LOCALS who are receiving dodgy television reception are being urged not to buy unnecessary antenna boosting equipment because the problem is with the TV tower at Mount Sugarloaf.
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Residents are encouraged to check which tower they receive their reception from before assuming their antenna or TV is at fault.
Many households in Lake Macquarie and the northern parts of Wyong Shire have lost reception for Channel 7 and Channel 10 because of maintenance work on the Newcastle TV tower at Mount Sugarloaf.
The Lakes Mail has received calls from residents of Cooranbong, Dora Creek, Wangi Wangi, Morisset, Wyee, Toukley, Charmhaven and Hamlyn Terrace, reporting the same problem.
The Department of Communications said the Mount Sugarloaf tower is being upgraded as part of Australia's move to digital-only television.
TV reception from that tower may be impacted.
A temporary transmitter has been installed to broadcast some television signals while part of the tower is worked on.
"This temporary antenna has a slightly different pattern of signal coverage compared to the original, which may potentially impact the reception of channels for a small number of viewers in the Newcastle area," a spokesperson said.
Charmhaven resident Geoff Burgess said he was lucky he didn't buy hundreds of dollars worth of unnecessary antenna-boosting equipment.
Mr Burgess rang three companies to get quotes before realising the problem was not at his end.
"I thought 'Why am I still receiving all the other channels, but not [Channel] 7 and [Channel] 10?'," Mr Burgess said.
While Mr Burgess's house has been affected, other houses in his street have not.
This is because some suburbs, such as Charmhaven, have multiple towers broadcasting into the area, which means the impact can be hit and miss.
Mr Burgess is worried other residents, particularly pensioners, might not be aware the problem is temporary and spend unnecessary money trying to fix the problem.
He said he knows of an elderly women in Hamlyn Terrace who spent $600 on antenna equipment which failed to solve the issue.
Mr Burgess said the Department of Communications should have notified residents about the reception problems.
The Department of Communications said it carries out a comprehensive community and media campaign that begins about six weeks prior to each retune, which for the Newcastle tower will be September 10.
"However, due to the huge volume of work ... in preparation for the retune across the country, it is not always possible to inform viewers through other media about outages that occur a long way ahead of the scheduled retune," a spokesperson said.
"For the Newcastle retune, our primary media outreach is due to begin shortly."
The irony of the Department of Communications being responsible for a breakdown in communication is not lost on Mr Burgess.
Normal TV coverage should return when the temporary unit is removed on August 18.
However there will be further works carried out on the tower on August 19, and September 10 and 11, which may cause similar reception problems for some households.
Check which tower
RESIDENTS can check which TV tower they are likely to be receiving their signal from by visiting digitalready.gov.au/retune or by calling the Digital Ready Information Line on 1800201013.
