AM and FM DX

Am now getting ABC Coffs Harbour stations, as well HIT and Triple M Port Macquarie. Too much splatter tonight on 105.1 and 106.7 to detect Kempsey

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I was wondering as to which tower Newsradio & ABC Radio (Sydney) were located.
ACMA records had site listed in phantom location (like several of their SITE locations).
Thank you.

Some quick rough elevations from Google Earth of the three towers
Northern: (Star 104.5) = 243m
Middle: Sea FM, ABC, Community etc = 254m
Southern: (2GO) = 242m

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I have checked Google maps and the ACMA licenses and can answer my own question.

The Sea Fm tower is the highest above sea level at an altitude of 243m, Star fm’s tower is at 227m, and the 2GO tower is at 218m

With the assigned broadcast antenna height of 80m for 2GO it’s antenna is at 298m asl. Star 104.5 has an antenna at 70m so it will be at 297m asl.

The altitude of the Sea Fm tower and the 60m antenna height brings it up to 303m asl. So there is only a 6m difference in height between the highest and the lowest of the three according to the information on ACMA. Rf Burns is spot on saying that they are all at the same height.

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Do you ever receive 90.5 from sub metro Sydney that it would trouble the allocated 2HD Belmont translator?

No, I’ve only ever received Alive 90.5 2CCR from Baulkham Hills at a max 15 db, so in its intended Belmont North coverage area, it would be unlikely to cause any issue.

At my place, 2CCR may create a bit of noise underneath 2HD in some nulls - which would be a worst case scenario.

I am 5km from the 2HD site at Violet Town Rd and have perfect LOS towards it, so I am expecting 2HD to be very strong here even though it’s only 100 watts. But then again, I could be wrong as Belmont North is south of that site and I am north of it. 2HD on AM is fine where I am, but I rarely listen to it.

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Did not get a chance to really test 2HD in the lake macq area, I wonder if it really that bad… Is it worse than 2SM on the Northern beaches? It would almost make sense to get Dab running in Newcastle first, than putting translators in.

Ho ho ho. The coverage of 1143 is absolutely fine across Newcastle; they want 90.5 to complement 97.5 (Port Stephens) and therefore achieve a de-facto FM conversion. I’m guessing the usual complaints of electrical interference were used as window dressing.

Most suburbs of Newcastle can receive 97.5 OK as it is, though the main deficiency would be in the Lake Mac area due to the Charlestown ridge (97.3 splat would also be a factor).

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You’ve nailed it one.

And night fade wouldn’t be a factor either.

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Agree. Not south of the site within the licence area. West and NW is a different story, towards Singleton is not good at night, same in Cessnock and up towards Gresford and Dungog.

You’ll receive it well, it’ll be received well in the bowels of the C’town Sq car parks as the Sugarloaf FMs I’d say.

Yes, what is compelling on there to listen? Mostly feeding the network outside of bfast.

Reception is poor in Morriset due to the electrical noise in the area, there’s a concrete plant that is a spurious emitter on the edge of the town.

If you didn’t have a good quality radio, the adjacent channel splatter from 97.3 would be a problem.

Correct and SCA were publicly silent unlike in Toowoomba. De-facto conversion it is.

The 97.5 signal is fine in the car for travel within the Newcastle ‘basin’ ie the Newcastle City Council area. Drive south into LMCC and the aforementioned Charlestown Ridge is a slight problem but fine if you’re not right in the shadow.

If Caralis was fair dinkum about coverage, they’d be applying for translators in the West and NW of the licence area.

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Not sure where the Newcastle licence area stops and the Muswellbrook (Hunter Valley) one begins. I’m guessing there is quite a bit of overlap between Maitland and Singleton and I think for this reason 2NM can’t convert to FM?***

***Except for the crummy sounding mine relays of course.

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The Newcastle licence area stops at Singleton, whilst the Muswellbrook licence area begins at around Branxton.

Correct. The Newcastle & Muswellbrook licence areas have an overlap of 33.56%.

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Janet and family will get their conversion for 2NM when the “restack” is complete from ACMA.

I know I posted an FM DX only a couple of days ago, but as I was parked by the beach eating breakfast this morning, I thought I would take the opportunity to do another one. :stuck_out_tongue:

Bass Point, NSW
FM Bandscan
Tuesday, 19th February 2019 - 09:49am AEDT

87.6 - Oldies FM
87.8 - Faith FM
88.0 - *Unknown
88.3 - WSFM (Camden) [Repeater]
88.5 - 2RRR (Ryde)
88.7 - 2MWM? (Manly)
89.1 - 2BLU? (Katoomba)
89.7 - Eastside Radio (Waverley)
89.9 - Hawkesbury Radio (Windsor)
90.5 - Alive 90.5 (Parramatta)
90.9 - ABCNewsRadio (Wollongong)
91.3 - C91.3 (Macarthur)
91.7 - 2ST (Shoalhaven Heads)
92.1 - 2MFM (Chester Hill)
92.3 - 2UUU (Shoalhaven Heads)
92.5 - Youth FM (Bowral)
92.7 - Bay & Basin FM (Sussex Inlet)
92.9 - ABC Classic FM (Sydney)
93.3 - 2RPH (Wollongong) [A local station which I can’t receive at my home location].
93.5 - 2SNO? (Goulburn) [I’m skeptical about this, but anyway].
93.7 - Koori Radio (Redfern)
94.1 - Pulse FM (Wollongong)
94.5 - FBi Radio (Sydney)
94.9 - Power FM (Nowra)
95.1 - *Unknown (Aired “The Ray Hadley Show” and identified itself as “2DS”, I think).
95.3 - Smooth FM (Sydney)
95.7 - ABC Classic FM (Wollongong)
96.1 - The Edge (Katoomba)
96.3 - *Unknown (Played “Life in the Fast Lane” by The Eagles. Maybe 2CCC Gosford?)
96.5 - Wave FM (Wollongong)
96.7 - *Unknown (The signal was too faint for me to try and identify the station).
96.9 - Nova FM (Sydney)
97.3 - ABC Illawarra (Wollongong)
97.7 - SBS Radio (Sydney)
98.1 - i98fm (Wollongong)
98.5 - 2OOO FM (Burwood)
98.9 - Triple J (Wollongong)
99.1 - WSFM (Richmond/Windsor) [Repeater]
99.3 - 2NSB (Chatswood)
99.5 - Move FM (Katoomba) [Repeater]
99.7 - 2SSR (Sutherland) [There was interference with another signal]
99.9 - SWR FM (Blacktown)
100.1 - Triple H (Hornsby)
100.3 - 2MCR (Campbelltown)
100.7 - WOW FM (Penrith)
100.9 - BFM (Bankstown)
101.1 - 2LT (Katoomba)
101.3 - Sea FM (Gosford) [Interestingly enough, I couldn’t receive RDS for Sea FM)
101.7 - WSFM (Sydney)
102.1 - Triple J (Newcastle)
102.5 - FineMusic (Sydney)
102.9 - 2ST
103.2 - Hope FM (Sydney)
103.5 - ABC South East (Batemans Bay)
103.7 - Sky Sports Radio (Nowra)
104.1 - 2DayFM (Sydney)
104.3 - ABC Central Tablelands
104.5 - StarFM (With RDS. More information on this below)
104.9 - Triple M (Sydney)
105.1 - Radio National (Batemans Bay)
105.3 - Kix Country (Wollongong)
105.5 - 2EC? (Eden)
105.7 - Triple J (Sydney)
106.1 - ABC Newcastle
106.3 - *Unknown (Maybe SBS Lithgow?)
106.5 - KIIS FM (Sydney)
106.9 - VOX FM (Wollongong)
107.1 - Highland FM (Bowral)
107.3 - 2SER (Sydney)
107.7 - 2GO (Gosford)
107.9 - Move FM (Lithgow)

Just in regards to StarFM’s signal, I think the reason why the reception is so fickle in the Shellharbour area is because of the interference with 2UUU from Nowra. I was able to receive StarFM with RDS while I was parked at Bass Point, yet 2UUU (which I also received with RDS) completely wiped out the station when I was driving along Shellharbour Road, which is just a couple of kilometres away.

As for the suburb in which I live in, I can receive both 2UUU and StarFM when I drive down my own street and in neighbouring streets, but neither signal is strong enough to wipe out the other.

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Probably 2BS from Bathurst, which only switched from 1503AM to 95.1FM over Summer! :slight_smile:

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Ah okay. I was only going by the “FM Radio Handbook” document from ACMA, but obviously that document would now be out of date (as it didn’t list the station under the 95.1 MHZ frequency). :stuck_out_tongue:

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That would actually be Radio Five-0 Plus from Gosford.

That would be right. It is IDed on air as “Coast FM”.

That could be 2UUU from Ulladulla that causes the interference, or an Ethnic LPON service from Wollongong.

It could possibly be ABC Newsradio from Coonabarabran, which gets out quite well via troposcatter.

Download the latest version from there: https://www.acma.gov.au/Citizen/TV-Radio/Television/Lists-of-broadcasters/list-of-licensed-broadcasting-transmitters

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This station isn’t on-air yet, as far as I know. Too bad they couldn’t have put it on 100.5 MHz to SFN with 2RPH in Sydney and Newcastle. 2RPH on 93.3 will cause co-channel issues with 2SNR in Gosford.

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Currently Wide Bay and Grafton/Kempsey into Brisbane currently :+1:

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Great report!

Bass Point looks like it could be a good DX spot, being on a headland with a good water path to the north and south. I will have to check it out next time I’m down Shellharbour way (which isn’t very often).

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Late last night had Gladstone commercials plus Rebel from Banana on 88.9. Gladstone back this morning incl TAB on 94.3 plus good signal from MMM Mackay on 98.7. Hit 107.9 plus ABCs from Rockhampton very clear. To the south Middle Brother ABCs incl ABC Classic on 98.7.

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