WS and KIIS both look to be on the side mount antenna at the moment, reception significantly weaker than the SCA pair.
Unusual for it to be like this at the start of a long weekend, will be interesting to see if it stays like that until the holiday period is over.
On the lower Central Coast at the in-laws and also noticing the reduction in signal of WS FM and KIIS. WS fm is at a similar strength to 2day and Triple M but KIIS is very weak on my portable, much weaker than normal.
Also a bit of enhancement of the Illawarra nationals and Wave fm.
Thanks for this notification. 
Iâve been able to update the RDS List & make appropriate changes for the WSFM & KIIS standby transmitters/site/antenna.
Always makes reception of 106.7 Orange & 106.3 Canberra easier when the narrower bandwidth KIIS standby transmitter is on air.
Bandscan from the top of Buderim last night
https://vimeo.com/928604946
I know ARN were doing a lot of works this week (past few days) with things at both studio complexes & links between the Artarmon & the new & old studios, now WSFM has moved to North Sydney as well as KIIS.
Itâs quite likely link connections to the main transmitters are being changed, so theyâre using the alternate transmitters until theyâre done? Not only are sources for the links changing, but the main transmitters will now be fed off a completely different & new fibre into Artarmon that takes a diverse path to the old (existing fibre link), which will then soon be altered & used solely for the alternate transmitters.
The backup microwave links will also have to be changed which I think they changed to North Sydney on the alternate transmitters a couple of weeks ago.
The alternate transmitters also have an Optus 5G connection in case everything else goes belly up, so Iâm guessing they prefer to be on the alternate transmitters until theyâre sure the fibre & microwave links a working perfectly.
Also this weekend is the perfect time to be doing these works, everyone leaves Sydney for the weekend, so thereâs no major risk of having an unexpected outage while everyoneâs listening & thereâll be no traffic between North Sydney & Artarmon this weekend, so easy & quick to traverse the 2 sites to make changes for the techs.
Ah yes, that makes perfect sense re move to North Sydney⌠thanks.
Am finding on the TEF, the ARN side mount set up favours vertical polarity
I can get a peak signal strength of 54db for WS/KIIS (vertical) vs 63db for the SCA pair (horizontal). There is a bit of enhancement about tonight too, so those readings are probably 7-10 db better than average, but not enough to post a âtropo alertâ.
So thereâs not as much in it compared to the Tecsun. I think the better chip and extra length of the rabbit ears helps to even things up between the main Artarmon antenna vs side mount.
Am keen to conpare on the car radio tomorrow around Newcastle and east Lake Macquarie.
Currently in Tamworth for the Easter long weekend. Some inland tropo at play
Dxing from Coles Northgate car park a spot in the centre of town, nothing special.
107.9 ABC RN CWS
107.1 ABC local radio CWS
106.9 Hit 106.9 just above noise floor
106.5 KIIS 106.5 Just above noise floor similar to Hit 106.9
106.3 ABC News Radio CWS
106.1 Classic Newcastle just above noise floor
105.7 Triple J Sydney just above noise floor
105.5 Classic CWS
104.1 2day fm stronger than KIIS
103.7 2NUR just above noise floor
103.5 Classic Armidale
102.9 Triple M Newcastle just above noise floor
102.7 Classic Orange
102.3 Triple J CWS
102.1 Triple J Newcastle weak
101.7 WS Just above noise floor
98.3 2NIW moderate to weak
97.5 2GGG moderate
Wonât list all the locals, first time Sydney fm into Tamworth, and the ARNâs off the community fm antenna at Artarmon aswell.
If youâre heading to Armidale at all you might want to confirm the status of Tune (2UNE) FM 106.9âŚI think itâs now off air. That says a lot about the relevance of radio for the yoof.
Not heading to Armidale so wonât be able to check, heading out to Nundle will do some fm dxing there.
Definitely some tropo there getting Sydney.
Even up at Oxley Lookout i couldnât get them in normal conditions, Newcastle weak, I donât think Gosford can normally be received there either.
If you went up there, youâd probably get Orange and Wollongong too. Itâs shielded to the north by the Moonbi range, so no real chance of getting even Coffs Harbour.
Nundle is one place Iâve never been. Hopefully there is a good DX location there. There is a road that goes past Nundle up to the high plateaus south of Walcha (Topdale area).
Iâve been through there once, doesnât help as you canât really pass through it to get to anywhere else.
The town itself is in something of a gully, no sort of real hills or lookout that you could easily access to DX from.
I tested out the ARN side mount transmission for WS/KIIS in the car todayâŚ
Itâs okay in elevated parts of Newcastle/Lake Macquarie, but down in Newcastle, it is mostly static, but you can hear it here and there. The main Artarmon TX is conversely, a bit the opposite, more audio than static, but still breaks up a bit.
I did have KIIS mixing with Radio Rhema Taree around Highfields, a place where KIIS dominates when on the main Artarmon TX.
And a question for @RFBurns ⌠what exactly is meant by a âside mountâ antenna⌠does that simply mean an antenna that is vertically mounted (since the reception is better with a vertical antenna) or is it just mounted on the side of the tower (rather than one of the corners/legs of the tower).
The main Artarmon FM antenna is a 4 sided, 6bay (antenna elements stacked high), Panel Antenna mounted to the tower faces, itâs mixed, & has both Horizontal & vertical elements.
The Side-mount antenna is a 16 bay, mixed antenna mounted to the tower leg, it has elements in both planes, but they arenât directly horizontal or vertical, theyâre at 45 degrees to both planes in an X shape if you were looking at the end of them.
This is the main FM panel antenna at Artarmon.
This is the old side mount which was removed & the new one installed in itâs place.
This is the riggers starting to install the lower levels of the current side mount antenna.
Seeing youâre a Newy guy, youâre probably more accustomed to Mt Sugarloaf. The BAI tower has a Panel Antenna for the ABC FMâs, with a side mount for NXFM just under it on the tower leg.
The NBN tower has multiple side mount antennas on the North tower leg for 2NUR, NEW FM & KO FM.
Thanks! Great pics and a great read
Hereâs the current Artarmon 16 bay side mount antenna being prepared on the ground, before installation up the tower.
The chances of âbrickingâ a TEF is low.
These radios use a Arduino ESP32 controller. A failed update is unlikely to brick it. Yes, itâs at your risk, but generally considered a safe procedure.
Following the tutorial videos makes it an easy Easter project.
USB connect the radio to your win pc. Locate the radio boot button - if it has one (the v5 blue ones donât have/need one) Some can be reached with a toothpick through the headphone jack. Download & extract the update file. Run flash.bat, following the on screen instructions. Once underway, itâs done in minutes. This is the last stable (non beta) release, v2.00.
You may lose any existing presets & settings.
Hanging Rock lookout dxing
Site favours Southerly and SW signals.
98.1 Power fm was strong up there as well as 97.5 2GGG.
91.3 and 98.3 2NOW fm moderate strength
Orange 101.9, 102.7, 104.3 moderate strength
Mudgee 93.1 Real fm, weak to moderate and 97.1 2MG.
97.9 Real fm also received but weak same with 98.7 Kandos.
Newcastle 102.1, 102.9, 106.1 and 106.9 just above noise floor.
Completely blocked to the north and east so no Middle Brother, or Armidale.
Here is the view very worth the drive. Quite a narrow winding road to the top with quite a bit of traffic, had to pull over to let cars / 4WD pass. 1100m ASL
Oxley lookout would have been very good this morning if I went up t there. With the southerly enhancements Sydney and Newcastle would have been weak but well above the noise floor.
I think Wollongong may be pushing it, but certainly possible with a very big enhancement, I donât think the tropo today was good enough for that.
Central Tablelands would have been moderate strength based on in town reception.
On a side note there is some very bad intermod at Oxley lookout from the nearby Bald Hill site. 88.9 is the cultrip. I think this would rule out News Radio Wollongong even with strong tropo.
This mornings tropo forecast
