I’d say the only difference is that most opening tend to start on the lower frequency of 103.1 then move up. Once it gets going there isn’t any difference.
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Here’s a thought, extreme DX’ers owning a boat, for fishing of the radiowave variety.
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I’ve done a bit on a cruise ship, not the ideal vessel for DXing I think. Need something smaller for omni directional activity.
This is what I got at Nelson Bay tonight. Unfortunately there was some RF noise about that made it difficult on the weaker stations, but there were some interesting observations.
ABC Coffs Harbour were poor to weak, and all were variable/unstable on 90.7, 91.5, 92.3, 97.9 and 99.5. News 90.7 and Local 92.3 suffered more due to their lower power. No Coffs or Kempsey commercials however.
Port Macquarie - these were reasonably stable, but RF noise made Rhema 99.9 and 2WAY 103.9 hard to listen to. Triple M 100.7 and Hit 102.3 were better, and in stereo, but RF noise prevented RDS.
Middle Brother ABCs were very good. From the 5kw News 94.7 at 31db through to the 100kw 96.3 JJJ at 54db, these were better than Newcastle ABCs by a significant margin. The latter (both 102.1 JJJ and 106.1 ABC) only reached 38db and suffered major multipathing artefacts due to hills, whereas Middle Brother has a much better path into Nelson Bay, despite the extra distance. This has probably saved the ABC from having to switch on 91.9 JJJ and 92.7 ABC from Gan Gan Hill so far anyway.
The big surprise was Great Lakes FM 101.5 … this hit 63db, better than Port Stephens FM 100.9 at 49db. The lower reading for 100.9 was a surprise, when at 1kw, it was lower than the others off Gan Gan Hill, where the ABCs on 95.1, 95.9 and 98.3 were close at 58-60db. Only 97.5 2HD could match Great Lakes. 2RE 100.3 Forster also did well at 29db.
Taree - MAX FM 107.3 hit 45db, SKY 105.7 at 22db mono transmission, 2BOB 104.7 in stereo at 21db, Rhema TCBL on 106.5 also in stereo at 19db. 2TLP 103.3 a fair bit weaker.
Newcastle commercials and community also suffered the same multipath issues as the ABCs, these all hit 31-34 dbs but couldn’t get them cleanly. It was in fact easier to MMM/Hit Port Macquarie than Newcastle due to the cleaner signals! (despite 162 kms vs 60 kms).
Other mentions
Gloucester - heard 100.1 2RE and 102.5 Radio National, both were weak. No Breeze 97.7 however.
Radio Dungog TCBL 107.9 - this was a surprise at 29db, stereo didn’t sound too bad either.
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Very interesting observation,
especially the difference in signal strength between the Newcastle commercial fm stations and the Newcastle National fm stations.
It would be good if the Newcastle commercials fm stations got a power increase to 40KW / 4KW. This would not fix the reception issues in Nelson Bay, but would improve over areas of signal deficiency in the licence area. It would give them the same specs as 2RPH towards Sydney which would improve dxing opportunities in Sydney.
We’re you able to receive 100.5 2RPH in Nelson Bay?
Re your 97.5 2HD signal strength reading, this makes sense as it is always my strongest signal from Port Stephens in Tropo openings.
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Yes, though only 21db, multi pathing artefacts there too.
Yes, I generally find 97.5 to be better signal wise than the other ABCs. The lowish comparative reading for Port Stephens FM was, and how good Great Lakes FM was were the biggest surprises for me.
Great Lakes has me thinking Breeze 93.1 and Rebel 94.1 for Coomba Park / Stroud should be clear into Nelson Bay when they eventually get to air.
Re Newcastle commercials, it has surprised me that they haven’t pushed for relays from Gan Gan… 93.5 94.3 and 96.7 would work well for that.
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What helps Great Lakes Fm is the altitude of the site, Cabbage Tree Mountain is 671M ASL and is at 5KW ERP.
I have however not received it at my location even with the strongest openings.
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Surprising- it was one of the best signals even at my Oatley location, which had a poor LOS to the NE. Strong at the top of the street.
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Yes like you when I use to live in Oatley I would receive it in big tropo openings. But At my location in Stanhope Gardens WS and Hit 101.3 are so strong nothing gets above the splatter except Triple J Canberra with big inland openings.
Since last Summer I have changed the orientation of my fm antenna so maybe this Simmer I might receive it.
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Has the site been commissioned? Is it on air?
@Ant5476 what sectors are 40 and 4kW?
@Radiohead I agree, they have to be losing revenue. I hear virtually no mention of Port Stephens on any Newcastle commercial radio. It’s a forgotten area, no clients, no news, no promo/marketing.
DAB+ couldn’t begin in Newcastle without simultaneous commissioning of DAB+ from Gan Gan. 50kW off Mt Sugarloaf to reduce the need for infill sites closer.
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Yes I’ve received it as far south as Stroud Road on the Bucketts Way previously.
Port Stephens is pretty small in the context of the overall Newcastle radio market, so I can’t imagine advertising revenue would be impacted too much, but every dollar matters these days.
But reception in Nelson Bay and Shoal Bay in particular isn’t good - definitely a case for repeaters from Sugarloaf, or for Rebel and Breeze to be allowed to have a presence as they do in other blackspot locations like Stanthorpe and Gloucester.
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…although during non-pandemic times, the region probably does get plenty of holiday makers from Sydney! 
If anything, Max 107.3 had better reception than the stations from Mt Sugarloaf the last time I was up there! By contrast, Mt Sugarloaf reception at Tea Gardens/Hawks Nest (remembering my past stays around that area in 2013 & 2015) is just about perfect.
From a holiday POV I’d probably also say that it’s nicer around Tea Gardens/Hawks Nest than it is in Nelson/Shoal Bay (which overall isn’t too bad outside peak season - but you get the distinct impression you really wouldn’t want to be there over Christmas or Easter), but that’s a debate for another time and topic.
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Doubling the existing 20KW to 40KW towards Newcastle / Port Stephens / Hunter Valley to improve reception issues, and increasing from 2KW to 4KW towards Central Coast / Sydney to match the specs of 2RPH which is 4KW towards Sydney / Central Coast.
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A temporary Newsradio station has begun transmission in Bunbury on 90.1 FM.
Will be a great low band summer sporadic e target. Looks like its 100kw, S9+60 to me, same as ABC Classic and triple j.
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Good find!
Interesting about 1152 as that’s only been on air for a few years anyway.
My reading is that 90.1 will be a lower power just to cover Bunbury, it didn’t say anything about Busselton or other towns serviced by 1152.
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After reading this I went out to check this out in the car (I work in Mundijong - just to the east of Rockingham) - signal strength is indeed the same as 93.3 Classic and 94.1 JJJ which is usually good in the mornings, and hence will be great for me driving from the NE suburbs to work as 585 gets full of static past the Armadale area (and 1152 is the same amount of static thanks to powerlines etc till you’re either further south or near the coast).
By the way my Rottnest trip a couple weeks back was pretty fruitless except for near-permanent reception of most Geraldton FM’s and less permanent pick-ups of various Triple M / Hit repeaters between Lancelin and Geraldton - didn’t get up early enough for anything major of note AM-wise. Hoping for a better DX trip when I go to the Hobart region later this month (perhaps this salmon path to Invercargill that I’ve heard so much about?)
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2010 roughly I reckon - same time RN moved from 1224 AM to 1269 AM I believe. I think 684, 1152 and 1269 all share the same antenna array so this may be for hut works. I’ll be down that way this summer, so I’ll make sure I drive past to see any action.
I’d be interested to see what stations are normally hidden under 1152 during any outages.
Likewise all the ABC AM stations in Bunbury. A pleasure to listen to this temporary service on FM. Here’s hoping, once the Perth FM replan is finalized, Bunbury be next. 90.1 FM is 1 high power frequency we know of now!
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ABCs from Rockhampton making another appearance tonight in Brisbane.
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Does Bunbury and the Southwest have the same AM propagation issues as Perth?
If so, perhaps it’s time for the three ABCs and 2 commercials serving Busselton-Bunbury to be converted to FM, similar to what is proposed for Perth.
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I would say yes pretty much same issues (especially in the forest areas towards Manjimup etc) but then again I’m from the mid north of SA where my childhood was blessed with fantastic AM transmitter conductivity and therefore great range across the vast agricultural/pastoral districts 
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