THE most frustrating communication tool we have is our TV set.

It should be a simple exercise of just switching it on for the news or the entertainment we need.

Would you like to watch tennis, football or any other world class sporting event or even the local evening TV news?

Of course you would, but now things start to go wrong.

The picture breaks up, it pixelates, your set says the TV is not tuned properly, check the antenna connection…

If it could think of another reason why your picture has evolved into panic mode, I’m sure it would.

Some blame the NBN, others blame the wind which could sway the antenna, maybe there is a storm between us and Newcastle and others might say it’s your TV set which could need to be upgraded or re-programmed.

Having worked my way through all these issues and found that none of them apply to my TV sets, I guess I just become frustrated and cannot do anything practical to restore stable viewing.

Eventually quality viewing is restored automatically so we let go of the issue rather than try to sort it out.

I now have a list of other TV viewers in our approximate area, living in nearby locations up to 25 kilometers away from home and they report the same pixelating picture syndrome when I telephone them to say my TV reception is at it again, so how is yours doing?

In every instance they report the same issue and say how frustrating and incurable the issue has become.

So, whose fault is it?

My view is that the issue is located at the transmission tower where our pictures are delivered from.

My guess is that there is lack of maintenance at this location which results in transmission interruption or failure.

The fact that the picture quality suddenly reverts to normal means that the issue at transmission is seen and resolved at the end.

Isn’t it interesting that the advertisements usually transmit without issue but the plot in the movie is lost whilst the pixelation takes over.

So, what can we do about it?

I’m amazed that in our general location with a majority of retired folk who have the time and need for reliable TV broadcasts, are not operating in revolt mode, are not writing letters to politicians or driving the TV repair guys to distraction over this continuing picture failure.

Maybe they are but still nothing is happening to resolve the problem.

This is an issue that detracts from our way of life and in a first world country with skilled communication professionals, why is this happening?

At present we have a first world service that is operating in a third world fashion.

The media giants need to be put on notice that the public’s acceptance of poor reception is wearing thin and they need to do something about it.

Free TV is a great concept but needs to work efficiently where content is good, but delivery performance is very poor.

By John BLACKBOURN