What was channel 5a

The only local television news service available in the region is a nightly two-minute summary presented from WIN headquarters in Wollongong.

Annual Report , Australian Broadcasting Tribunal. Skip to comment form. STV 8 reception was spasmodic whereas Adelaide TV was picked up in most parts of the the Riverlands on a decent antenna on a tower I know this because I had relatives and friends there and they all got Adelaide TV reception. Most of these old TV towers have been removed now but even if you have a look on Google street view you can still see the odd one.

How come you never mentioned it in your story? Hi Peter thanks for the clarification. My comments were based on an early press report but happy to amend. In the 70s and 80s virtually every house had one. Not sure of the exact timing of that change, though.

But I am sure it was about the mids. I had to look it up. Yes I remember it well working in the Riverland from to HS Coombes then Associates invested in the station too, I believe. Even shot a fire sale with local firemen running down the street from the back of a ute. Then the film got lost by Stateliner bus on the way via Morgan to Adelaide for processing. Lots of good memories of the blockies and home made vino. Yes it was like yesterday. Both WIN4 and NBN3 could be received in certain parts of this area and many had whacking great antenna's set up for them as well as Sydney.

This show started after 10pm and ran for either 60 or 90 minutes followed by a Movie which meant it was close to 1am before the station closed, we thought that was fantastic to have TV that late.

The movies were real B graders but hey, it was on TV On this show one Saturday night, they demonstrated their new toy, it was a 3 inch Reel to Reel tape recorder to record TV video so they recorded the Live show for some 30 to 45 minutes then replayed it back to show how it worked. Prior to that all these shows were live unless they were recorded on film. That was in the days when the technician had to be there to start up and shut down the transmitters.

I was still in Katoomba when NBN3 went on air and those who tried to receive the signal had problems as the local Radio cab service interfered with the reception, a a bit like CB radio did in later years, particularly with certain brands of TV's like PYE. I also found this. When I moved to here, I had hells own trouble receiving any channels as here was and still is a total 'black spot' for any Terrestrial TV reception. This is when I learnt all about higain antenna's and MHA's, my first MHA was built into a 10 inch long by 1 inch diameter aluminium tube powered by a 6V lantern battery.

The ohm input was one end output and battery lead the other, it was not mounted up the antenna but 'inline'. The hours I spent winter and summer along with my neighbours trying to improve our reception doesnt bear thinking about and some of the things we did are best left unsaid.

Where I was living the was no viewable Sydney reception so I had to try and get the signal from Orange over 80 miles away, ch 1 and 8 Vertical. Weirdly I could NOT pick both channels up together but I had to turn the antenna from one direction to another to get one channel at a time and even then it was very poor.

From memory until I moved, I ended choosing the ABC on ch 1 as it was the best reception at that house. Even now reception varies considerably from house to house so until VAST became available, many had PayTV because you had 13 channels you could see without a screen full of 'snow'. If so, thats the one the Bee Gee's first appeared on As for the rest shown on the list, Oh boy, oh boy oh boy Thanks Gordon that's interesting The TV I lusted after had gone by this date by the looks of things.

It was a 21 inch Admiral which was the full floor model in a rosewood case, with the tuner in one top corner and perhaps the volume in the other. Not a cheapie I can assure you. The 'portable' shown in the advert was similar to our first TV, a Pope Motorola 14 inch with a pair of rabbit ears and as the ad says, being all valves etc, it was fairly heavy to move about.

Last edited by badass; at PM. HG Palmer had a plan that you could buy a TV for 5 Pound deposit, that was about a weeks wages after Tax for a non skilled worker. For a 5 Pound deposit, you got a TV then worth at least 2 years wages The contract however was an 'Agreement to buy'. Similar to what Badass says, all you had to do was ring their telephone number and they came to you even though they had no stores outside of Sydney and I was living in Katoomba back then.

I bought a Stromberg Carlson 21 inch in a console type cabinet from them for which I paid at least 3 times its worth and when it got to the stage where they wouldnt fix it anymore, I managed to get the contract cancelled even though we still owed heaved knows how much because I was under 18 when I signed the contract which was illegal.

Been there, done that and paid the 'Tiller Man' more than once for my ignorance I also seem to remember we had TV insurance