AM and FM DX

I have received 92.9 Tamworth during an ABCFM outage. There was no major tropo at the time; the signal was typical fluttery troposcatter.

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Re Mandurah’s new commercial FM station, The Wave, to be broadcast on 91.7 from next month:

Oh yes, I forgot about that. After all, I did receive River 94.9 from Ipswich once before back in February 2017.

I went for a drive up to Singleton today.

Did a bit of DXing at Apex Lookout on MacDougall’s Hill on the north side of town. I haven’t been up there before. The notables for me were:

  • Mt Dowe ABCs were all received with the exception of News on 101.5, where Great Lakes FM was still audible.
  • Though Tamworth ABCs were barely received at all, neither was 92.9 (though I managed to briefly receive that in the car on the way up with positioner and ID of “the widest variety of music, 92point9” (so the brief ONE FM ID is no more).
  • Murrurundi ABCs were received on 96.9 and 104.1 over the Sydney stations (other Sydney stations were weak on 95.3, 101.7 and 106.5).
  • Wollongong ABCs were clearer than the Sydney ones.
  • Orange ABCs were also received, nothing from the Warrumbungles though.
  • No RDS on Central Coast SEA or 2GO, but it was there for Star.
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Are the 2NM/Power relays on 93.3,94.9, and 99.1 still on air? I’m surprised you got 2GO over SBS Muswellbrook too.

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I couldn’t seem to receive those, on the New England Highway they don’t appear until about 10km north of Singleton.

99.1 was ABC Upper Namoi.

Just catching up on the months old news about 4WK turning AM Stereo back on, and it got me thinking about DXing it around the place

Sadly, with Mt Gambier and Griffith both sharing the frequency, opportunities to receive it further south would I imagine be fairly limited

And on that, do many people have AM Stereo receivers they can DX with? I don’t, and a quick Google doesn’t bring much up either. Pity really, as it gets into Brisbane relatively well in the daytime

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A bit of early spring tropo around tonight,
with signals enhanced from the north and south at Stanhope Gardens.

KO Fm was in full stereo but not received with RDS, then completed faded out and is now strong again.

Hit 106.9 and Vox fighting it out on 106.9.
Classic Fm from Middle Brother in stereo on 98.7
Eagle fm slight enhancement.
No intereference to Wollongong tv considering the enhancements of signals from Newcastle.

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Getting some similar results.

Middle Brother stronger than usual.

C91.3 in clear stereo with RDS.

Weak 107.1 Highland FM Bowral.

Sydney stations fading up and down a bit with some instability about, which I don’t usually get.

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Yes getting instability of signals from Newcastle so going the other way here.

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Tamago - try searching for a Sony ST-JX220A on Ebay. Only buy an Australian model as the overseas units didn’t have AM stereo. The sony features the wide mode for near FM quality audio from AM.

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here’s a Yamaha which would have AM stereo as it has an “A” in its model No.

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Tropo again this evening, even better then last night.

Hit 106.9 and KO Fm received in stereo but without RDS. 2ST causing some interference underneath KO Fm. In comparison New fm and 2NUR only just receivable above the static.
Central Coast communities stronger with RDS received on Rhema Central Coast, and less interference to Coast Fm from the Edge.

Eagle Fm received in stereo but very noisy. What is interesting is that even with a very weak signal my tuner still receives RDS for Eagle Fm. In comparison I98, Wave, KO and Hit 106.9 need a strong signal before I can get RDS for these stations.

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Middle Bro and 2HD 97.5 were on the car radio this morning, so it seems tropo season has arrived. We had a NE’ly bringing cooler maritime air under the hot airmass yesterday; nocturnal cooling has preserved and enhanced this inversion. Tropo will likely cease today as we get a hot blast from the NW ahead of a cooler change.

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Here’s another AM stereo tuner for anyone who’s interested

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Different engineers, different settings. Well done to Eagle for a change. Now could they please eliminate the mush on 0.8 spacings that occupy much of the band in Goulburn.

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I think that would be difficult to do with the transmitters being so close to town and one of them being a 40,000 watt blowtorch.

Hi Guys

Just wanted to add a bit of important info for those looking for an AM stereo receiver. Forget the HD radios, even though some can decode AM stereo, they only tune in 10khz steps, so they cannot precisely tune most Australian AM channels & may not decode. Some channels are too far off to receive at all such as 666khz & 954khz.

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This is not a problem in Sydney apart from around Artarmon / Gore Hill, and they are at 150KW so at 40KW in Goulburn it should not be too much of a problem should it??

My car radio does not have too much of a problem when driving past Mt Gray on the Hume as I can normally get all the Canberra fm’s, Sydney but weak, and Snow fm on the Southern side of Mt Gray, and SBS Radio Sydney from the northern side onwards.

another AM stereo tuner found if you’re interested

and another