As we are coming into the cooler months, I’ve been taking to DX on the AM band a bit more lately.
Tonight is probably one of my best nights I’ve had with the TEF since replacing the pigtail with a shielded one. The band was so jam packed, that just about every station except for RSN 1359 and River 1467 had some CCI going on.
There are far too many things to list but my previous catches were all around, with the exception of 531 Radio Italia, which tonight was making Windows error sounds instead of a radio program, abiet with a lot of CCI too.
On a sidenote, I finally found the source of signal interference. It was due to a mismatch in impedance right near the TEF radio in the cable run. Hopefully I get some time soon to replace the 50ohm section with a 75, as it’s leaving around 10 to 20dBf on the table.
Had River 94.9 Ipswich from Martin’s Lookout at Glen Innes.
And again with RDS at Mt McKenzie Lookout near Tenterfield. Did a bandscan whilst there. Its a bit protected from the TXs by some trees, so wasn’t too badly affected by hash, but there was still a bit.
But still managed to get all main Brisbane stations at low to weak levels but none with RDS. ABCs from Darling Downs were received too, so can totally understand why they needed to change the TV feed a few years ago.
Haven’t been able to get into the RDS worksheet to check my RDS notes, but will keep trying.
Welcome to the best radio market per capita in the country!
Haven’t spent much time in Tenterfield itself, still on the to-do list, but can imagine the reception up there would be OK. Keen to see the bandscan.
You didn’t have the chance/equipment to try for Brisbane DAB up there by any chance, did you? I’ve never picked it up on the Granite Belt but imagine it must be possible in parts.
Also, is there still all that awful hash on the dial in Stanthorpe town itself? It’s been an issue for years.
My car did have DAB, but didn’t think there would be much chance given that Brisbane FMs were fairly weak.
I’ll check for the Stanthorpe hash in the morning only been listening in my motel room this afternoon really. The i/f noise there was probably the motel itself since it happens in nearly every motel I’ve stayed at.
Checked this morning. Could hear Hit mixing with something on 95.5 and 96.3, and the car radio auto seek detected Triple M with RDS on 101.9 and 102.7, mixing with something else. The mixing was also on 101.1, but no RDS.
Now that summer’s over, I decided to do a baseline bandscan to see what’s receivable on my rooftop yagi setup without tropo. The conditions seemed relatively flat today and yielded about 90 stations.
Notes:
The TCBL on 107.9 is still on air broadcasting an open carrier, despite its licence expiring a week ago.
Stations beyond the horizon tend to fade in/out - sometimes quickly, sometimes over several minutes. These include the stations from the Taree, Central Western Slopes, Orange, Canberra, Batemans Bay, Goulburn and Mudgee and more rarely, Grafton and Upper Namoi (but this might just be tropo).
This is probably the most comprehensive Sydney bandscan on YT- well done. The results are similar to what I got with my Yagi, except that Orange and Coonabarabran were a bit stronger. I could also get the Mount Panorama stations all the time (92.3, 95.9, 96.7, 97.5 and 98.3). Conversely, you’re better to the north and I couldn’t get Mount Moombil all the time.
To assess true baseline conditions, I’d wait until about 1400 on an August/September day with a strong westerly blowing. Right now it’s unseasonably warm on the tablelands with light winds so there’s probably some marginal enhancement even in the middle of the day. Autumn can still be quite good for inland tropo.
Not as fast as the king of the mountain, Brock FM. Though ironically, the station named for the nine time Bathurst winner is at Mount Ovens. At least that peak is loftier.
2MCE is very hard to receive down this way; the tx around the McPhillamy Park area doesn’t favour the south as much as the east. All the other frequencies are blocked by locals here.
I’ve just done some listening on AM and it seems like conditions are fairly good tonight. These are the furthest catches I got:
918khz Triple M Narrogin 2KW 2571KM
1098khz Triple M Merredin 2KW 2546KM
792khz Gold Sport NZ Hamilton 5KW 2654KM
657khz Sanctuary Wellington 50KW 2566KM
Where I am in Brisbane, I don’t get the north anywhere near as well as you do. So I get Coffs ABCs everyday (either tropo or aircraft enhanced) but almost never hear Maryborough unless there’s good tropo. I also have constant albeit weak reception of Rebel and Breeze Canungra, the former only sometimes affected by Gympie.
