There is a spot just south of the Monaro/Snowy Mtns Highway interchange at Steeple Flat (south of Nimmitabel) where the Albury stations are crystal clear.
This is regular reception (it fights with TAB Cooma in some spots).
Again quite regular around the southern Monaro, even as far north as Cooma. I can get good As from Gippsland 95.1 all the time here in Bungendore, up to 2 bars strength. 99.5 3TR is also usually available; the rest are blocked by Canberra region locals.
Standard reception.
A joke, isn’t it!
Did you try Mt. Cooper since you went on to Nimmitabel and Cooma?
Thick fog this morning here and poor air quality in places too from the Hill End fire, indicative of a strong inversion:
(Orange currently at an ‘Unhealthy’ air quality. Move to the bush for fresh air, they said). Notice Bungendore is on the list as well with a moderate level of air pollution.
A bit on the band this morning.
Brown Mountain being received.
Orange ABCs
Newcastle also being received.
Canberra stronger than usual once again and even DAB reception.
107.5 2EAR FM
100.3 Braidwood relaying ABC Canberra when it’s supposed to be Newsradio being received in a null of 2MCR.
WSFM Richmond on 99.1
Both 100.3 Braidwood and 88.5 Captains Flat are relaying The Station Of The Beast- and have been for some time. Only briefly was ABC NewsRadio heard on these frequencies. I even caught 88.5 relaying ABC Classic:
Initially both were fed off air from 666 AM but now relay the DAB signal (it’s available on the respective mountains). 88.5 could be DX’able from the Southern Highlands as well.
I don’t think I’ve ever received 92.9 Lismore here either, Toowoomba was too strong, even in the southerly facing parts. It would have been one to check somewhere like the lookouts at Springbrook but I guess now there’s no point.
I did have a listen to 3RUM (Radio Upper Murray) on 88.7 and 98.9… it seemed like a decent regional community station… 107.7 from Tumbarumba sounded distorted - it didn’t seem like a reception issue.
Mega West Coast FM DX last night. My turn for the 'rona virus so worked out well to be stuck inside infront of the radio.
Bucket list station MAMA 102.9 Carnarvon. 100w almost 1000km. Weak, but had MAMA 100.5 Geraldton to match the song to. About a 30 second delay between the two.
Then, foriegn language and music on 105.5. Google Assistant IDd 1 of the songs as…
The artist is Pakistan. Obviously not a chance from anywhere in Australia. I’d hope to think it may have been an Indonesian station but I’m not so sure.
I wonder if our brains trust have any ideas of playlist searches or websites or any other DX reports that may help.
The more prosaic guess would be an SBS Pop Desi relay from a remote mine site near Carnarvon or in the southern Pilbara. SBS FM do sometimes relay Pop Desi programming overnight, e.g.:
(SBS Canberra is also on 105.5, though this is pretty unlikely from Quokkaland )
The listed possibilities on 105.5 include:
6ABCFM Winu Mine. This is east of Marble Bar; too far inland for tropo from SW WA.
6FMS Nullagine Mine. Again in the interior of the Pilbara so unlikely to propagate via coastal tropo.
6JJJ Barrow Island. The most likely imo but still a long shot, extremely low powered at 20 watts.
No listed 6SBS transmitter on 105.5. Bear in mind that these self help sites can and do relay services different to the nominated service, particularly on mine sites.
We can’t rule out Indonesia as Indian/Pakistani music and culture is somewhat popular there. The ‘next stop’ for the WA coastal duct after Carnarvon is usually southern Java around Yogyakarta. But equally likely is an unlisted remote SBS relay somewhere near Carnarvon. I’d have to put this down as a genuine ‘UNID’ in the logbook, pending subsequent fresh and compelling evidence.
This has been the bain of the DX season for many! 1 other from last night was on 106.3 (co incidentally 0.8mhz up from 105.5) with a program that didn’t match listings for
6SBSFM Wongan hills or
6ABCRR Southern Cross.
I guess option 3 is this was a nearby micro transmitter. I did hear 3 or 4 last night. Though usually they are in the 107.x range. 105.5 lasted 7 to 730pm with a trace on the waterfall for some hours after.
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