[Waverley ARS] Persistance can pay off.

[Eric van de Weyer]

Hi everyone,

 

Had an interesting thing with the Sydney Harbour Tunnel which proved that
persistence can pay dividends.

 

Some months ago, there was a problem with the FM rebroadcast system in the
tunnel where we lost ABC-FM (the station I normally listen to) for quite a
long time (over a month) . After several enquiries and complaints to them,
they finally told me that the off air receiver had failed and that they were
obtaining a replacement one. 

 

Eventually, the service was restored some weeks ago but the modulation level
was significantly higher than previously causing distortion to the audio
received whilst in the tunnel. Previously there was no discernable
difference between the direct and rebroadcast signals, as it should be. I
also checked a couple of other stations and they were still correct with no
level differences.

 

So, last week I put in another complaint about the signal and the fact that
it seemed to be overdriving. 

 

Yester day I received a reply that they had checked it and everything was
OK. The tech had driven through the tunnel and claimed that the signal was
fine and, to him, a bit clearer (indicating that, in fact, he was hearing a
difference) and that they would not be doing any more about it.

 

I replied to him yesterday that there was indeed a difference and that it
had only commenced once the new receiver had been placed into service and
suggested that they take another drive through using proper measuring
equipment to get a quantitative reading on it rather than just listening to
it if they couldn't tell the problem especially as they had indicated that
they had noticed a difference. 

 

I received a reply today saying that they had been in contact with the
receiver manufacturer and that, indeed there should be a gain adjustment on
the receiver but there is none fitted to that particular unit. They will be
installing one in the next week or so and will then be able to adjust the
signal correctly.

 

Just goes to show that if you persist and prove that you do have some
knowledge about what you are talking about, they do eventually listen.

 

73....Eric VK2VE.