There’s enhanced reception of the Newcastle & Central Coast stations in this location tonight, although both Newcastle & Central Coast SCA stations simultaneously playing the same music takes away a little bit of the fun!
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Didn’t have time to do a full scan, but picked these up a few minutes ago in Sydney:
104.3 ABC RN - Central Tablelands
103.7 2NUR - Newcastle
102.7 ABC Classic FM - Central Tablelands
101.9 Triple J - Central Tablelands
101.5 Great Lakes FM
98.7 ABC Classic FM - Manning River
97.5 2HD - Port Stephens
97.1 ABC RN - Manning River
95.9 2NC - Port Stephens
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Similarly I’m getting some good results from down south here in Newcastle.
Most low power Sydney Community stations in stereo.
I went out to Clovelly Beach last night for an evening stroll; the only notable catch was Hit 102.3 Port Mac, which was putting in a good signal at the bowling club. MMM, on 100.7, was significantly weaker and only in the mix with Penrith. The Taree, Great Lakes, Port Stephens regulars were all in, but nothing from Mount Moombil or Bruxner Park (Coffs). Nothing from 2BOB on 104.7 either. Didn’t try MW with the loop as I was expecting a cast of thousands out there, but it was pretty quiet: DX nerds can carry on with their illicit activities!
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Transferred this from the SuperNetwork thread.
At my location, both ROCCY and ROK FM Parkes are semi- permanent signals. Orange is so strong it’s a pest, whilst Wagga (93.1 only) is usually audible via aircraft scatter from the very frequent Sydney-Melbourne flights. LOS is only part of the story here I think; the path over the GDR is more difficult to Newcastle due to the close proximity of the Sugarloaf and Watagan ranges. The path from Young to Sydney traverses a low point in the GDR through Lake Burragorang and the Abercrombie River (this is also true for Bendigo and Swan Hill tropo). The path from Parkes is more difficult as it traverses the Blue Mountains; reception is mainly via aircraft scatter from Sydney-Asia flights, though tropo enhancement does occur as well.
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Are you saying that frequencies can bounce off aircraft and be DX’d? That’s seriously cool.
So if an aircraft couldn’t be detected by radar, would it still bounce radio waves off it or not?
If the Hepburn tropospheric ducting charts are correct there should be some moderate-good inland tropo on Tuesday, and strong costal tropo right up the New South Wales Coast on Wednesday.
It seems to good to be true as it is going to be partly cloudy with showers and mid to low 20’s around Sydney next week. Have to wait and see.
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There is a little bit of enhancement going on right now, with mono and non RDS reception of Eagle FM, though it’s a little variable.
Very faint reception of 2GLF, 2CCR and faint reception of something on 88.9, but I suspect a Kiwi station and not 2RSR.
Some good inland tropo coming into NW Sydney at 4:30am EDST. Good enhancements of Canberra, Orange, and Central West. Goulburn seeking on the car stereo. No coastal enhancements from Newcastle.
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More inland tropo this morning into NW Sydney.
High powered Canberra Nationals fading in and out but only at a weak levels, News Radio and 2xx the best. Eagle fm is not in the duct as there is little enhancement of its signal.
Central West in at moderate strength. Triple J on 102.3 is not suffering any splatter from Fine Music on 102.5
Very faint Mt Dowe on 96.7 just audiable under splatter of Nova.
Newcastle and Middle Brother at normal strength to only slightly enhanced strength.
According to the Hepburn tropospheric ducting forecast, tropo is forecasted to go more coastal this afternoon but it is shown to be just skimming the NSW coastline so might not do much for me at my location.
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Some enhancement in SEQ this afternoon with Rockhampton ABC’s coming in and Coffs Harbour ABCs stronger than usual.
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Newcastle fm in at a reasonable strength into Stanhope Gardens (NW Sydney) tonight. All stations in stereo and seekable.
Order in strength from strongest to weakest
- ABC National fm
- KOfm
- Hit 106.9
- 2NUR
- New fm
99.7 is mush 2SSR and Rhema mixed together.
Central Coast Commercial and Wollongong Commercials are weaker then normal.
Do Hit106.9 and KOfm still broadcast RDS?
With the strength of the above stations my tuner should be able to decode RDS.
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Some pretty decent levels of enhancement happening down in NSW tonight. Most low power Sydney stations receivable, strong Wollongong signals, 2WKT 107.1 in stereo and faint 2ST 91.7 heard.
The most notable item is I am getting something VERY clearly on 88.9 in stereo, still trying to get a station ID, I suspect its 2RSR which has NEVER been received this clearly before, even with the strongest of tropo. If it is 2RSR, it would appear that some work has been done on its signal.
It’s just playing some easy listening instrumentals right now.
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What you must be getting on 88.9 is something other then RSR as they only broadcast in mono, and playing different music to what you observed.
Ducting is really messing with the semi local signals at present. Central Coast Community stations barley audioable, 2GO distorting to a static mono signal. KO fm stronger then 2GO!!
No Highlands Fm on 107.1, No Orange nationals. Wollongong strength reduced so no RDS receivable on Wave or i98.
No signal from any of the Middle Brother nationals. Tonight’s duct is bending the Newies towards us and reflecting all the semi locals away from us.
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There’s no licenced transmitter on 88.9 MHz on the South Coast; I’m putting my money on a local consumer tx, or a pirate. Does the signal fade at all?
No, 88.9 doesn’t fade at all, and as @Ant5476 pointed out, as 2RSR is mono only, so it must be a pirate. Still haven’t heard an ID or announcer either.
It will be interesting to see how long this lasts… last summer, there was one on 99.2 that lasted a few weeks, but has disappeared without a trace since.
The apparent pirate on 88.9 has disappeared!
Meanwhile, I went to Braye Park Lookout in the Newcastle suburb of Waratah in my Ford Focus earlier this afternoon, which has a pretty sensitive tuner, and noted a bit of enhancement about, particularly from the north…
Coffs Harbour ABCs and Kempsey commercials were received. 99.5 saw a tossle between the Move FM repeater from Katoomba and Radio National from Coffs.
Faint Orange ABCs and a faint and brief whiff of News Radio 106.3 from the Central West Slopes.
I was down at Callala Bay at around 12:30pm this afternoon. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to do a proper band-scan, but I did make a few interesting observations:
- I was able to receive both Sea FM and 2GO in reasonable quality.
- I could receive all of the major Sydney commercial stations, with RDS for Triple M.
- No short-wave signals. Normally I can receive Radio Australia at my location, so it was a bit of a surprise that I couldn’t receive any SW signals at Callala Bay.
Considering that Callala Bay is 182km south of Sydney, it was surprising that I could still receive the Sydney commercial stations in reasonable quality.
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Not mine, but one of the guys who works at 2MG, has mentioned in the Facebook Radio Green Room page, that they’ve had 2 different emails this week from DXer’s in Finland, who he’s confirmed have received 1449 2MG from Mudgee NSW.
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