Don’t count out tropo reception from the west coast of the South Island. I have had it strong in the past, even over the semi locals on 89.1 and 89.9. Unfortunately if 91.6 is still on it would be difficult to receive the marker station, the unlisted ‘The Hits’ translator for the Westport region on 91.7. 93.1 ‘The Hits’ Greymouth is another possibility. Your best bet may be RNZ National on 101.1 but that’s difficult now due to 2LT.
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That video made news on the ABC News site. 
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Intense troppo from the north this morning. Mackay booming in with RDS. Townsville including commercials also at good strength. Wide Bay, Rockhampton, Gladstone as well.
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Update - was able to drive around Brisbane listening to Zinc FM this morning. Fraser Coast, Bundaberg and Childers stations were at same strength as major Brisbane signals.
At the peak MMM stations could be heard from Gold Coast, Brisbane, Fraser Coast, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Gladstone, Mackay and Townsville.
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Is it possible to video some of these long haul tropo catches (Townsville etc.)? I’m sure a few on here would be interested. Hopefully Cairns comes up for you. Judy (in disguise with glasses) may disrupt the path up there though. Judy’s warm dry sector may be influencing this tropo as well.
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Some very good tropo tonight which is enhancing stations with their transmitters close to the coast.
Vox fm from Brokers Nose, strong enough for an RDS decode.
Central Coast Community stations very strong all with full RDS decodes. Coast fm, close to local strength with no splatter from CADA.
97.5 2HD strong enough for Full RDS decode. Have they turned off their stereo pilot?
Newcastle commercials and 2NUR only at moderate strength.
You can see the duct on the BOM weather radar and it is strengthening.
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Yes. Last night I was only obtaining tropo enhancement from Illawara area, but tonight it’s Illawara, Central Coast & little further north.
Yes.
The RDS data profile of 96.3 Coast FM has changed quite a bit since I last looked.
PTYN has disappeared. RT+ with group codes 3A & 11A has now been implemented.
Has CT (Group 4A) also disappeared? @RFBurns ?
You’re obviously getting a better capture of it than I.
No chance of RDS decoding that here.
Bit too weak to determine if stereo pilot carrier there or not.
I certainly can’t see it atm.
Has been calm on the coast past couple of nights.
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Other than stronger than usual 107.7 Gosford, some over GNFM. Not much down here in Bowral. Usually when tropo is received in Sydney, the signal would reach Bowral.
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It was very coastal last night, and there was no enhancements from the Southern Highlands. Even Knights Hill was just out of the duct.
It basically was Port Stephens, Central Coast, Brokers Nose. Like Knights Hill, Mt Sugarloaf was also just outside the duct.
You were too far west of the duct, and the blocking of the Gib.
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Nothing but strong westerly winds here on the tablelands, continuing today. Moss Vale reached 28 in NW winds yesterday; Bungendore was only 24. An inversion- pardon the pun- of the usual maximum temperature regime in the warmer months.
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We replaced the FM & Streaming processors & RDS encoder about 6 months ago & we’ve just recently replaced the PC/Server that the RDS Encoder is on, so yes things have changed a bit.
Not sure if I’ll put PTYN back & yes I think the CT (Group 4A is turned off at the moment), RT+ was implemented on the old encoder for a while before it got replaced, so that’s not that new.
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Has anyone noticed that 102.9 2ST is again quite weak into Sydney?
The W/NW winds are obviously not helping.
The car radio is struggling to pickup 2ST apart from the usual good spots.
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Probably be the winds.
Weak here, almost fading down to static & also with Newcastle overriding its signal at times.
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It was actually happening before the wind, today is probably at its weakest for some time.I wonder if the ERP has been turned down.
Before ARN bought out Grant 2ST was much stronger, it is about half the strength of what it was previously even in favorable weather conditions.
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It appears that ACMA has varied the specs for the Illawarra National fm stations from Knights Hill.
Maximum antenna height has been reduced from 167m to 157m.
Also the ERP power to the south and the west has been reduced by 30KW from 150KW to 120KW. The ERP towards Wollongong is unchanged at 40KW.
The new specs obviously relate to the new fm antenna system that was installed around July last year. I wonder if the front to back ratio is not as good as the previous antenna?
I am not noticing any difference in signal strength with the slight reduction in antenna height.
Another thing very interesting on the 2ILA licence was an approval to double power to 240KW/80KW between 12am-5am from the 7th November 2022- 10 December 2022,. Obviously they would need to reduce power if interference occurred to 2OLD fm and SBS Sydney.
I wonder what the purpose was for testing at double the maximum ERP, and if they did proceed with the tests?
https://web.acma.gov.au/rrl/licence_image.extract_pdf?pLICENCE_NO=1150268/3
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Well spotted!
I’m down in Eden at the moment, and Knights Hill ABC FM coverage down this way seemed similar to what I’ve experienced in the past.
Perhaps the new antenna is just more efficient in providing similar coverage with less power?
As for the 240kw trial, that seems truly bizarre… I’ve never thought there was a coverage issue that required such a trial.
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For me the ABC’s are probably stronger than they were from the old broadcast antenna, and from 10m lower down the tower.
Thank you I was wondering if there had been any reduction in signal strength in the deep fringes.
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It is very bizarre considering that approval was only on the 2ILA licence. Maybe it has something to do with ABC Illawarra being the official emergency broadcaster, and if another bushfire takes out 2BA on Mt Wandera, they can crank up the ERP to provide better coverage to Batemans Bay and surroundings?
Also they would need a 40KW transmitter to achieve those ERP’S. I remember @RFBurns saying that you need a 20KW transmitter plus the antenna gain to get to 150KW ERP.
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Funny you mention that, as I saw a sign heading south of Ulladulla that had the ABC logo and said something like “For emergency broadcasts, tune to 97.3 FM”,
Which I thought was interesting as that was in the direction of 103.5 FM.
I also saw similar signs near Moruya (with frequency of 103.5 FM), north of Bega (810 AM) and near Pambula (106.3 FM).
I should have taken a photo of one, but hoping I’ll find it on Street View.
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They’ve installed those sorts of signs up here although one at Urunga heading south on the highway says tune to 95.5. It was quickly covered over with 92.3. They were only installed about 3 months ago so they aren’t on Street View just yet.
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