On troppo, Mount Gambier in south eastern SA. My regulars are Bendigo, Adelaide and lately Ballarat along with Horsham and Swan Hill.
E-skip is Northham in WA
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There was a small amount of inland tropo late morning. 93.1 Mudgee and 102.7 Mt Canobolas were noted at very weak levels at Boambee Headland with occasional AS enhancement.
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Thanks for that. Mount Gambier was coming in during the morning hen I was tuning around actually.
I presume Mildura is probably too far inland but there has been occasions of tropo across the Bight from the likes of VIC to the SW corner of WA, at >2000 km. Maybe one day?
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Via E-skip I did get a log from Esperance the other day. But yes, Iām a bit far inland for regular water path tropo to take place.
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102.5 Triple J Mount Gambier is in as I type this on the Melbourne server, at approx 400 km, plus the other high power ABC stations from there.
Also a brief fade-up quite clearly on 96.1 with an ad mentioning Mount Gambier, so SA FM from the same site (just IDed as I was typing).
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Usual Rockhampton signal in Brisbane, but at the same time Mt Dowe received a high levels even off the north facing antenna. Inverell ABC and commercial, Coffs as well. Middle Brother at low levels,
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Just finished a session at Cabramurra with the Sony XDR-S3HD (chosen for filming) and 3 els Yagi.
Managed to get clear reception of 98.7 5EZY Power FM Murray Bridge! 100.3 Mildura also good. Suspect 5DDD on 93.7 but too weak to tell.
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For the non-national Newcastle FM stations, apart from the lower TX power, is there anything else that makes them so difficult to receive in Sydney? ABC on 102.1 and 106.1 comes in easily ā even on my antennas facing east/west/south, but thereās usually no trace of 102.9/103.7/105.3/106.9 for me unless thereās tropo, even though theyāre only ~120 km north of me. Yet the Manning River stations at almost 300 km north of me are usually receivable.
Edit: Iāve managed to find the answer to my own question in the Newcastle LAP. They have a power restriction for 160ā220Ā° that the national services donāt have (typically 2 kW).
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Yeah, must just be the lower power (and elevation). When travelling south along the M1, the Newcastle commercial FMs deteriorate around the Doyalson interchange (only about 37 kms from the TX site, this is roughly where the power drops from 20kw to 2kw).
Manning River has the advantage of extra height and power (100kw as well as being about 650 m ASL with antenna height, Sugarloaf approx 460m ASL with antenna height)
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On the car radio at Cabramurra I had Mixx FM Kerang on 98.7 instead. Listed as vertical and must be strongly so. I initially assumed Kerang on the Yagi and was shocked to hear a Power FM SA ID.
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Well done! That reminds meā¦ speaking of 98.7ā¦ is XLFM Perisher Valley on air again yet?
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Yes and even receivable from the south facing hill at Bungendore Heights most of the time. XL Perisher was there aiming roughly SE.
Can also confirm both Snow FM 90.3 and XL FM 99.1 are on air from Mount Selwyn, both with RDS. They probably get it direct from Mount Roberts.
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I got a second of spoken Chinese on 107.7 over GNFM at Marulan on the Hume.
I drove through these parts in October and it was something that surprised me too, just how quickly the Newcastle FMs all dropped off as you drive south down the old F3. Even the ABC stations drop out from being really strong not far from Newcastle - well before youād think to switch to Sydney.
I had just presumed the terrain around there was a contributing factor? That and the shit reception from my Forester with its shark fin antenna 
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Receiving the Newcastle commercials in Sydney wouldnāt be such a bad thing. The restrictions should be on the Southern highlands and Wollongong stations on the same frequencies IMO. I donāt see why the central coast would need the restrictions for protection either since the Sydney stations donāt coming from the south
There is that as youāve both eluded to, but also the fact that the Nationals antenna is higher on the tower than any of the others & is a 4 sided panel antenna so has one side of elements facing South, whereas the other FMās are side-mount antennas on the North leg of the towers, so the tower somewhat blocks reception from them to the South, also if you drive the M1 between the Doylson link road interchange & the Newcastle/Hunter Expressway interchange, youāll find even though youāre only 5 -10 km from the transmission site, the Newcastle FMās will be very weak reception & may even drop out, unless youāre well North of the Toronto/Ryhope interchange almost around the Killingworth area, & can actually see the towers, because the topography of the mountain range to the South of Mt Sugarloaf blocks the signal, especially around the Morisset/Cooranbong/Mandalong area.
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Getting Newcastle commercial FM in most of Sydney has always been a challenge. When I was younger I always used to try for NX FM at the top of my street in Oatley (you could just see parts of the Sydney CBD) but it only ever came in during tropo. Vox FM was always dominant on a (s)hitsubishi Magna stock radio, 1997 model.
It wasnāt until the true nerd seed was planted that I looked up the LAP and realised that they had severe ERP restrictions to the south. This is probably to protect the Gosford market more than the Sydney one as at full power, thereād be significant overspill into the Central Coast.
New FM was always the hardest to receive at Oatley; here in Bungendore itās the easiest. The southernmost permanent reception of Newcastle commercial FM on a car radio was always Balgowlah Heights; with the TEF that might be extended to somewhere like Maroubra. Havenāt sussed it out yet, though.
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At full power to the South for the Newcastle commercial FMās, yes thereād be significant overspill into the Gosford market, but thatās not what the Southern power restriction is essentially for.
Itās 2kW South to protect those Illawarra/Southern Highlands stations on the same frequency, which are all only 2kW themselves, if Newcastle commercials could TX at full 20kW power South, the Newcastle stations would overpower the Illawarra ones in their local areas easily with a little tropo enhancement, but probably in a few places permanently.
Similar to how the Illawarra stations overpower the Central Coast/Lake Macquarie/Cessnock community stations on the same frequency. Iām not sure how the Illawarra stations get protection but the Central Coast/Lake Macquarie/Cessnock ones donāt, but then itās harder to protect the Central Coast/Lake Macquarie/Cessnock from Illawarra given Knights Hill is South of Wollongong, so the signal power from them has to travel at full power North into the Wollongong market areas.
Luckily for the Illawarra, thereās nothing on 102.1 or 106.1 to be interfered with from the Newcastle national stations at 80kW.
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Apparently 2UUU at Nowra in its early days tested on 106.1 but that had to be changed because of Newcastle.
Iāve DXed a few times at Flagstaff Point near the Lighthouse at Wollongong Harbour and the Newcastle ABCs look to be weak to fair permanent reception there.
Also interesting how the Wollongong commercials get to be on Knights Hill when Brokers Nose is probably a better spot particularly for the northern suburbs.
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2ST in Ulladulla also initially broadcast on 106.1 in the late 80s/early 90s before moving to its present 106.7 freqeuncy.
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