AM and FM DX

The Bluff near Port Pirie in the Southern Flinders Ranges also - coverage of 5AU (now FM), Magic and the ABC FM’s would get you reliably from the northern Adelaide Plains right up to Hawker (about 300 km), and quite a ways around the top of Spencer Gulf and into Eyre Peninsula if you really want to get the most out of mileage :stuck_out_tongue:

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You can also add Mount Cootha in Brisbane to that. The coverage for the Brisbane stations is exceptional at only 12kw ERP.

I’ve picked up the Brisbane stations as well as River 949 on a wireless radio at Byron Bay lighthouse which is quite high up, but still approx 200km away.

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They don’t call it Mount Cooties for nothing. Easy to catch.

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About where Mt Dowe finally dies on the Newell is where Mt Canobolas first starts up (either side of the Warrumbungles). From Spire View you can pick up 105.1/105.9 with RDS and while they’re mixed in strength (certainly good from well north of Dubbo), they hang in there really until about West Wyalong. Not bad considering I believe the highway never actually enters the licence area?

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The Orange services get out a long way. I would also count Mt Dandenong in the long range category towards south and south west with reception quite attainable around Mt Gambier and into Northern Tassie assisted by partial over water path. Admittedly though towards the north east up the Hume it is quite weak

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I would like to know where Orange finally dies going towards Broken Hill. When we went to Hay NSW, 104.3 was a mix of Orange and Mildura depending on which way the antenna was aimed. Coonabarabran/Cenn Cruaich could also be received at times, mainly via aircraft scatter.

I think @Radiohead (who has been everywhere, man) went to Broken Hill recently.

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Yes, in 2020 I went out that way.

My recollection was that Orange starts to fade not far south of Nyngan.

I don’t think there was any trace of Orange in Cobar however.

2CR 549 on the other hand, can still JUST be heard in Broken Hill.

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As a child/teen DX’er growing up in the Flinders Ranges of SA (a further few hours west of Broken Hill), I remember my father’s Toyota Landcruiser ute had fantastic AM reception and I could often pick up a faint 2CR 549 and 2WEB 585 during the middle of the day!

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Makes sense; I have heard 2BH quite well using the loop from Peak Hill (‘Hill To Hill’, as it were).

I am not surprised 2CR makes it to South Australia in the daytime, even on a car radio. With the loop who knows how far, Port Augusta or even further out on the EP? I really need to get out there one of these days.

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Toyota went to great lengths to ensure a quality radio receiver was supplied to Australian vehicles.

I find many of their models have better selectivity and low signal reception than other makes.

It’s a great part of the world @dxnerd , highly recommend a visit. Adelaide FM reception on the east coast in the right conditions is great fun.

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I don’t think it would take much lift for Adelaide to romp into Port Lincoln…perhaps it’s there all the time at weak levels?

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From memory it’s not difficult - even driving down the coast through Whyalla etc I’ve had Triple M and SAFM come in thanks to the partial water path. As an elevation aside, on the top of Mount Stokes between Quorn and Carrieton the Adelaide and Riverland FM’s are pretty much permanent.

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In May 2019, I had Magic FM 89.9 at low levels by the seaside at Glenelg.
So yes, I’d agree Adelaide reception into Port Lincoln, particularly the higher power ABC and SBS stations, would be fairly frequent.

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Just came back from the snow today via Mt Ainslie for some dxing, and got some great catches in flat conditions. Sorry a very long post!!!

From the car park on the eastern side of Mt Ainslie.

Sydney -95.3 Smooth Fm cochanneling with something else on 95.3 that I could not get an Id on, possibly RN Cooma?

Nova 96.9 cochanneling with Sky Sports Mt Roberts., WS fm and 2day fm. 2day fm was the weakest of the receivable Sydney stations.

Batemans Bay, all ABC’s 2EC, and 104.3 Power Fm, it was also the weakest. I even received 107.5 2EAR.

Bega- 94.5 2EC, and 102.5 Power fm, surprisingly they were both stronger then the nationals from Brown Mountain.

2BRW Braidwood

Wollongong, all the nationals, Power fm and very weak i98 and Wave fm.

Nowra- weak KIX Country and Sky Sports. 102.9 2ST was also received at moderate strength.

Goulburn-GN FM, and Eagle fm, both strong. RAM fm at moderate strength.

Cooma - Snow fm, and XL Fm, good but not as strong as Goulburn.

What was interesting if you parked on the northern, southern, or western side of Mt Ainslie there was limited dx opportunities, the eastern side was by far the best.

I even received some weak reception of Smooth fm on the high parts of Northcott Drive heading towards Canberra airport. I received it at the same location on Friday afternoon on the way down to the snow too, perhaps it is permanent reception???

On the way back to Sydney I was switching between Braidwood fm, GNFM, and Eagle fm.

Braidwood fm comes in strong as you drive down into Lake George, and then there is a null around Goulburn. It then comes in good again from Murulan until Sutton Forest where you loose it and it becomes 2RSR. On the way down to the Snow on Friday afternoon the Conga Line was on, and they were playing some great 80’s songs I had not heard in ages.

GNFM
You definitely can notice the difference in signal strength between it and Eagle fm.
On the south side of the licence area around Collectlor Eagle fm is in perfect stereo while GN fm is loosing its stereo separation.

Heading north it is pretty much on par with Eagle fm until around Wingello / Sutton Forest were it looses it stereo separation.
At Woodlands south of Welby on the Hume Hwy all of a sudden the GNFM signal abruptly ends, and it is replaced with Triple M CC. At this location Eagle fm is still receivable and in full stereo. GN FM still manages to get over Triple M CC in a couple of places in the cutting on the motorway between Mittagong and Bowral. They have engineered GNFM well for this, but what carnage will happen when extreme summer tropo occurs???

Lastly the Goulburn intermodulation, It seemed about the same, if not slightly lower in strength compared to the last time I bypassed Goulburn.
Heading from the south the intermod appears closer to Mt Gray then before, but still extends to Towrang Creek north of Goulburn where it disappears completely.
The intermod is still a mix of Eagle fm and Sky Sports Radio, there is no GNFM in the mix to what I could hear.

Lastly from the quick glance that I got of the tower while driving , it looks like the GNFM array has been mounted under Eagle fm’s, there looks to be a lot more mountings on the tower then before.

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My pleasure. Thankfully you caught us in the first hour as the UPS at the transmitter failed, knocking us off air from about 1600-1730.

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Out of interest, here are the non DX out of area stations I receive (excluding Locals) from Bendigo, using a Dipole (vertical) about 5 meters in height above roof level, I get 89.9 Light Melbourne, 91.5 Smooth Melbourne, 92.3 ZZZ Melbourne, 93.1 ethnic not sure where from, 93.7 Hit Tanslator (possibly Alpine region) 94.3 News Radio (not sure where from), 94.5 JJJ Geelong,95.3 MMM Shepparton, 95.9 News Radio (not sure where from), 96.1 ABC Classic Shepparton, 96.9 Hit Shepparton, 97.7 ABC RR Shepparton, 98.5 One FM Shepparton, 98.7 Swan Hill not sure of service, 99.1 Goldfields FM Maryborough (vic), 99.7 Hit (not sure where from), 99.9 not sure of service or location, 100.1 RPH not sure where from, 100.7 Highlands Fm Kyneton, 101.3 Edge FM Translator not sure where from, 102.1 ABC RR Swan Hill, 102.3 3BA FM Ballarat, 102.5 Edge FM Deniliquin, 103.1 Power FM Ballarat, 103.7 ABC Classsic not sure where from, 103.9 Ballarat Gospel Radio, 104.1 ABC Classic FM Albury, 104.7 not sure of service or location, 105.3 JJJ (terrible audio) not sure where from , 105.5 ABC Classic Ballarat, 106.3 KLFM Translator Castlemaine, 107.1 JJJ Ballarat and 107.9 ABC RR Ballarat.
Unfortunately did not have the time to look up the frequency list for the services I could not identify or location. Hope to do that soon. These seem to be receivable without ducting or enhancement, just under general conditions. On AM using long wire and concentrating on the out of band signals. 1611 Ethnic not sure of location, 1629 gospel music not sure of location, 1638 Arabic not sure where from, 1665 Vision Melbourne, 1701 Ethnic not sure where from. These signals very weak but listenable during daylight hours, quite strong as you would expect during night hours. Hope some find this interesting.

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I’ll help you out on the following.

SBS Radio Melbourne

Yes, Mt Buller.

Ballarat.

It’s actually from Shepparton.

Murray Valley (Swan Hill).

Mixx FM Kerang translator.

Griffith.

Possibly Voice FM Ballarat.

Shepparton.

Horsham.

Murray Valley (Swan Hill).

Possibly EMFM Echuca.

Murray Valley (Swan Hill).

It is quite interesting, thanks for sharing. :slight_smile:

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Thank you very much for the info. Nice to know.

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Griffith to Bendigo is impressive, around 300km!

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KLFM in Bendigo share the frequency of 96.5 with JJJ Griffith. During periods of ducting, and at times without ducting, the JJJ service has at times wiped the KLFM signal out in Bendgio. Even as you say 300 Kms away. This has been raised with ACMA several times, but in there eyes, “the computer says no” and they don’t seem to think it can happen. Recordings and signal measurements prove that the JJJ Griffith signal has a clear path to Bendigo and causes KLFM all sorts of reception problems. Then again, JJJ at 250 Kw compared to KLFM at 1.6 Kw, even so, way to much power (more than needed) for JJJ Griffith.

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