Winter SpE only very brief!!!
Very weak and brief Triple M Townsville on 102.3, and now Triple M Mackay booming in with Full RDS
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Nice. Might be a big day for those in the Northern Hemisphere.
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You can say that again.
Some guy in America picked up France this week.
First time Mainland Europe had been logged on FM from the United States.
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Nice. What time was that?
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It was very brief between 2:15pm and 2:45.
The opening was gone by 3pm. This is only the second time in Winter that I have SpE.
Could it be linked to the massive opening in the northern hemisphere?
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I noticed classical music on 88.3 and some talk on 89.9 today, probably just after 1pm AEST. Presuming I had reception from Wagga/SW Slopes ABC outlets, but the reception windows were too brief (about 30 seconds in total) to really confirm. One of the few winter Es I’ve ever recorded if it was indeed that.
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You are correct, that is the South West Slopes ABCs you got. Maybe if it was longer, you could of got 89.1 (RN) 90.7 (JJJ) and 91.5 (Newsradio). Or even better, you could had received Hit 93.1.
I mostly get those stations via either Tropo or Aircraft Scatter at my location.
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Just found this where Bryce talks about his France reception:
Now I know there’s a podcast for every subject!
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I have the recording of 87.8 France:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10nLI5Zestuu6SAQAgctMGp49bbuhj17g/
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Went for a drive up the Oberon plateau yesterday hoping to see some snow up at Shooters Hill. Unfortunately no such luck in that regard, but some interesting dxing to report nevertheless.
At Hanpton near the pub 2NSB was so strong that it completely wiped out Brock fm. There was no noticeable CCI from Brock under the 2BSB signal, and so close to the boundary of the Bathurst Licence area too. Of the sub metro communities 2SWR also boomed in near local strength.
I have finally received 107.7 GNFM!!!
93.5 Eagle fm is quite strong around the cemetery just below the summit of Shooters Hill. At this location it was a battle between Triple M CC and GNFM. Both were at equal strength and we’re cutting in over the top of each other on the car radio.
As I headed back towards Oberon Triple M CC was then only received.
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It’s a magical moment, hearing a long eluded catch for the first time, no matter where you are!
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I could have told you that was a waste of time! Although cold, the airmass is too dry. Sunny at Oberon today when I looked on the cam, and partly cloudy yesterday. Even Thredbo was struggling for flakes, and it’s much closer to Bass Strait (this was a southerly, rather than westerly cold change).
Glad you enjoyed the trip anyway. It’s always a fun drive up there. The drive up to Oberon from down this way is worth doing and much better than the slog on the Great Western Parking Lot.
Braidwood FM only wins the battle south of Shooters Hill (Gurnang State Forest). There was a fleeting bit of reception at the southern end of Shooters Hill Rd but near the cemetery and thence north to Oberon, it was all
Skid Row. I didn’t go up to the summit (Tower Rd) on my last trip since there was no snow.
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No it wasn’t a complete waste of time as the kids caught up with their cousins from Bathurst, spent hours in the skate bowl in Oberon park in the balmy 5’c temperature.
I did not try Braidwood fm, completely forgot about it, was mainly focusing on the elusive GNFM. Next snow chase I will try it.
Unfortunately my Tucson is front wheel drive, so not game to drive up the dirt road to the summit of Shooters Hill even if dry. Is it normally ok for a front wheel drive to do?
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Fine if it’s dry. Even in moderate snow it’s OK; traction is actually better on gravel roads in snow. In heavy snow you need chains…haven’t got them but may get some for emergencies.
There is a video on YouTube (OPSnowChaser/MasterNASA) using chains at Shooters Hill.
I am going to “chase” Blue Cow next time…easier when you’ve got the Ski Tube 
BTW- how do your kids and significant other react to you trying for DX in the car?
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Quite familiar with MasterNasa’s work I subscribe to him on YouTube. I thought there might have been a chance of snow on that Wednesday, the BOM was calling it.
Usually there are strong SW winds with CT snow and there was none.
Dxing on the car radio annoys my wife but the kids are use to it. My son is quite amazed when I get Eagle fm on the car radio in my local area, maybe a future dxer???
At the moment they prefer to listen to BBC R1 or Capital fm on the car play then any of the local offerings.
Heading down to the snow in under a month so will get to try out GNFM on the way down.
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My lady doesn’t quite get the DXing but tolerates it. She speaks a bit of French too so can help me decipher things when New Caledonia comes in.
Funniest thing was once when I had MMM Bendigo belting in on a strong opening here while driving down to the coast, I left the radio on 93.5 just out of interest. 20 minutes in she complains, not about the signal or anything like that, but just about the boring as bat sh*t music I was making her listen to. Evidently she shares our opinion here of regional Triple M music 
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Windy dot com is your friend. Put in Shooters Hill and give more weight to the EC (ECMWF) model over all others. EC is by far the best at picking snow short to medium term. BOM are pretty rubbish by comparison and often too bullish for snow levels. I think a forecast is only available for the town (1250 m) so if a few cm of snow is showing at that level, it’s usually worth heading up. I do the same for Anglers Reach.
I really only use the BOM forecasts for comparison’s sake. The regional forecasts are usually OK for temps, but point forecasts (such as for Bungendore) are rubbish; this is because they use a grid square system and the mean elevation of Bungendore’s grid square is higher than the town, leading to lowball temp forecasts.
One thing to remember is that the quoted snow level is the level at which snow could fall, rather than settle. For settling snow you can probably add 200 m to the level. So a forecast of snow to 1200 m will more than likely result in only non-settling flurries even as high as Shooters Hill (settling level above 1400, and there’s nothing that high on the Central Tablelands).
Getting back slightly on topic, I think Shooters Hill was (is?) used as a relay point between Knights Hill and Mount Canobolas for TV. Shooters would have line of sight to both, I think.
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My wife is of the same type. Tolerates it but has zero idea what the fuss is all about, lol.
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A mate of mine lives at Wamboin and he is the same height above sea level as Black Mountain so he often gets a dump of snow. Great Dx location and gets FM from Sydney regularly.
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Wamboin is a double edged sword: better for tropo but more frequencies blocked during Sporadic-E openings. In some parts you can easily hear Sydney on the car radio; it would be blasting on a Yagi.
That said, the SDR# co-channel canceller might remove some of the crap. I am hoping it does for me; I get Sydney strong enough down in the valley.
On snow, it’s high enough up there but it’s still in the Canberra rain shadow. It rarely settles as a result as there’s just not enough precipitation. Bungendore is probably the coldest spot in Australia that doesn’t see snow on a regular basis. Lower places that are on the other side of the ranges (Tumbarumba, even Tumut) see more snow than us.
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