FROM Monday 20 June Regional Broadcasters Australia (RBAH) will commence test broadcasts from a new transmission site at Bulahdelah which is located near the Mid-Coast Water reservoir off the Pacific Highway.

The test broadcasts will run at any time of the day.

This new site is to provide an alternative transmission signal option for viewers that currently suffer from co-channel interference or poor local reception.

All five broadcasters (NBN, Prime, Southern Cross Ten, ABC and SBS) will be broadcast from this new site.

Viewers are advised not to repoint their antennas or retune their digital receivers as yet as these are only test transmissions and may be sporadic.

Viewers will be given the information for the site at a later date when the testing has completed.

The work being undertaken is phase two of an upgrade project to provide alternative television reception sources for residents in the area who suffer from poor reception due to co-channel interference.

Background Since the beginning of Digital Television broadcasts the Ports Stephens and Hunter regions have been affected by co-channel interference from out of area signals.

It affects viewers who receive their broadcast from the Mt. Sugarloaf site.

This interference is dependent on the weather conditions and is more prevalent during the spring and summer months.

This interference can range from minor signal video and/or audio breakup to complete signal loss.

RBAH is working with the federal government to provide funding for a solution to the interference in these areas.

The upgrade to the Port Stephens Transmission site and the installation of the new Wallaroo site is now complete.

Bulahdelah will be the final site in phase one of this project.

This work will provide viewers in the area with an alternative transmission site to receive their television services from.

After the work is completed viewers will have to repoint their antennas to the new site that serves them and manually retune their digital receivers.