Zinc’s 100.5 Doonan site has been off since yesterday.
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I managed to get a recording of Meteor Scatter DX on my webserver. The station in the recording is SBS Brisbane (confirmed via web stream).
Just got an even clearer recording. It was so close to RDS level.
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The challenging topography makes you a more resource DXer. We all appreciate that consequence of yours.
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It’s back on on air now.
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I’m starting to see more general tropo with the cooler nights and the arrival of the southern wind in my neck of the woods. Just tonight I was visited by the Bendigo / Mount Alexander ABCs and commercials, and the Swan Hill / Goschen ABCs, abiet with no RDS.
- From Bendigo, ABC 91.1 and 93.5 Triple M were fairly weak but audible. Hit 91.9 was only just above the noise floor. Totally absent was 90.3 Triple J, 92.7 Classic and Vision Australia Radio.
- Swan Hill as usual had the local ABC radio relay on 102.1, Classic 103.7 and Triple J 105.1, all weak to fair.
Adelaide has also made its daily appearance, with Triple M 104.7, SAFM 107.1, SBS Radio 106.3, Classic 103.9 and Triple J 105.5 being also fair to moderate at times. Again, no RDS seen lately.
Locally, the high powered Riverland FMs has been very consistent in reception here, to the point where the ABCs are considered permanent, with 5RM 91.5 and Magic 93.1 requiring some lift before they come in strongly. This has also had a flow on effect (pun intended) for both FlowFMs at Meringur and Speed, with 96.9 being RDS decodable more often than not, and 95.3 appearing on the dial.
On the AM side, Cruise1323 is now often receivable several hours after sunrise and before sunset, which is another sign winter is coming. Sadly not much else to hear on AM as it appears the loop has been water damaged due to a failure on my part, it was not properly waterproofed and since rain, it intermittently shorts (loud popping and signal spikes)
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MS DX is getting better every night here in Melbourne, I had these really strong pings from ABC Classic Syndey last night and there is still a week to go until the peak of Eta Aquariid!
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I would like to be able to provide a DX report from my hotel room at The Star Casino in Sydney (8 floors up, south facing)… BUT… I can’t!
Because the hash is so bad here, I couldnt get anything except 2RSR and the high power Sydney wide stations. I couldn’t even get anything from Wollongong, now that’s saying something.
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Triple H has been off air since at least yesterday for those in/around Sydney wanting to try to DX on that frequency. I’m getting Life FM Bathurst instead on my NW aerial.
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Note to self, RTL-SDR equipment isn’t meant to be used outside…
Needless to say, I won’t be doing any AM DXing on my TEF for a while. Does anyone have recommendations for outdoor loop antennas to use?
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It’s a mechanically weak device & not meant for long term outdoor use exposed to weather.
It should have been put in a waterproof case.
And then internally in that case other leads or connectors should have also been used to take the strain off the surface mount connectors too of the original device.
Hope that helps 
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What I originally intended on doing before discovering the carnage was to put the aerial inside a bit of filled conduit for holding the shape and the cable nice and firm, plus to keep the water out. If I go with a YouLoop again it’ll definitely be applied 
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Yeah, that & some cable ties & silastic etc would be helpful - we’re only limited by ones imagination & you can draw on others for inspiration. The YouLoop Balun may be repairable. I had to resolder one of my connectors once.
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Sadly the balun isn’t, the pads for the connectors have ripped right off the board. Since it appears to use a multi-layer PCB, I’ll need to replace it. I’m finding them to be quite cheap on ebay so I may end up ordering another, and doing the aforementioned waterproofing first before sticking it up the mast.
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Better than average autumn conditions tonight, mild, still and clear.
Rarer catches were
94.7 2JJJ Tamworth (over ABC News Taree)
100.1 2BCB Bathurst, but very weak (even with 2HHH Hornsby still off air), couldn’t get 2JJJ Bega or 2RE Gloucester at all.
100.7 2ABCRN Upper Namoi
102.3, 105.5 and 106.3 ABCs CW Slopes
Unfortunately, Sydney wide and suburban community were also stronger than usual, which probably prevented reception of more stations, like 99.1 2NWR and 99.9 2JJJ Upper Namoi.
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Is 2HHH really fully off air or just low/really low power?
All off air hours have to be reported to ACMA on license renewal for community stations, the number of those off air times over the past year or so has been quite significant & I’d hazard to say ACMA might not renew their license next time, as they obviously can’t provide the service to the community they’re required to under the community license conditions.
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I think it’s off air altogether, as when I went down to Sydney last week, on the M1 near Wahroonga (near the North Connex tunnel entry/exit) there was nothing on 100.1 there either and i think it’s been like that ever since.
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I also think it’s off air.
I was looking a day or two ago on their website & FB page & couldn’t locate any
announcement as to the transmission problem.
They are still streaming.
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Still off air tonight. Weak Life FM Bathurst there again.
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2HHH is back on air, getting it very strong (no RDS) at the Forresters Beach TV transmission site this morning, I wanted to try for Bathurst or 2RE Gloucester but no go now.
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Tropo is about once again around Mildura, though quite variable.
Mount Gambier Triple J and Radio National came in at weak to fair levels, with some strong fading. 96.5 Hill FM from Broken Hill is coming in just above the noise floor, abiet with some CCI from Flow Pinnaroo. On 96.3 5MU is also just above the noise floor, but does peak up from time to time - I caught a station ID which is how I figured that out.
The other various Flow FMs from around Victoria and South Australia were all mostly weak to fair with the exception of Speed which did get strong enough to try RDS, but didn’t get a full decode.
An interesting outlier is the Radio National relay at Nhill on 95.7 which came in fair to good.
Triple M, Classic FM and Triple J from Bendigo all made an appearance, again fading in and out quite a bit and no RDS.
Adelaide Triple J, Classic and SBS Radio were also noted, all fading in and out with no RDS. However, I did receive 5EBI briefly on 103.1, a sign that there’s a potential for stronger reception overnight favouring Adelaide.
Currently the tropo seems to favour Swan Hill tonight, as MIXX 107.7 is coming in at good to strong levels, enough for an RDS decode and a log to FMLIST. All of the ABCs are also coming in strongly, as is RSN Sport 106.9.
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