Looking at your tv antenna it looks like the great Australian fauna has taken its toll on it, and due for a replacement.
It looks like a 36 element Wideband UHF antenna. These were great when Kings Cross and North Head were broadcasting in the higher frequencies, but now they broadcast in the lower UHF band 4. Your current antenna’s optimum gain is for these old frequencies, and not the current ones. You could also be picking up interfering 4/5G mobile signals too.
It probably would not hurt to replace it with a high gain UHF band 4 antenna designed for UHF 28-39. This would give you a stronger and better quality signal, and also make up for any splitting loss from connecting the tv antenna through the new fm antenna.
I get this on my car radio when passing the Artarmon tv tower.
It looks like you might be in this extreme overload zone 80+ dbuV zone where there is intermodulation on any dx frequencies.
I think you will get there by trial an error, which is dxing.
DXing in the Artarmon triangle is akin to being a penguin in the tropics: good luck. A school acquaintance once remarked that I was ‘unlucky’ to live in Oatley, away from the TV/FM transmitters (we were on a boat on Darling Harbour, in full view of the towers).
This made me wonder… which Sydney suburb in the metro area would be the best to live for AM and FM DXing?
Somewhere near the Bahai Temple at Mona Vale, or on a hill the eastern suburbs at Clovelly/Coogee, or somewhere like Carlingford or Pennant Hills with a good take off in most directions??? Or other?
Dural is possibly the best for FM DX; everything from Newcastle to Canberra is almost permanent reception, even in winter. You’re far enough away from Artarmon there also.
The best MW sites are obviously right on the coast. La Perouse offers decent FM DX as well for both coastal and inland tropo, so possibly around there would be my pick. If you just want coastal tropo on FM then the far Northern Beaches is possibly better.
Depends in Dural as it is very undulating, I travel around there for work quite frequently.
Glenhaven near Flower Power would be my pick for Wollongong, Goulburn and Canberra, and to isolate it even further the very top section of Glenhaven Rd is the prime spot. Our work trucks can pickup Eagle fm there in all conditions, and they are not very good at picking up weak signals.
Old Northern Rd near Forest Glen is also quite good, there is a spot close to 200m ASL which also has a good take off to the south.
Also near Menangle Park on the motorway where Sydney fm goes crap, Canberra and Goulburn’s Eagle come back in again, Canberra only briefly.
For northern signals it would probably be the top of Tumbledown Dick Hill, for Newcastle but even there Wollongong was still getting over the Newcastle commercials.
Stanwell tops was also good for NW dxing with 2BA on 810 receivable during the day, 918 2XL back in its time was also receivable faintly during the day too.
Good spot for NZ tropo and Bega / Cooma and Batemans Bay with tropo enhancements.
Around the Porter lookout is great to the W and SW. There aren’t too many places in Sydney where Eagle FM is permanent on a crap car radio. Off the top of my head I can’t think of any spots around Dural where Newcastle is permanent (pardon the pun) but I’m sure there are some. You get Orange commercial FM at Porter lookout as well on a standard car radio, again a rare feat in suburban Sydney.
Many parts of the Northern Beaches get Newcastle commercial FM all the time on a car radio, the southernmost spot being Balgowlah Heights. Further north at Collaroy Beach they are semi local.
I just remembered that Newcastle Fm is permanent around Arcadia. On a school camp there in 2003 I managed to hear NX FM quite well on a standard Walkman. I also picked up the test broadcast for 92.5 Central Coast.
So yeah, I think the Dural area is the winner for FM DX in Sydney.
There is a couple of spots in Round Corner Dural where the Newcastle commercials get over Wollongong, Galston, and Hornsby Heights, and Berowra Heights too.
Problem still is the Wollongong CCI in most spots.
I plan to swing by Dural on the forward trip to the MNC in September so will probably test the TEF at Porter’s Lookout. I also want to have a look at the new airport precinct, so sneaking up to Dural from the Penrith area is a way to avoid the trolls.
I will probably swing by Oatley on the way back for old time’s sake. I’ll test the TEF at the famous ‘red bin’ in Oatley Park (@matt86 will know the spot). Can’t really DX from my old house
I was up in Maitland today, and checked the Mt Warkworth mining TXs again (at Stockade Hill) and found that the audio level issues are fixed!
Could clearly hear Power on 94.5, JJJ on 95.3 and ABC Local on 96.1, as per ACMA allocations. But next to no signal in the car around the rest of Maitland though, which is not surprising. No change with the Bulga ones though.
I also did a band scan, and heard a bit of classical music on 88.3, possibly SW Slopes? But there wasn’t anything else much of note DX wise, so I thought that was strange ?? And not far enough for a hop and still winter too.
Not really… not enough to rule out 2BLU on 89.1 or 2HWK on 89.9 anyway … there was possibly something on 90.7 but barely above the noise floor. Don’t recall anything on 91.5
Given the location of Queenstown, it’s not real great for any radio. There is zero local AM radio in Queenstown and I also didn’t have the luxury of using a loop antenna. Bandscan was done on a wharf on Lake Wakitipu in the Queenstown CBD.
FM Bandscan (Direct LOS to Peninsula Hill, local FM Radio Site. All are from Peninsula Hill unless otherwise noted.
87.7 Drop FM Queenstown (Site unknown)
88.8 ZM Queenstown
89.6 Newstalk ZB Queenstown
90.4 The Hits Queenstown
91.2 Channel X Queenstown
92.0 More FM Queenstown
92.8 More FM Queenstown (Greengates)
93.6 SENZ Queenstown
94.4 Rhema Queenstown
95.2 The Edge Queenstown
96.0 Radio Central Queenstown
96.8 George FM Queenstown
97.6 The Sound Queenstown
98.4 RNZ Concert Queenstown
99.2 The Breeze Queenstown
100.0 The Breeze Queenstown
101.6 RNZ National Queenstown
104.0 Magic Queenstown
107.0 Star Queenstown (site unknown)
To be fair, Oatley had a multipath problem back in the analogue days.