IIRC from previous DX openings, Triple G uses a selection of NW NSW locations in these positioners
How does this happen? Fed off air but different input frequency?
Yes, I get the impression that the input frequency for 103.1 ABC Classic FM at Mt Soma (south west of Tamworth) somehow temporarily got changed from 96.7 Classic FM off Mt Dowe to 97,5 GGG from the same site.
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I can remember the day this happened. Fine Music Mt Soma was being relayed from Mt Dowe and they took 96.7 off the air for servicing (I presume the receive tuner on Soma had some sort of auto fine tune) and when 96.7 went off air the tuner would start Re-broadcasting 97.5 and as soon as 96.7 went back on air everything was normal again. This happed twice whilst I was at Gunnedah before the days of racing radio on 95.9. Iām sure that after the 2nd time that the ABC put a satellite dish at Soma to prevent this from happening again as in the years that followed Classic FM 103.1 Mt Soma would continue to broadcast even when 96.7 was switched off.
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What looks like a small opening to Gippsland today and iām getting 90.9 SBSFM Morwell faintly.
Also, JJJ Bendigo coming at a reasonable quality here, the carrier come in about 20dBFS.
Itās usually faint .
That said, I did get Star FM (Now Hit Gippsland) Gippsland in a listenable quality on my 396XT
SBS Has now faded out.
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I took a small trip Sydney-Armidale-Coffs Harbour-Sydney over the past few days; here are my observations.
Fri 24/2:
- New txs noted: 91.7 MHz 2JJJ/t Ravensworth Mine, 93.3 MHz 2NM/t Ravensworth Mine, 94.9 MHz 2VLY/t āPower FMā Ravensworth Mine. Ravensworth is located halfway between Muswellbrook and Singleton. These are all listed at 500 watts EIRP per the ACMA database, so could easily be received via Es. 2NM/t relays 981 AM straight from the source like some of the Queensland mining txs.
- 95.1 MHz 2GEM Inverell has very poor coverage to the south. It can only be received on high points between Tamworth and Armidale; Inverell is less than 100 km from Armidale. Little wonder that I havenāt logged it from Oatley.
- 100.1 MHz 2SBS Murrurundi and 107.7 MHz 2SBS Muswellbrook both running a continuous loop of VAST music like many QLD outback relays.
Sat 25/2:
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I caught the tail end of a good tropo opening to Queensland from Guyra NSW (0800-0900 AEDT).104.7 MHz 4JJJ Rockhampton was well received on both the car radio and the Sangean PR-D15 (768 km/477 miles). 99.3 MHz 4JJJ Wide Bay was booming in at near local strength at times whilst mobile in the area. Other stations noted included 89.1 MHz Hit FM Kingaroy, and high- powered Brisbane FM at good strength. There was also a mystery 88.4 MHz religious tx in via tropo that has also been received via Es; this is possibly from the Warwick or Toowoomba areas. I also tried the PK loop at Guyra; results were good with 1548 kHz 4QD Emerald at fair levels via groundwave.
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I drove to the highest navigable point on the New England tablelands, Point Lookout near Ebor NSW at 1563 m ASL. By this time (~1200-1300 AEDT), morning tropo enhancement had faded. A panoramic view of the North Coast between Coffs Harbour and Taree ensured that the FM dial was packed. Notable catches included 95.7 MHz 2ABCFM Wollongong (493 km/406 miles), 102.5 MHz 2MBS Sydney, and 107.9 MHz 2COW FM Casino (low powered).
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I went up to Boambee Headland after 2000 AEDT to undertake some MW DX with the PK Loop antenna. This location has a negative horizon with absolute ocean frontage. The results were impressive, with 1305 kHz Radio Dunedin and 1386 kHz Radio Tarana Auckland providing near local strength signals. The DX highlight of the trip then followed: a weak signal of 1580 kHz KBLA Santa Monica, USA playing Mexican pop music matching the online stream (11694 km/7266 miles).
Sun 26/2:
- Local thunderstorm activity meant that FM/MW DX was difficult. However, some encouraging results on FM were obtained from Woolgoolga Headland 20 km north of Coffs Harbour. Aircraft scatter was noted from 97.7 MHz 4PNN Wide Bay over 4JJJ Gold Coast. Brisbane FM was good from here despite the poor tropo conditions. Aircraft scatter to the south yielded 2MBS Sydney and 99.7 MHz Rhema FM Newcastle at fair levels.
- I also tried some groundwave MW from Boambee Headland around 1000 AEDT. The results were fairly pedestrian with the Sydney commercial AM stations the best DX.
Mon 27/2:
- Another day of foul weather ensured that tropo levels were well down again. Nevertheless, 92.1 MHz 2MFM Sydney and 95.7 MHz Wollongong were noted from Boambee Headland. 90.9 MHz 2PNN Wollongong was received at strong levels from Smoky Cape near South West Rocks, about 80 km south of Coffs. This location has a negative horizon to the south.
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Did you make any recordings of the US station? would love to hear that
Great report!
Thanks re the Ravensworth Txs ā¦ Iāll keep an ear out for those next time Iām up thereā¦ hopefully soon.
Re SBS Muswellbrookā¦ Last time I was up there, about 8 months ago, SBS was still using the old 2GGZ Mt Helen FM frequency of 101.7ā¦ was there anything on this one?
Re SBS Murrurundiā¦ sounds like theyāve stopped inadvertently relaying the digital TV channel ONEā¦ About time! I think that went on for MONTHSā¦
Dun Dun Dun Dur Dur Dur Der Did Der Dur
@radioengineer No, unfortunately. KBLA was just able to be identified; a very fadey signal with some splash from the Aussies on 1575 and 1584.
@Radiohead I did check 101.7 in the Upper Hunter- nothing on there.
@melbournefan I actually have the āWelcome to VASTā loop music in mp3 format if youāre interested 
. I quite enjoy it actually (though Iām not condoning the Upper Hunter Shire councilās laziness).
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Something coming on 98.3.
Seems to be music.
Edit: Turns out to be a image / harmonic of Gold 104.3.
This is the reverse. I havenāt tried AM DX for years but from back in the day this is a recording I made of the former Honolulu AM station KAIM.
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Apart from country Victorian stations.
Iām now getting 5SE 963 from Mt Gambier.
Also getting 2CA Canberra.
luckyā¦ just did a bandscan ā¦ nothing out of the ordinary!.. Iāll check around midnight
Donāt think Iāll be able to do some MW at midnight, because of people sleeping and the big plasma outputs a lot of RFI in MW.
Iāll see what I get at around 8:30-9PM
2GB as well as 3YB is coming back up as usual
Also got the regulars such as 891 ABC Adelaide on the radio under the QRM from the plasma.
I went for a spin up that way today and had a listen to theseā¦
All 3 were monoā¦
Reception was better southwards than north eg. I could start to receive these from Branxton, but they had pretty much disappeared by the time I was north of Muswellbrook. They were listenable in the car driving around Singleton too.
Youāre right about 2NM being a straight off air relayā¦ you could still hear the AM electrical interference on 93.3 ā¦ I just hope they donāt suffer from any fading at night on 981 (shouldnāt) otherwise we might well end up hearing a bit of 3HA on 93.3!
re SBS relays running the music loopā¦ I thought the whole idea of them was to provide foreign language programmingā¦ not music loopsā¦ ridiculousā¦ They should be made to relay SBS 1 or 2 (eg. either 1107 or 97.7 from Sydney)
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2BA (ABC Local Radio SE NSW) 5SE, 5PB, ABC Broken Hill, 2CC,2CA, And something faintly on 1476 Iām going to say that 1476 is 5MG Mount Gambier (ABC Local Radio) all coming in tonight with some other ABC stations.
This is all coming out of a Panasonic RX-EX1 with itās telescopic antenna inside a room with a computer and a lot of electronics with a plasma about 10m away.
5MG Mt Gambia?
Probably down to not enough listeners wanting the service - so no one there to notice it isnāt running the right content.
SBS shouldnāt relay into regional areas - they should supply a mix of language content tailored to the demographics of the coverage area, the mix that suits Sydney or a generic mix to suit all areas with only one SBS service, both would spend the majority of the day on languages thereād be minimal if any of the population speaking - let alone wanting the content offered by SBS.
Obviously a generic VAST music loop is bad - but something like PopDesi might well be the most relevant service SBS could provide into an area - perhaps with opt outs to specific languages.
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