My Dad used to live at Woongarrah in Peppercorn Ave and was just behind the hill enough that he could only use Sugarloaf
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Yes it’s pretty bad there, but a well known bad spot is around the Lake Haven shopping centre, particularly near the old Bunnings near BCF, even on a car radio the CC commercial stations are hard to get, a portable radio would be near impossible for reception.
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There was some enhancement about this morning, Sydney commercial FMs stable up until around Bulahdelah (on my way to Port Macquarie).
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Yeah I think overall Central coast is problematic to get blanket reception to the East of Gosford along the coast has lots of black spot (Killcare etc). It is heavy forested the areas and hilly. Beautiful part of the world!
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And tv reception too, even the three Central Coast translators struggle to provide blanket coverage of the coast.
I wonder, if Mt Elliot was chosen over Rimburra Reserve, that may have been able to get better widespread tv coverage of the Coast with less translators? Probably more a question for @RFBurns
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Guessing you mean Rumbalara Reserve?
For FM radio I reckon I can get better coverage of the populated areas of the CC from Mt Elliot over Somesby, remember I wanted to move CoastFM to there (not happening now though), & the original 2CCC (CoastFM) transmitter was at Mt Elliot probably for that reason?
I believe the commercial stations put their transmitters at Somesby to get good coverage along the F3/M1 freeway, probably parts of the freeway South of the Mooney Mooney Bridge wouldn’t get very good reception from Mt Elliot?
As far as UHF TV goes, no there’d be too many areas of the CBD & South of the Rumbalara reserve hill (East Gosford) & even parts North Gosford, that’d be shadowed too much for good or any reception from Mt Elliot, I know Rumbalara reserve site serves right down the Brisbane Water areas, Woy Woy, etc might also be shadowed too much from Mt Elliot, I know there’s people down around Umina & Ettalong get their TV from Gosford, even though Bouddi is much closer.
The coverage maps on the TXA web site are pretty accurate. https://www.txaustralia.com.au/tvcoverage
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Yes, the Central Coast is a difficult area to cover, all radio and TV options have some sort of coverage issues somewhere.
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Lots of coastal hills and suburbs tucked behind those hills, unlike in the Illawarra where most development is on the narrow coastal plain below the escarpment. Even so, there has always been the need for supplementary coverage from Brokers Nose.
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Thought I’d let you guys know Canberra RN on 846 AM is down.
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Thanks, is it weather related with the rain band crossing southern NSW?
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Correct. When I called the ABC technical support number they said there is an issue with one of the masts, and that they are having issues moving 846 to the backup one.
666 is unaffected.
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Big signals from Mackay tonight. MMM with RDS. ABCs- Classic JJJ, RN, PNN.
Rockhampton ABCs and commercial as well.
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I am in the Canberra market
and I miss Radio National on my analogue radio
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Horrible weather in Canberra yesterday with significant flooding in Bungendore; not surprised that there were issues. Lightning in the mix as well.
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Yes there was a pic taken at 12.30am yesterday showing a huge lightning bolt strike hitting the black mountain tower. I’m surprised not more radio services were not taken out yesterday.
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I’ve seen photos of the ABC Canberra AM site taken yesterday, the main 666 & RN mast is submerged in a lake of water & so is the RN backup mast.
Not brilliant photos, but it looks like the water is high enough to short across the mast base insulator & has got into the Antenna Tuning Unit, also at the base of the masts, therefore the water will short the antenna & nothing will come out of it.
Looking at the photos, it looks like the masts are based in a hollow spot, with the surrounding land higher than the mast base & all the water has pooled around the mast base & become a small lake.
Considering the masts don’t look like they’re built very high off the ground, I guess this area never floods or was never expected to flood & maybe over the years the surrounding land has built up higher than where the base of the masts are, so now they’re in a potential lake bed?
Yes I’ve seen the photo of the lightning strike on Telstra Tower too, it was a big one.
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Did a day trip from Coffs up to Yamba today.
These notes taken in Pacific Parade around 1pm, which oddly turned out to be a better spot than near the Lighthouse, where I found a few localised spurs from 2TLC, going up as high as 106.7! These didn’t exist in Pacific Parade.
88.9 2RBR good
89.5 2GF was strong here as you’d expect.
89.7 2TEN suffered minor splatter from 2GF but was still OK. No RDS though.
90.7 ABC News Coffs good
91.5 Triple J Coffs good
92.3 ABC Coffs good
92.9 River Lismore OK, no RDS
93.5 2TLC Yamba strong
94.5 ABC Local Lismore good
95.3 ABC Classic Lismore good
96.1 JJJ Lismore good
96.3 JJJ Taree weak (no 94.7 or 95.5 though)
96.9 ABC RN Lismore good
97.1 ABC RN Taree fair
97.9 ABC Coffs good
98.5 ABC News Lismore good
98.7 ABC Classic Taree fair
99.5 ABC RN Coffs good
100.9 ZZZ Lismore with RDS
101.5 SKY Grafton fair
101.7 ABC Classic Warwick OK
101.9 Paradise FM Ballina weak
103.3 JJJ Warwick OK
103.5 ABC Classic Armidale weak
103.9 2GF Maclean still on ai, strong
104.1 2CHY Coffs, OK but not with RDS
104.3 2LM Kyogle OK
104.7 FM1047 Grafton strong
105.1 Hit Kempsey OK no RDS
105.5 Hit Coffs OK with RDS
106.1 Classic Brisbane faint
106.3 Triple M Coffs OK with RDS
106.5 ABC RN Warwick fair
106.7 Triple M Kempsey OK no RDS
107.1 SKY Coffs weak
107.7 Triple J Brisbane weak
107.9 OK not sure if this was 2AIR Coffs or 2COW Casino
On AM
531 2PM Kempsey fair
585 2WEB Bourke weak
612 4QR Brisbane fair
639 2HC Coffs good
684 2KP Kempsey good
693 SEN Brisbane fair under some splatter from 2KP
711 4QW St George fair
720 2ML Murwillumbah fair
738 2NR Grafton strong
792 4RN Brisbane fair
819 2GL Glen Innes OK
855 4QO Eidsvold weak
864 4QR Toowoomba weak
882 4BC Brisbane weak
900 2LM Lismore
963 4WK Warwick fair
972 2MW Murwillumbah weak
1008 4TAB Brisbane fair
1116 4BH Brisbane fair
1188 2NZ Inverell weak
1197 4BI Brisbane very weak under 2GF
1206 2GF Grafton strong
1242 4AK Tooowoomba weak
1296 4RPH Brisbane weak
1548 4QD Emerald very weak
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There was a light NE’ly on the North Coast today but I guess it was fairly shallow, so no tropo. From Woopi Headland I usually hear Brisbane (96.5 and 97.3 are best), River 94.9 and sometimes even Hot 91.1 Scumshine Coast. It is generally the best spot around Coffs for QLD FM.
The path from Woopi to Brisbane is pretty much straight north over land, though. You bypass the eastern bulge of Byron Bay.
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