Still off air when checking out your Melbourne SDR.
Iâve spoken with the Melbourne TXA team this morning regarding SYN FM being off air, apparently they (SYN FM) currently have no transmitter maintenance contract with anyone & donât have their own techs capable of transmitter repairs. While the transmitter is at the TXA site, itâs only a site space rental deal, but one of the TXA guys has been & taken a look at it & apparently they have a few fairly serious issues with the transmitter.
They werenât even aware they were off air until TXA contacted them this morning, & just now theyâve engaged a contract tech to go & investigate/fix it.
It depends on how bad things are & how easy parts are to get, but get your DXing done now, as Iâd expect it to be back on air sometime later today?
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Youâre running a radio station and youâre not even aware that your primary FM transmission has been off-air for several days. Thatâs unbelievable really.
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I commented on their Instagram post âwhy are you off the air on fmâ, despite being not in the area, and SYN responded, confirming that they are âexperiencing an outage with the FM broadcastâ. I listened online and it works. Thanks for the useful TXA information.
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Unbelievable. Do all of the volunteers stream or listen in DAB+? Or maybe not listen to anything other than their own show!
The perils of no off air monitoring, or at the least carrier/audio fail alarms.
When did they first go off the air on FM?
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Iâve had an update on SYN, if you were shocked at my previous post, this one will blow you off the chair.
Apparently the contract tech isnât going to look at the SYN FM Transmitter today & it might be off for quite a while yet, as they currently donât have a license to operate it (they have a BSL but not the actual apparatus license to transmit), & itâs been more than 60 days since SYN had to resubmit an application, so everyone is currently waiting on further feedback from ACMA & SYN (what they are going to do about it).
All things considered & seeing as theyâve been operating a transmitter for who knows how long without a license to do so, ACMA will possibly (should be definitely) cancel their community license/status.
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That did blow me off my chair! Thanks for the update @anon71206228. Trying to think of something more extreme than unbelievable now. 
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@anon71206228 I heard that SYN got a new Harris transmitter not too long ago when Nova and Smooth in Melbourne upgraded. Iâm guessing thatâs not right.
That is genuinely unbelievable @anon71206228
I noticed only on Thursday evening just gone, not sure if any of the Victorians here could shed light as to whether it has been much longer than that.
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Nova & Smooth got new Gates Air transmitters a while back when they moved from TXA Obs Rd to BAI Eyre Rd. SYN from what I understand got one of the old Nova/Smooth BEâs that they didnât want & left behind, but have since got a new RFE transmitter, which is the faulty one, but they also have program input issues so canât put the BE to air, but then being unlicensed they canât put anything to air anyway.
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They were on air on Thursday at 3pm, they went off air sometime after that (maybe around 5pm?)
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I canât speak to this situation, but Iâm aware of more than one station who has let their apparatus license lapse in the past - and the ACMA was fine to renew it. Iâm surprised there isnât a more proactive process from the regulator, to be honest (not excusing anyone for being bad at their paperwork either!).
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Wow⊠itâs shocking to me that they havenât even posted anything about this on their social media, but they HAVE posted their annual fundraiser pitch.
I think this is not a very well-run place in general. For example Iâve noticed that there are programs on their programming grid that have been off air for years. They just have sat there, with nobody bothering to update it
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Yes, stupid me. Gates Air.
Iâd never heard of RFE before. Itâs an Italian company. Letâs hope their TXs donât have the same electrical issues that many Italian cars have!
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SYN have addressed the outage on their social media: SYN FM on Instagram: "Our FM broadcast is currently out of action đ„Č We are doing our best to get it back on air but in the meantime you can still tune into SYN via our web player at syn.org.au or via any digital radio app like @communityradioplus Stay tuned to SYN! đ»â€ïžâđ©č"
Notice the wording, where it says DAB but then âonline, or digital radio apps like Community Radio Plusâ
In their email to me they also mentioned âDigital radio appsâ
I think they do not know what DAB is. Most young people wouldnât. Almost nobody uses it.
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That could permanently open up FM DXing opportunities for us! Let us have OUR moment! 
Often people think the RDS RT is âdigital radioâ. I donât know what the survey methodology is in Australia, but often wonder how many people say theyâre listening via DAB when theyâre not.
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Looks like this has been fixed as of today
https://web.acma.gov.au/rrl/licence_search.licence_lookup?pLICENCE_NO=1170755/2
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I mean there certainly are listeners - the DAB+ only station ratings show this. I just wonder what % of people think theyâre listening to âdigitalâ when theyâre not.
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Obviously enough to warrant new TX installations on the GC in the past few years. (Commercial and ABC/SBS)
Id say its a reasonable amount
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