Let BAI know and see how quick it is fixed.
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I guess if it is not interfering with an adjacent Sydney Am station they wonāt do anything. Just imagine if the over deviation got worse and News Radio started wiping out 2GBās signal in SW Sydney. There would be massive amounts of complaints, BAI would be forced to fix the problem.
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I think I may have found one of the worst spots on the Central Coast for local fm reception.
Rented out a cabin this weekend with the family at the Blue Lagoon Beach Resort at Bateau Bay, and of course took the Sangean DPR35+ with me for some dxing.
Fm reception down in the caravan park was dreadful, with the local commercials only received in staticky mono, 1 bar on the signal metre. I actually receive them better on the same device at home in NW Sydney with the headphone antenna. The community stations, 2BLT and News Radio were only received just above the noise floor.
Newcastle national ABC fm stations were about the same strength as the CC community stations.
Vodafone reception was lousy too.
What was good was tv reception, and it came from Mt sugarloaf, not Foresters Beach which was about 5Km away to the south.
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Lol not suprised, itās quite sheltered down there
Closer to 3km. Google says 54km to Sugarloaf but a much clearer path. Wyrrabalong would be difficult to impossible at the southern end of the park I imagine.
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Looks like a poor place for FM (sheltered to the west) but MW DX could be OKā¦if you could get away from the interference of the cavalcade of caravans. Having a hill to the west can attenuate those pesky Australian MW stations, allowing North America to sneak through on the 10 kHz splits.
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Yes major obstructions to the south and west blocking Sydney and Central Coast fm. Much clearer path to the north. Surprised how weak Newcastle fm was though.
The caravan park has a MATV system with Foxtel, visitor information channel, and Newcastle channels received through a 4x bay Phased Array UHF antenna. Signal level and Quality 100% on the tv.
I tried to manually tune Foresters but no signal was detected at all.
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Maybe NZ SpE and tropo?
But these events are rare as Hens teeth.
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Yes, Newcastle has a good water path over the lakes towards that part of the Coastā¦ much better than into Wyong.
Iām amazed how many TV antennas on the northern end of the Coast are pointed at Newcastleā¦ Hamlyn Terrace, Charmhaven, Toukley, Gorokan and Budgewoi are other locations in the same boat as Bateau Bay too.
Forresters Beach probably needs to be upped from 1.25kw to probably 2-3 kw, that might help.
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My Dad used to live at Woongarrah in Peppercorn Ave and was just behind the hill enough that he could only use Sugarloaf
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Yes itās pretty bad there, but a well known bad spot is around the Lake Haven shopping centre, particularly near the old Bunnings near BCF, even on a car radio the CC commercial stations are hard to get, a portable radio would be near impossible for reception.
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There was some enhancement about this morning, Sydney commercial FMs stable up until around Bulahdelah (on my way to Port Macquarie).
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Yeah I think overall Central coast is problematic to get blanket reception to the East of Gosford along the coast has lots of black spot (Killcare etc). It is heavy forested the areas and hilly. Beautiful part of the world!
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And tv reception too, even the three Central Coast translators struggle to provide blanket coverage of the coast.
I wonder, if Mt Elliot was chosen over Rimburra Reserve, that may have been able to get better widespread tv coverage of the Coast with less translators? Probably more a question for @RFBurns
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Guessing you mean Rumbalara Reserve?
For FM radio I reckon I can get better coverage of the populated areas of the CC from Mt Elliot over Somesby, remember I wanted to move CoastFM to there (not happening now though), & the original 2CCC (CoastFM) transmitter was at Mt Elliot probably for that reason?
I believe the commercial stations put their transmitters at Somesby to get good coverage along the F3/M1 freeway, probably parts of the freeway South of the Mooney Mooney Bridge wouldnāt get very good reception from Mt Elliot?
As far as UHF TV goes, no thereād be too many areas of the CBD & South of the Rumbalara reserve hill (East Gosford) & even parts North Gosford, thatād be shadowed too much for good or any reception from Mt Elliot, I know Rumbalara reserve site serves right down the Brisbane Water areas, Woy Woy, etc might also be shadowed too much from Mt Elliot, I know thereās people down around Umina & Ettalong get their TV from Gosford, even though Bouddi is much closer.
The coverage maps on the TXA web site are pretty accurate. https://www.txaustralia.com.au/tvcoverage
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Yes, the Central Coast is a difficult area to cover, all radio and TV options have some sort of coverage issues somewhere.
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Lots of coastal hills and suburbs tucked behind those hills, unlike in the Illawarra where most development is on the narrow coastal plain below the escarpment. Even so, there has always been the need for supplementary coverage from Brokers Nose.
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Thought Iād let you guys know Canberra RN on 846 AM is down.
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Thanks, is it weather related with the rain band crossing southern NSW?
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Correct. When I called the ABC technical support number they said there is an issue with one of the masts, and that they are having issues moving 846 to the backup one.
666 is unaffected.
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