Not to mention the extended periods of downtime when storms take out the transmitters and the large chunks of networked content which is likely to be easily receivable in the Blue Mountains via Sydney stations!
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I always have argue that the Wentworth falls transmitter does not cover the lower blue mountains well. Penrith / Emu Plains have poor reception. Although not in the zone for the edge. It does not surprise me Lawson does not get covered. Given the terrain the reception of blue mountains inconsistent. Maybe increasing the power output would help.
Received 2UE and 2NM surprisingly well from Clyde NZ last night. Caught a nice â2NM: Heart of the Hunterâ ID. Received indoors using my new XH DATA D 808.
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And today Iâm in Bowral. Guess whatâs getting over the not too distant Hot Country 101.1 in the spot Iâve currently parked. 
@Radiohead I recall you mentioning you could get 2ST on 102.7, I can confirm that. Infact seek stops on 102.7 and 102.9.
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I think it would of been great WS fm was broadcast from there. I heard from other posts Campbelltown might lose out on coverage then⌠But I know SWR has reduce power down south.
I think of SWR being commerical but it might be gobbled up by a big player, and the format will change. Let keep as is. But it would be nice if they were a full power community western sydney station like fbi etc. But on one condition it wonât change format too much.
WSFM was originally proposed to be on 97.7 from a Western Sydney site, Moonrise would have been a good spot for it. But that plan fell through when it was revealed that it would cause interference to Channel Nine TV reception in the area.
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Regardless of whether the licence was Western Sydney-specific or one which allowed the station to cover the entire metropolitan area (which is what happened when the station converted to FM), I suspect that 2WS/WSFM was always going to move away from their Western suburban roots during the 1990s & Early 2000s, perhaps even if they stayed on 1224AM.
As far as I understand my âSydney & surroundsâ radio history, a similar thing happened when 2KA converted to FM. They gradually moved away from focusing on their core listening area with the studios now over in North Ryde, ARN essentially programs 96.1FM these days as if itâs a Sydney-wide station (and I suspect The Edge 96.1 would legally become a Sydney-wide station if the two analogue station per owner limit was ever dropped) even though theyâre still technically licenced as a Katoomba station.
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I doubt 2WS would have strayed much from being a Western Sydney station had they stayed on AM.
Reason being that 1224 reception into the city and east in particular is patchy, hence the 2RPH repeater at Kings Cross on 100.5 to compensate for that.
Similarly with 2KA.
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Looking at coverage of the Blue Mountains stations, here is the coverage map of The Edge 96.1 from Wentworth Falls
Notice how the coverage in Great Western Sydney is better than most of the Blue Mountains, except Lapstone and Emu Plains.
Now look at the coverage of 2LT / Move fm at 40W to the east
And lastly if it was allowed to be at 1KW omnidirectional. 1kw would be enough to cover the lower Blue Mountains, but ACMA wonât allow it because of the overspill into Sydney. But this is what is required to service the LA and for it to be commercial competitive.
Does anyone remember the old coverage of 783/ 1476 2KA across Sydney?
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In reality I think the power output of 2LT and Move is higher than 40 watts to the east, probably more like 200 watts or maybe more, as I can receive both at very listenable levels in elevated parts of Newcastle in normal conditions.
Both are stronger than 2BLU which is 160 watts.
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Last Wednesday afternoon, I could get 2LT/Move at Blacksmiths on the shores of the entrance to Lake Macquarie through my Tecsun PL-390.
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2LT / Move Fm is 250w towards Newcastle (30-70â) sectors, but only 40w towards Sydney.
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2KAâs coverage with 783 was quite scratchy from memory, even in the Blue Mountains past Katoomba. I can remember my portable radio being able to pick it up only slightly at Richmond.
1476 got out as far as Campbelltown and Parramatta during the day but at night, it got swamped by 4ZR Roma. That said, I know the 1476 signal from 2KA used to get to New Zealand at night. When they moved to 96.1, the reception problems in most areas were fixed. The reception was so good that 2Day and Triple M took One FM to court to have it shut down because the FM signal was getting well into Sydney. 2Day and Triple M lost the case.
Just out of interest, I use the Nautel coverage tool a lot. What specs did you input to get the coverage for 96.1?
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I have the Wentworth Falls site saved, to generate the coverage map I input
Antenna height 80m
5kw
54/66 coverage contour
I donât worry about antenna gain.
What I donât like about the tool is you can only do omnidirectional coverage not directional so you have to generate multiple coverage maps for directional.
Is this what you do too?
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I used to be able to pickup 783 and 1476 when I was living at Oatley back in the time. 783 was very weak and 1476 was weak to medium strength.
783 had a similar coverage area to 2LT / Move Fm being upper Mountains to around Woodford with 1476 being lower Mountains and the plains. We are starting to go more radio history here!!
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Yeah i think its difficult to have good location for good fm radio reception for the whole of the blue mountains area without overspill. The main issue is the blue mountains follows the ridge. There is no location which can cover the ridge well. The high power fm and even maybe the low power stations of Sydney in my experience covers the whole of the licence area better than the local stations do.
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Yeah, I donât like the fact that you canât do directional patterns. There was a Canadian website that allowed input of different ERPâs for specific directions but is no longer online.
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Is the Nautel tool a paid service or free? Just curious
Itâs free, but you have to register to use it.
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The Edge is generally pretty good along the ridgeline on the car radio. The weak areas are Mt Victoria, Explorers Tree, Scenic World and Lapstone into Emu Plains.
You notice the weak spots more on 2LT / Move Fm. Especially in Blackheath were Brock splatters over Move fm.
Sydney is generally pretty good across the ridgeline in the Mountains.the only place it does not scan is around Scenic World at Katoomba which is in the gully. I generally can get it in some form to around Yetholme / Sunny Corner with patchy reception into Bathurst.
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