A small Queensland (Australia) town with a population of 900 has had it's free to air transmission tower turned off

Bretrick

Well-known Member
Eidsvold, 430 kms - 270 miles, north west of the capital - Brisbane, will lose access to all commercial television stations and SBS, but will continue to receive ABC services through a separate tower.
It saddened me so I wrote to the North Burnett Regional Council to express my disappointment.

The decision of the North Burnett Regional Council to turn off the free to air Transmission Tower is rather mean spirited.
What are the senior citizens to do? Television is their link to the outside world, television allows some pleasure into their lives.
Changes to Television services over time? I can not imagine 80 year olds streaming tv from their nonexistent laptops/computers.
The expense of "necessary infrastructure" would be beyond many residents.
Please show some compassion and restore this service so the citizens of Eidsvold will not feel rejected and forgotten by Australia.

I received a reply from them today.

Thank you for your enquiry. A Notice of Motion was received by Mayor Leslie Hotz on behalf of Cr Michael Dingle to Amend Resolution 2021/42 resolved at Councils Ordinary General Meeting held on 28 April 2021, Item 7.1 Digital TV Retransmission.
Following this notice, a Special Meeting of Council has been called for Monday 6 February 2023. This meeting is scheduled to commence at 3.00pm in the Gayndah Boardroom. No further comment can be made at this time.

I am hoping enough people expressed their disappointment and the service will be restored.


https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01...v-council-closes-transmission-tower/101889944
 

That's like where I lived in Aloha. At one time the city sent out mailings stating "We have bought this property (behind my mother's) we want to build a fire station for quicker response times, what do you think!"

I wrote a response saying "Yay! That's a great plan!" Some dickweed wrote in against it. So they never built and we later sold the place for $250K.

Personally I'd have preferred that if there had been 2 against, compared to one, then you can shelve it. If it's only one, then either do a second remailing, or build it
 
I ditched cable years ago and use the airwaves. I find myself doing other things including trolling the internet. Reception stinks and less than 50 miles from a big city where many stations are based. It could be a clear sunny day or night and it still stinks. Should get about 50 stations can only get about 10 with a clear steady picture on a good day. I can get news or a weather channel so I guess that's all I really need.

That being said antenna tv is old technology which is good and bad. Old stuff breaks but sometimes simplier more basic tech breaks less. Or one only needs smaller upgrades rather than redos.

There should always be alternatives and a back up. People said antenna tv would cease to exist decades ago yet there are now pay services, choices etc one can get without a big satellite dish. It's actually growing/expanding in it's second life.
 
An advocate needs to remind someone they can't just think of these towers as old technology from last century. In many places terrestrial tv and radio are expanding or quite profitable. If not the programming pay services can be broadcast over the air sometimes from a dish or atenna mounted on a tower. They could rent the tower/space as a relay to cell phone or pay services companies. And use for or as a back up for existing government services. They also get to tax pay services.
 
@Bretrick, I received an email back from them.


North Burnett Regional Council​

Thu, Feb 2, 11:54 AM (2 days ago)
to me
Dear Tisha,

Following a request from Mayor Cr Les Hotz a Special Meeting of the North Burnett Regional Council has been called and will be held at the Gayndah Boardroom on Monday, 6 February 2023 commencing at 3.00PM.

The subject of the Meeting is a Notice of Motion received by Mayor Leslie Hotz on behalf of Cr Michael Dingle to Amend Resolution 2021/42 resolved at Councils Ordinary General Meeting held on 28 April 2021, Item 7.1 Digital TV Retransmission.

The recommendation is;

That Council resolves to amend the resolution 2021/42 of 28 April 2021, item 7.1, bullet point 3 – to read as follows:
1. To decommission all digital television retransmission equipment at the Eidsvold tower with a view to effecting shutdown on the following date - 30 June 2023.
2. Should retransmission equipment fail at any time prior to 30 June 2023 that renders the retransmission inoperable, then retransmission shutdown will be from the date of the failure.

NBRC confirms that no action will be taken to decommission the television retransmission equipment at the Eidsvold Tower prior to the Special Meeting of Council scheduled for Monday 6 February 2023.

Kind Regards,
 
Great of you for writing to them expressing your concern.
Trying to understand what their letter means.
This was the headline on the 27th Jan

Small Queensland town of Eidsvold loses most of its free-to-air services as council closes transmission tower​


The North Burnett Regional Council decided in April 2021 to close the tower on 27th January.
It means Eidsvold and some surrounding properties will lose access to all commercial television stations and SBS, but will continue to receive ABC services through a separate tower.

Let's hope that their in box has been overloaded and they will be made to look like scrooge mcduck.
 
The way that I have read that reply Tish, it is the same as
happened here, we changed over to digital transmissions
and the old analogue systems were switched off.

We got plenty of warning about when it would happen, to
allow the purchase of either a digital Set-Top Box, or a TV.

Maybe the residents have done that, the decision was made
in April 2021 as stated in your letter, looks like some reporter
has made a story of it, without listing all the facts.

Mike.
 
Looking like the trend is to pay-per-view. Sadly.

Here in the U.S., our house is on broadcast TV only. Reception is unreliable. And I reside in a metro area. Reading on-line that broadcast TV is a thing of the past and will cease to exist five years or so here in the U.S.

Interested in reading how this plays out for you.
 
Looking like the trend is to pay-per-view. Sadly.

Here in the U.S., our house is on broadcast TV only. Reception is unreliable. And I reside in a metro area. Reading on-line that broadcast TV is a thing of the past and will cease to exist five years or so here in the U.S.

Interested in reading how this plays out for you.
We will keep this thread updated as soon as we get information on it.
 
Eidsvold, 430 kms - 270 miles, north west of the capital - Brisbane, will lose access to all commercial television stations and SBS, but will continue to receive ABC services through a separate tower.
It saddened me so I wrote to the North Burnett Regional Council to express my disappointment.

The decision of the North Burnett Regional Council to turn off the free to air Transmission Tower is rather mean spirited.
What are the senior citizens to do? Television is their link to the outside world, television allows some pleasure into their lives.
Changes to Television services over time? I can not imagine 80 year olds streaming tv from their nonexistent laptops/computers.
The expense of "necessary infrastructure" would be beyond many residents.
Please show some compassion and restore this service so the citizens of Eidsvold will not feel rejected and forgotten by Australia.

I received a reply from them today.

Thank you for your enquiry. A Notice of Motion was received by Mayor Leslie Hotz on behalf of Cr Michael Dingle to Amend Resolution 2021/42 resolved at Councils Ordinary General Meeting held on 28 April 2021, Item 7.1 Digital TV Retransmission.
Following this notice, a Special Meeting of Council has been called for Monday 6 February 2023. This meeting is scheduled to commence at 3.00pm in the Gayndah Boardroom. No further comment can be made at this time.

I am hoping enough people expressed their disappointment and the service will be restored.


https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01...v-council-closes-transmission-tower/101889944
And so it should be.
 


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