Yes same here. I briefly had Orange here with RDS. Looks like they reactivated the RT on their RDS. Went to try RDS Spy on it, but program failed to work after a Windows Update, 20+ minutes later discovered that Windows had reset all my Sound settings in Control Panel - Ohh. Thanks Microsoft.
With stronger Bathurst in tonight I decided to have a play with the SDR’s new FM Co-channel canceller. Received the Bathurst stations on 99.3, 100.1 & 100.9 at different times either on own or mixing with the much stronger Sydney stations. Can also catch bits of 2BL Gosford under the Music FM with the tech wizardry too.
Detecting bits of 91.9 & 92.7 Canberra.
Eagle FM now in as the tropo moves inland.
Here in Moss Vale at my home and not my secret DX spot
Bateman’s Bay ABCs mixing with Canobolas. Even 104.3 and 105.9 had been received!
Middle Brother ABCs also made an appearance.
2PQQ (Triple M) Port Macquarie on 100.7 makes its first appearance for the 2020-21 tropo season
Newcastle Commercials received (except for 102.9)
Canberra signals are strong tonight including DAB and RDS on 98.3, 104.7 and 106.3
This morning pulling in the ABC FM stations from Coffs Harbour, except 99.5 FM.
Received: 90.7, 91.5, 92.3, 97.9
Taree: 95.5, 97.1, 98.7 (96.3 there weak mixing with Gosford when using co-channel canceller).
Eagle FM still there with RDS. This station has a high RDS injection level - good for dxers.
UPDATE: Real FM 93.1 also in at 8am, 93.9 Young at 8.40am.
Having a tune to some of the Sydney FM LPON’s with the SDR.
On 87.8 there’s Radio Austral in mono which dominates.
When I switch on the co-channel canceller & use controls I can bring Radio Austral down to near noise level & can just hear Beat FM, Penrith. I thought Beat FM was mono? However looking at the MPX there’s a 19kHz stereo carrier there. I also had a suspicion that Radio Austral also had another
transmitter on 87.8 with stereo. Could that be their Mt.Prichard transmitter?
I mentioned this in the random radio thread, looks like their NBN and Telstra 4G STL links have gone down. I first noticed this at 2pm today.
Have not had a chance to call them yet, looks like no one else has either.
I just set up remote access on my SDR to allow for remote DXing anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. The sensitivity doesn’t seem as good as my car radio (not sure if it’s the SDR or the aerial I’ve connected it to) but the setup still gets 50+ FM stations.
The antenna is an omnidirectional Matchmaster FM antenna, unamplified.
I think I’m getting some noise from the computer, routers, etc. nearby that I have to sort out.
Bandscan:
(Small typo in the video: 107.3 should be 2SER)
I think the poor RDS decoding is a result of the aforementioned electrical noise.
Edit: Video link updated to remove copyrighted audio (2BAC 100.9).
Nice work. I found when I replaced all of my ethernet cables from my router with quality shielded CAT6 patch cables that I was able to eliminate or reduce ‘some’ noise on the FM band. But there’s all number of devices & cables that radiate interference. Some chokes on cables ‘might’ also assist.
The IF processor plug-in can notch out spikes too.
Nice wide bandwidth you have.
Also FYI RDS Spy decodes better than the stock SDR# decoder.
Thanks for the tips. I have 60+ devices on my LAN, so probably cost-prohibitive for me to do that, unfortunately.
I already have the ferrite cores on the cables.
I tried RDS Spy previously using the virtual cables and such, but I couldn’t get it to work.
I want to set up an HF server as well, but I can only imagine how bad the RF noise will be anywhere near my house (my portables only get any SW reception once I’m out of the house and in the backyard).
Is this on your SDR? Spencer Gulf/Renmark are semi common via Es but there’s been no record of tropo to those locations from Sydney. The synoptic situation is conducive to inland tropo, though…
