care of TransACT.

You know that great whopping ‘hyperdermic’ looking thing on Black Mountain ?

It doesn’t exist in most other cities. Question answered.

ours is hidden in the roof, but rabbit ears work fine anyway in Belco for me.

Not true. I had poor analogue reception on a set of rabbit ears indoors. With the same set of indoor rabbit ears and a STB I have beautiful reception. With digital you either have a signal or you don’t.

Some people have aerials inside their ceiling space, and many people live in a strong enough signal that basic rabbit ears do the job fine. I had an antenna put up last year with a signal amplifier (I’m hidden behind Mt Jerrabomberra), and my reception went from mediocre to excellent.