Looks like the belt of high pressure will hang around for a while too, pressure is in the mid 1030s going by the synoptic
Like the Siberian Highs. That should mean some pretty nippy mornings down this way.
Seems like there is a bit of inland enhancement around whilst here in Dubbo.
Atop the Orana Mall rooftop car park, got most ABCs from both Mt Dowe and Mt Ulandra. Havenāt experienced that before.
Also heard faint ROCCY FM from Young, faint 2BS FM Bathurst which I donāt think are permanent catches here either.
96.3 coast fm from a very very unusual location of west sydney last night the tropo was intense. Will post up a video if interested?
Coast FM is pretty standard into most parts of Sydney, i.e you donāt need tropo to receive it well. The only potential problem would be splatter from 96.1 on radios with poor selectivity.
The Central Coast stations can certainly be enhanced by tropo, amplifying them from a weak/rural grade signal to a near local one.
it was just a few select spots while driving it came thru great, then yeah not so much in other spots and when their is no significant tropoā¦ never been able to pick it up before.
In Cobar nowā¦
Two surprises for me.
Little did I know until I got here that 2HOT FM Community radio (102.9) went off the air back in 2008!
And the other being that what the ACMA listings show as 2ABC FM on 106.9 is actually running SBS Pop Desi. 105.3 is running SBS Chill.
All FM stations here are mono only, except ZOO, in stereo on 103.7. No real surprise there.
No long distance catches here, the Central West Slopes ABCs are faint, and thatās it. Orange FM ABCs petered out south of Nyngan, made only brief appearances after that.
On the AM band, thereās more on offer, at 3pm today heard River 1467 Mildura, 2QN Deniliquin and 3WV Horsham. 702 Sydney is faint, though @dxnerd will be pleased to know that 2CR 549 is still fairly good here, not as good as 657 2BY though. 2CR was very clear still at Nyngan though, better than 2BY there.
From the west, staticky 567 2BH from Broken Hill could be heard, but not 2NB 999 though. Which seemed odd since 999 is 2kw vs only 500 watts for 2BH. Very faint ABCs from Adelaide, though not listenable, just enough to tell that something was there.
Tried for Bourke stations including Rebel 104.9, 2CUZ 106.5 on the way over from Nyngan. Got nothing, I donāt think even RN on 101.1 was there eitherā¦ which was odd, since I know that one has heard in Sydney during inland tropo.
Iād imagine 2WEB belts in out there? Itās pretty much audible across most of NW NSW and even into Southern Qld from memory
Yes, 2WEB is pretty good here too.
Though Iām surprised they havenāt installed a repeater here in Cobar (like they have done in Nyngan) given the demise of 2HOT some years ago.
Had a go at some AM DXing being in a fairly remote part of the state with only 2DU 972 to create any splatterā¦ as Iām glad I did!
As for the first time in nearly 40 years since I first discovered night time sky wave AM radio reception, Iāve finally managed to snag a WA station here in the Eastā¦
That being 558 6WA from Wagin, it was good timing as it was about 3 minutes past the hour with a Western Australia weather forecast and āABC Radioā ID. Reception wasnāt great, but enough to make out the above.
This was just on my Tecsun PL-390 indoors here in Cobar.
Good report @Radiohead. Iāve never been west of Dubbo on the central plains, so any reports from out there are welcomed. I wonder why SBS Pop Desi is carried- perhaps thereās a local Indian community? Did you happen to notice whether SBS Chill is still on air in Nyngan (103.9)?
101.1 Bourke gets into the higher parts of the Warrumbungles OK, though not into lower places like Tooraweenah. I logged 101.1 on several occasions from Sydney and it could often be heard very faintly via As, probably from A380s on the way to Asia. Once 2LT started it was all over, red rover.
Sounds like nothing has changed since I was last there in 2014. There was a pirate on 98.0 and 105.3 was open carrier from memory. The only out of town DX I could get was JJJ 102.3, its the only dxable freq with no adjacent local. The overmodding self help mono JJJ on 101.3 blocked out any chance of 101.1 Bourke.
Pretty sure I posted up a bandscan to Ms at the time, which was probably the old forum and now gone.
Would be good if Rebel/Breeze set up outlets there. And yes 102.9 should just go to 2WEB. In that scenario Cobar would have a much better selection of stations that the likes of the Illawarra
No, there was no SBS in Nynganā¦ ABC Local 95.1 and 2WEB 100.7 only.
Couldnāt see any evidence of multiculturalism in Cobar to explain the SBS radio smorgasboard.
Did the drive from Cobar to Broken Hill today.
Cobar stations stayed in range for about 80 kms west, which was better than in, where east of Cobar they only appeared from about 40 kms out. Elevation seemed to keep arising, which probably explains it.
Mt Cenn Cruaich ABCs returned west of Cobar town (Cobar town seems to be a bit of a gully), stayed thereabouts also until about 80 kms west.
Some early morning sky waves (between 8-9am) brought in 4QD with no audible static, picked up on auto seek tuning. Stations like 891 ABC Adelaide were listenable for a while too, both faded out not long after 9am.
Found a good DX spot about 20 kms west of Wilcannia, at Netallie Hill.
Got the following there
95.3 & 96.9 Shepparton (ABCs didnāt seem to be there though)
90.3, 91.1, 91.9, 92.7, 93.5 Bendigo
97.9, 99.5, 100.3 and 101.1 Mildura (104.3 and 105.9 didnāt seem to be there though).
102.7 seemed to be playing Classical musicā¦ couldnāt possibly be Classic FM Orange?
Cenn Crauich made a brief return here tooā¦ all five stations noted.
Something on 106.1ā¦ probably ABC Local Cobar?
None of these were strong, not enough to be picked up on auto seek tuning.
Didnāt really check AM stations there.
Wilcannia itself had 98.3 (not sure what), 99.9 2WEB and what appears to be a new station (possibly a TCBL) on 103.1 ā¦ https://redie.org.au/what-we-do/programs/wilcannia-river-radio#. Plus RN on 1485 and 2WA 1584 (āABC Broken Hillā).
In Broken Hill. went up to Living Sculptures 10 kms north of town in an effort to minimise overload from local 4kw TXs which are either right in or on the edge of town. FM wasnāt a total success in that respect, but got the following not already mentioned
Renmark - 93.1 Magic, 93.9 News, 105.1 Classic. Not 101.9 though.
Spencer Gulf - 106.7 RN
Also got Mildura and weak Bendigo again too.
Did an AM check there too. Got these (was 2pm EST when there).
531 HPON Adelaide
549 2CR (still there @dxnerd ! ). Though very staticty and suffering 2BH splatter.
594 3WV Horsham
639 5CK Crystal Brook (Spencer Gulf).
657 2BY. Reasonable reception too.
675 2CO Corowa, Fair
729 & 891 Adelaide. Fair
801 5RM. Reasonable
963 5SE Faint
1044 5CS Port Pirie. Faint
1089 3WM Horsham. Weak
1062 5MV Renmark. 1305 5RN only fair though.
1161 5PA Naracoorte Faint
1467 3ML Mildura. Faint
No commercials from Murray Bridge or Adelaide.
Good achievements there
I think that should be Sky Sports Radio, per ACMA licence.
Thatās Mildura as well. Donāt worry I got tricked the same out at Balranald until @dxnerd reminded me
Thanks, I thought RN was 102.7 at Mildura, and Classic on 105.9?
Iāll find out for sure tomorrowā¦ as thatās my next stop!
Bendigo from Broken Hill and Shep from Wilcannia- well done. Just proves that tropo isnāt totally dead out that way. You have got extremely lucky with this monster high pressure system, though (-5 here this morning, and another -5 forecast tonight).
Your results have inspired me to take a trip to the Sleepy State via Bells Milk Bar, Broken Hill. Did you go on the trip just to see how long 2CR would last, @Radiohead?
Lol, NO
Even if I did, it was a FAIL since itās still there!
And I canāt go any further west at the moment, so itās south tomorrow to Mildura.
Still thinking about going to Bendigo before I head back north.
Will let you know if 2CR is still there too!