For me, they only start to get weak just a few hundred metres north of the Doyalson interchange on the M1, and for me, I think that is past the 160 degree bearing (I will need to do another check on my PC on Google Earth to be certain) ie. if they were transmitting to spec, they should be getting weaker sooner when travelling south.
I am thinking of one spot on the M1 before or after Morisset where there is some terrain shielding. On my car stereo I generally get the Newcastle commercial fmâs ok to Westfield Tuggerah. That is pretty much their limit. On the costal front they are good to Terrigal.
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I can confirm that as of last year that reception of the Newcastle FMs in Erina are generally poor/non-existent.
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The only spot where you can get Newcastle commercial fm, is on the car radio is at Ernest Street Erina which is a north facing hill. This spot is bad for Sydney Fm. Otherwise they are poor or non existent to you get to Terrigal and further north along the coastal fringe.
I use to be able to get them at Terey Hills but even this spot is now dominated by Kix, 2ST and Vox. Have not been to Palm Beach lately so cannot say what reception is like there now.
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A friend at Star FM in Erina was only saying the other day that all their radios inside the building have crystal clear reception of all Newcastle FMâs, all Sydney including The Edge and Campbeltown all via antenna on the roof.
Being a commercial operation, I assume they have spend quite a bit of money on the right gear to be able to do this.
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The southernmost spot for reliable Newcastle commercial FM in Sydney (on a car radio) is Balgowlah Heights; reception is pretty good at Tania Park and at the Seaforth interchange on Spit Road. On the beach at Collaroy, reception is excellent. Inland itâs a different story; patchy reception can be had at Berowra on the F3 but itâs fairly poor overall. The risque âTumbledown Dick Hillâ near Terrey Hills is another good spot as you identify above.
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Walk/drive by and have a look at whatâs on top of the building. Nothing is usually that elaborate, simply the usual setup youâd expect of a broadcasting station.
Receiver will be of good quality, the antenna: 3 elements or better and external.
Yesterday, there was a bit of ducting aboutâŚ
From Braye Park Lookout in the Newcastle suburb of Waratah, I noted a few first time catches from there (most of them were only heard briefly)
92.9 Tamworth
FM 100.3 Armidale
103.9 2WAY FM Port Macquarie
106.3 News Radio Central West Slopes
107.1 ABC Local Radio Central West Slopes
ABCs from Coffs Harbour and Orange were also received.
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I can confirm that the trouble other folks have had with Power FM Nowra is real- it was really struggling at Clovelly Beach this morning. The SE beaches is a prime signal area for Knights Hill- many apartment blocks/homes have UHF ants pointing southward- so this was quite surprising. Reception of i98 and Wave was excellent in comparison.
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Ring their engineer? Wave and i98 reception has improved now then?
At my location in NW Sydney, Wave, and i98 have improved. However Wave can no longer be received with RDS. I98 is much better and suffers less co-channel from News Radio Gosford.
has Power Fmâs ERP been reduced further to the NE from their new site?
I was down in Wollongong this afternoon and have noticed that in parts of Stanwell Park & Coalcliff away from the immediate coastline & closer to the escarpment, Power FM was nowhere to be heard, whilst in the inland parts of Thirroul, Bulli & Woonona, it was quite weak. From Corrimal southwards, Power FM was well received. And on the way back home, Power was well received until just before Appin, whilst afterwards, it was very weak to non-existant. This was all in the car radio with the after-market windscreen antenna.
On my Tecsun, at the corner of Cliff Road & Bourke Street in North Wollongong, Power FM was received at around the same signal strength as 2GO from Gosford, whilst the Sydney FM stations were received stronger.
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Perhaps they have lower the strength into the gong. It would be interesting around the shoalhaven. There are quite a lot of black spots for wave fm and i98fm as expected. Be interesting to see how much power fm is affected.
Power Fm are at 50KW Vâs 4kW for I98 / Wave Fm into the Shoalhaven, so should have similar coverage to the previous site, unless they are at reduced power in all directions.
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Iâm not complaining; itâs just an observation for Peteâs sake. Iâd actually rather have fewer stations on air so that I can DX!
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A little bit of enhancement about tonight
Getting 97.3 ABC Illawarra over the near local Lake Macquarie FM (I can almost see their transmitter from where I am).
96.5 was mush between Central Hunter Radio (2CHR) and WAVE FM.
Observations from the Upper Murray this afternoon:
*Tumut: 94.7 2SBS running normal programming, as opposed to the VAST loop or ONEHD. Local Radio (97.9), RN (99.5), Hit Wagga (103.1), Triple M/2WG Wagga (107.9) all on air.
- Batlow: 92.5 2SBS with ONE HD, as per usual. DX= 91.1 ABC Bendigo, 95.1 2MIA Griffith.
- Tumbarumba: 100.5 SBS on air with normal programming. Classic FM (97.3), Local Radio (102.9), RN (104.5), JJJ (106.1) all on air.
- Khancoban: Classic FM (88.1) on air; Radio National (89.7) blank carrier only; 91.3 (Local) on air but very poor coverage.
- Corryong: 3RUM/t (98.9) with very distorted audio. 95.7 Hit/t and 96.5 MMM/t both running RDS.
Thanks for posting that.
Didnât realise that the Corryong repeaters were on air, with RDS thatâs even more remarkable! I donât suppose that 2AY was on air there (supposed to be on 97.3 I think)?
And did you happen to notice if 106.1 JJJ in Tumbarumba was in stereo or not? (I believe some of those self help JJJ retransmissions are in mono).
No 2AY on 97.3. The 3RUM repeater (98.9) is horribly overmodulated and spews IMD from 96-102 MHz inclusive! 88.7 and 107.7 sound a little distorted too.
Today, I managed to achieve a DXing feat that has thus far eluded me: I received Sydney and Melbourne at the same time. The participating stations were Classic FM Sydney and JJJ Melbourne, both reflected via As in Corryong. Other notes from today (currently staying at Healesville on the outskirts of Melbourne):
- No DAB+ reception here in Healesville (!). I am staying in an RF ridden motel, though.
- 94.1 Bombala received at good levels from Corryong.
- 101.5 Canberra loud into Wodonga via As.
- 93.1 Wagga strong into the famous Bonnie Doon.
- Melbourne DAB+ at threshold levels at Marysville VIC. I could get audio snippets on my Sangean DPR34. NB: This is the town that was all but wiped off the map on Black Saturday; it has recovered splendidly.
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Wouldnât that spoil the serenity though?
Seriously though, well done on the Sydney and Melbourne achievement!
Iâve achieved Brisbane and Wollongong at the same time (at Port Macquarie) but that is more essily achieved given thatâs via a coastal duct.