107.9 due to host a temporary broadcast again from Eastern Creek Raceway from 10 June
1 Like
Good to know, I’ll be sure to check if I can receive this pop-up station when the time comes! 
Hi all,
Looking for some advice to replace my trusty handheld FM radio (Sony SRF-S84) that I use when traveling. This little baby has given me some fantastic listening for the last 10 years not only on the ground, but up in the air while in flight.
Can anybody recommend a good handheld FM radio receiver, preferably with RDS? Other features that would be ideal would be recording and saving function and decent battery life, and iTunes Tagging via RDS.
I’ve got an upcoming trip to America, and 5 years ago flying from LA to NY listening to my Sony in the air was an amazing experience listening to all the different markets as we flew over them.
Does anybody recommend the iPod Nano for the FM Radio app? Nowdays it seems it’s best to look for an MP3 / Media Player that also has an FM Radio as apposed to a pure FM radio receiver.
I can recommend THIS one…
Reception is quite good. Though it’s not particularly cheap, but does have RDS. And the tuning wheel doesn’t work particularly well for manual tuning.
It uses a rechargeable battery and life seems reasonable enough. Though you’d need to take an American pin adapter with you for it.
If you can live without RDS, this could be a goer…
https://www.tecsunradios.com.au/store/product/tecsun-pl365-radio/
I don’t have this model, but I am a big fan of Tecsun for DXing in general.
I am in America right now actually, I have also tried HD Radio here, which I have posted comments in the Digital Radio thread.
Although three of four are probably not ideal (except to solely replace the Sony SRF-S84) all these handhelds are 20% off per the Ebay June promotion:
-
Philips AE1530 Pocket Radio (analogue tuning) - Good Guys
-
Sony ICFP26 Pocket Radio (analogue tuning) - Good Guys & Kogan
-
Teac PR129 Portable Radio (analogue tuning) - Betta
-
Sangean DPR34 Digital Radio FM DAB (digital tuning, RDS, recommended by R-head) - Good Guys
From “Central Coast Radio” thread (edited for relevance):
During that time, it would be interesting to see how clear and/or how far north 94.9 Power FM can be received into Sydney & potentially beyond without having Rhema FM on the air, like how it was for many years before Rhema came on-air in the early 2000s. I know ‘Radiohead’ has managed to receive Power FM over Rhema during tropo at his home in Charlestown (southern Newcastle).
Likewise for Pulse 94.1 from Saddleback Mountain (near Kiama), which, within Sydney, is normally only received in the south-eastern suburbs (Randwick, Maroubra, Botany etc) & parts of the north-west around Castle Hill, particularly in areas with good line-of-sight towards the south.
Hey TVE, you are 100% correct about my experiences with 94.1 and 94.9.
Unfortunately I won’t be home early Thursday to test this out 
Some moderate overseas DX to report here!
I am currently in Los Angeles and currently getting San Diego’s Rock1053 (about 120 miles / 190 kms ) at 33db. This is where the Teccy PL-390 really shines in that it is perfectly listenable stereo (albeit some static) but with no hint of LA’s 105.1 Go Country 105.
1 Like
Central Coast radio transmitter works have been postponed one day, till Friday morning due to the weather, (high winds & possible showers).
Adjust your DX’ing times accordingly.
2NBC (90.1) is currently running much reduced power. As a result, 2BS Sofala is there about 50% of the time via aircraft scatter on the Sony, with NBC barely audible. On the Tecsun, NBC is stronger using the correct polarisation.
I can usually receive a decent signal of 2NBC in this location, but 90.1 is just static for me at the moment as far as I can tell.
Also, not sure if it’s been mentioned yet but there’s currently temporary Voice Of Islam broadcasts on 91.6 and 107.9 here in Sydney. Exactly why they need two FM frequencies I’m not sure, but at least they are running different programing on both stations. Not sure if I’ll be able to get the Eastern Creek Raceway broadcast that’s on 107.9 from tomorrow, but I’ll certainly try and report back on that.
Hearing about your trip to US started me wondering about FM demphasis settings. Can some of our engineering friends advise if the correct dephasis circuitry is incorporated into FM receivers sold in Australia to match the AUS standard of transmission that I think is 50us.
The reason for the question being that the US has a different setting (75??) so would an Australian receiver sound different when listening to US FM stations than Australian FM? Would it have more high frequency response for example? And vice versa, if you brought a US purchased receiver back to Australia, would the high frequencies be slightly lower?
Or perhaps I’ve not idea what I’m talking about 
Some distant signals heard today while driving around the hills out the back of Brisbane:
98.3 Now FM Moree (double checked this one, was playing music in time with ZZZ Lismore and IDed as Now)
95.9 Racing Radio (presumably also Mt Dowe?)
Mt Dowe ABCs on 99.1, 99.9
101.9 Paradise FM Ballina
RDS reception from 100.7 Hot FM Toowoomba
Also heard what appeared to be racing radio on 102.7. Normally around here that frequency is taken by Toowoomba, but didn’t think they did racing on that station. Any ideas what else it could have been?
There you go, that was it. Thought it must have been, signal was very strong and was received when Hot FM was giving me RDS, so it makes sense. Thanks
Close TVC, but you’ve got it the wrong way around
Australian FM has 75us pre-emphisis & the US has 50us.
If you used an American FM radio here, there’d be more top end, & it’d sound tinny, an Australian FM radio used in the US would sound somewhat flat.
1 Like
Today, I gave my American radio purchase (an Insignia HD Radio, as posted in the Digital Radio thread) a run back here in Oz (now that I am back!).
Local experiences are a bit of a mixed bag with this radio.
PRO: Good selectivity…
eg. I can hear 99.5 MOVE, 99.9 SWR (either side of the local Rhema 99.7), and 101.1 2LT next to SEA.
PRO: Sound quality on Oz stations is very good (when in stereo - see next point).
CON: Stereo threshold is VERY high… it needs a really good signal to output the stereo signal (not even a station that is received perfectly on the Teccy at 30db is good enough, it needs to be 35+ db). This is despite the fact that the Insignia signal meter is still showing 4 bars out of 5 signal strength (=30db for the Tecsun) and showing a ‘STEREO’ indicator.
CON: Doesn’t display RDS here (USA uses RDBS which is very similar, so I suspect RDS only worked on stations with a HD Radio service over there).
As for the HD Radio feature, when I pressed the HD Radio seek buttons, nothing came up! (surprise surprise!).
2 Likes
Thanks - I had wondered what the situation would be.
Would the correct setting have to be in place for a radio sold in Australia?