ALL free-to-air television channels will change frequencies in the Batemans Bay and Moruya areas on July 30.
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The Department of Communications says the move is part of a national retune programme that will free up broadcasting spectrum for new services such as mobile broadband.
Areas affected by the Batemans Bay/Moruya transmitter include Batemans Bay, Jeremadra, Tomakin, Rosedale, Malua Bay, Moruya Heads, Moruya, Mogendoura, Bate-
haven, Long Beach, Mogo, Bergalia, Congo, Kiora and Broulee. Narooma and Dalmeny will also be affected.
After channels have changed, viewers will need to retune their digital TV, set-top box or digital TV recorder to find the channels that have moved. Retuning should not be done until after 3.30pm on retune day as channels will not move until then.
Moruya TV technician Neil ‘the antenna guy’ Oxley says the changeover should be “smooth sailing”.
“There might be some wrinkles but I don’t envisage too many,” he said.
He said there would be “big benefits” to TV viewers in the Eurobodalla.
“You won’t be in the middle of a ‘whodunnit’ and be about to find out who the killer is and then a thunderstorm drowns it out with static,” he said.
“The way it is now a Volkswagen can drive past or your neighbour uses a whipper snipper and there is interference, but this won’t happen now.”
However, he believes there should have been more advertising about the changes.
“There should be a scrolling message across the bottom of the TV screen every so often,” he said.
“Technically it is has been poor.”
Retuning is done using the remote. For most systems press the ‘menu’ button on the remote. Look for settings such as ‘channels’ or ‘auto-tuning’ and follow the prompts to retune.
There may be some temporary disruption to all TV services on retune day. Service outages on the days before and after the retune may also be necessary, due to work being conducted at the transmission site.
For more information about the retune, scheduled outages, or to sign up for an SMS or email reminder, visit the retune website retune.digitalready.gov.au, or call the digital ready information line on 1800 20 10 13, 8am to 10pm, seven days.