Mt Barrow ABC’s coming into Melbourne as usual…
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94.5 News Radio from Sunshine Coast has been received in Brisbane better than usual this week. (I wish it wouldn’t, prefer the wide coverage of ABC Lismore from Mt Nardi)
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Mt Barrow ABC’s as usual, is this a winter occurrence as well?
I find here that some enhanced levels of FM reception can occur right up until June, but once the winter solstice comes, it all disappears and doesn’t return much at all until as late as December sometimes.
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Got 1494 2AY Albury and 1152 2WG Wagga Wagga at the SCG last night.
Screw SCA and the Triple M brand, 1152 is, was and always will be 2WG. Triple M is FM in Metro areas only.
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Were 2AY and 2WG both airing the AFL last night? (I assume you were there for the Swans game?).
IIRC, 2AY had the AFL and were taking AFL Nation. 2WG may have been taking the idiotic 6pm Friday NRL game.
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Yep. It’s the westerly winds and associated cold fronts that really kill tropo because there are no temperature inversions to play with. The westerlies really don’t get going until after the June solstice as mentioned, particularly in recent years.
There is still plenty of warm air over southern Australia at the moment with 30C as far south as Griffith; high 20s over most of western VIC. The seabreezes and southerlies off Bass Strait cool the lower levels of the atmosphere, setting up a temperature inversion south of the ranges, extending further inland in the morning.
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The Hepburn charts for today through to Wednesday are forecasting some inland tropo at first for Southern NSW, and then some coastal tropo then expanding up the mid north coast by mid week. The strength is only forecasted to be fair to medium.
At my location at present starting to get some enhancments from Canberra, but only very weak. Only receiving ABC Classic Fm and News Radio faintly under the splatter of the locals. Otherwise only permanent signals received.
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Just went out to the point at Ulverstone to sample the high noon groundwave conditions on AM. Basically all of Victoria (excl Mildura) and SE NSW could be received, and powerhouses such as 2CR Orange and 2NR Grafton were in well from further afield. 2RN Sydney was 22 dB strength! 2GB, 2UE were weakly received and 2KY a little better.
The FM conditions are really flat with only the powerful southern Victorian stations (93.1 Melbourne, 95.1 Gippsland) making an impression, and you have to get a bit of elevation to hear even these. Stations like Mold 104.3 and Life 103.9 Gippsland come up OK via As, presumably from MEL-LST/HOB flights.
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Day off today so took the Tucson to look out at Acacia Gardens for some Dxing around 1pm.
As Fm Dxing conditions are pretty flat at present decided to flip over to the Am band. Noticed with the days getting shorter the Am band is starting to come alive earlier in the day
Main catchers where-
1557 2RE
1494 2AY
1053 2CA
648 2NU
All very weak and just audible
No 1566 3NE which can be received to some level all day in mid winter.
The 2018/19 Tucson car Radio is much better for Dxing then my old Corolla on both Am and Fm. On the Fm band there is minimal splatter from the high powered Sydney fm stations. On Am band all the permanent Dxing signals such as, 549/ 666 / 846 / 900 / 981, and 1089 all come in with much greater strength during daytime then on any of my previous car radios.
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Rusting AM masts there? Or that’s further along?
King or Flinders would be interesting for DX.
If you have a SW tuner, be interesting to hear if 5055 kHz is audible?
Groundwave from Bridport today (1300 AEST); Tecsun PL-880& 70 cm PK Loop:
549 2CR Orange between local adjacents 7SD and 7BU.
576 2RN Sydney @30 dB.
603 2RN Nowra- fair strength
612 4QR Brisbane just above the noise floor
648 2NU Tamworth- fair strength
666 2CN Canberra- fair strength
684 2KP Kempsey @22 dB
702 2BL Sydney @30 dB
738 2NR Grafton @29 dB! No doubt about it with rugby league and ‘ABC NSW’ ID.
747- mix of 7PB and presumed 4QS Toowoomba
765 2EC Bega at good strength
792 4RN Brisbane just above the noise
801 Rete Italia Gosford- amazingly at good levels.
846 2RN Canberra
873 2GB Sydney- fair strength
918 2XL Cooma- good strength
954 2UE Sydney- poor
1017 2KY Sydney- poor
1053 2CA Canberra- fair
1170 2CH Sydney- poor
1233 2NC Newcastle- poor
The upper end of the band didn’t travel as well with only stations like 2AY and 3NE making it in.
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Ground wave from the Bay Of Fires (The Gardens) yesterday was stunning; the Sydney commercials were an easy catch and 2RN/2BL were like locals and could easily be received on the car radio. 4QR and 4RN were easily heard with the loop.
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So on the east coast of Tas now? You get around.
For those looking on google maps, this is roughly the stretch of water from St Helens north to the township of Ansons Bay.
1008 is in use in Launceston? Pity. 4TAB could be tried for from there too.
When you’re used to driving mainland distances, traversing Tassie in a day is a piece of cake. I’m in Bicheno for the next two nights, then Hobart (Tranmere) till mid next week. Bicheno should still get the east coast DX.
Since I had a sunny, calm morning (after cyclonic winds last night), I went back to the Bay Of Fires to check the FM DX. Still as flat as a tack.
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1040 Hawaii was good from Bicheno at sunset, along with decent signals from 1570 (KUAU+presumed XERF in Spanish) and 1580 KBLA. Signal strengths are weaker than on the NSW coast however, and there’s no sign of 940 KFIG Fresno which fairly romps in at home.
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@dxnerd and from New Zealand?
Anything from South Africa or South America?
I cringed for you hearing a weather report tonight, cold front approaching Vic and Tas with snow on the peaks. Brace for more cyclonic winds.
NZ is generally weaker than what’s received in NSW. South Americans are hard to catch due to absorption of MW signals near the pole. They are more regularly heard in NZ.
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I was told of IMD/mixing product trouble in Hobart and this has come to pass. 7THE puts out a mother of a spur on 106.1 which is clearly heard in Sorell some 20 km away. I’m not sure if the 92.1 or 96.1 tx is to blame (I suspect the former; 96.1 went off air briefly this afternoon yet the spur remained). There’s also fairly strong IMD on 106.9 (7THE+Ultra 106.5) and weaker mixing products on several other frequencies.
Not a good place for long haul FM DXing, particularly when there’s an East Coast Low about. (80 km/h winds and driving rain here). At least you need never aim the antenna south 
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