Fixing Pixelating Free-to-Air Channels & “No Signal” in Gippsland & South Gippsland

Start with the symptom

Before anyone climbs a ladder, the pattern of the fault tells you a lot. Every channel gone on every TV points to the antenna, the main cable or an amplifier. One network pixelating while others are fine points to a marginal signal, interference or the wrong antenna type. One TV failing while the others work points to that room's outlet, cable or the TV itself. Problems only in rain point to water in a connector; only in wind, to a loose mast or clamp; only on foggy mornings, to a system with no margin.

Which transmitter Gippsland homes should use

Gippsland sits between two very different transmitters. Mt Dandenong, to the west, broadcasts the Melbourne networks on VHF with horizontal polarisation. Mt Tassie, in the Strzelecki Ranges south of Traralgon, broadcasts the regional networks on UHF channels 28, 29, 30, 31 and 33, also horizontal, at up to 400 kW.

In the Latrobe Valley the answer is clear: Mt Tassie, about 22 kilometres due south of Traralgon and 23 kilometres south-east of Morwell. Around Warragul and Drouin it is genuinely a choice — both sites are about 62 kilometres away, in almost opposite directions. In South Gippsland, Leongatha looks east to Mt Tassie at about 55 kilometres and Korumburra at about 65; on the western edge around Nyora and Loch, Mt Dandenong can be the better option.

Because one site is VHF and the other UHF, the antenna has to match. A Melbourne-style VHF antenna pointed at Mt Tassie, or a UHF antenna pointed at Mt Dandenong, will pixelate however carefully it is aimed.

Local repeaters and polarisation

Several Gippsland towns have low-power repeaters for areas the main sites cannot reach. Churchill and Moe–Newborough have UHF repeaters with horizontal polarisation. Yarragon South serves Trafalgar and Yarragon on UHF with vertical polarisation. Foster North serves Foster on UHF, horizontal. Inverloch has a small UHF repeater with vertical polarisation.

The vertical ones catch people out. An antenna mounted horizontally receives very little from a vertically polarised transmitter, so a perfectly good antenna can give a poor picture simply because it is mounted the wrong way for the site it points at.

4G and 5G interference

Mobile phone towers are a growing cause of pixelation in regional towns. 4G and 5G signals sit near the bottom of the UHF TV band, and a strong mobile signal can overload a TV amplifier. The result looks exactly like a weak TV signal: blocky pictures, missing channels, dropouts. The cure is an LTE filter fitted before the amplifier. We have installed them on Traralgon and Morwell jobs where the meter showed mobile interference was the cause.

Hill country: height beats size

In the hills around Korumburra, Nyora, Loch, Poowong and Thorpdale, a ridge between the house and the transmitter can block the signal at roof height. A mast that lifts the antenna a few metres often clears it. On some properties a pole mount on higher ground, with cable run underground to the house, is the only reliable answer. High-gain phased-array antennas and masthead amplifiers help — but an amplifier only helps if the signal reaching it is clean. Added to a poorly aimed antenna, it just amplifies noise.

Farms, sheds and long runs

Gippsland properties often need TV in the house, a second dwelling, the shed and the dairy. Each extra metre of cable loses signal, and cheap RG59 loses a lot. Low-loss RG6, a distribution amplifier at the house and conduit where stock or machinery cross keep every outlet working. Pump motors and electric fences can radiate interference into poorly shielded cable; quad-shield cable and sealed connectors reject most of it.

Reading your TV's signal screen

Most TVs have a signal information screen in the channel or setup menu. It usually shows a strength bar and a quality bar for the current channel. Strength high and quality low points to interference, reflections or overload — including 4G/5G interference. Both low points to the antenna, its aim or a lossy cable. Both fine on one network but poor on another points to a marginal antenna or the wrong antenna type for the site. Noting those readings before you call helps us arrive with the right parts.

A tip for regional homes: if your TV found duplicate networks during a scan — for example, two versions of ABC — it is receiving more than one site. Retuning so each network comes from the cleaner site often fixes intermittent pixelation on its own.

Why a rescan sometimes makes things worse

Automatic scans store whatever is strongest at the moment of scanning. On a foggy morning, a weaker site may briefly be stronger, and the TV locks to it. Later in the day the picture breaks up. Where a home can see more than one site, we tune manually so each network comes from the source that is most stable over time, not just at the moment of the scan.

What we do on a Gippsland visit

We meter every realistic site from your roof — Mt Dandenong, Mt Tassie and any local repeater — explain what we found and quote a fixed price. Then we install or repair with the right antenna type, a mast suited to the exposure, sealed connectors and balanced outlets, and retune every TV. Repairs start from $98, the call-out is $0 when you go ahead, and you save $120 on a new antenna install.