AM and FM DX

I managed to get the Deepelec all set up for AM with one of the AliExpress ‘broadband’ loop. For what it is, it did a damn mile better than the telescopic and was nearly as good as the outdoor loop on the silver TEF. Here’s my log from inside my house. I tried to guess some of the locations so forgive me if they’re wrong.

549 - ABC Central West, Orange NSW (strong)
567 - 2BH, Broken Hill NSW (strong interference with UUNID music station)
576 ABC Radio National Sydney (good)
585 2WEB, Wilcania NSW (strong, hash from 594 ABC Western ViIC)
612 ABC Brisbane (strong)
693 3AW, Melbourne VIC (good)
711 ABC Western Queensland, Roma QLD (good)
765 5CC, Port Lincoln SA (weak)
774 ABC Melbourne (strong)
783 ABC Alice Springs (weak)
792 ABC Radio National Brisbane (strong)
810 ABC South East NSW, Bega NSW (good, hash from 801 5RM)
819 ABC New England, Glen Innes NSW (good)
828 ABC Gippsland, Sale VIC (good)
837 ABC Capricornia, Rockhampton QLD (strong)
846 4CA, Cairns QLD (weak, strong CCI with RN Canberra)
855 3CR, Melbourne VIC (good)
864 Triple M Darling Downs (strong)
873 2GB, Sydney NSW (weak)
900 2LT (good)
918 4VL, Charleville QLD (fair)
927 RSN Melbourne (good)
936 ABC Radio Hobart (good)
954 2UE, Sydney NSW (fair)
981 2NM, Muswellbrook NSW (good)
1026 ABC News Radio Melbourne (good)
1044 5CS, Port Pirie SA (fair)
1053 2CA Canberra (fair)
1071 Gold Central Victoria, Carisbrook VIC (good)
1080 2MO, Gunnedah NSW (good), strong CCI with potentially 6IX, Perth WA (had music playing)
1098 4LG, Longreach QLD (fair)
1116 4BH, Brisbane QLD (weak)
1134 3CS, Colac VIC (good)
1143 2HD, Newcastle NSW (fair)
1152 Triple M Riverina, Wagga Wagga NSW (fair)
1161 ABC South East SA, Naracoorte SA (strong)
1170 SEN Sydney (fair)
1179 Vision Australia Radio Melbourne (fair)
1188 2NZ, Inverell NSW (fair)
1197 Vision Australia Radio Adelaide (fair)
1206 2CC, Canberra ACT (fair)
1224 Vision Australia Radio Sydney (fair)
1233 ABC Newcastle (weak to good, fading)
1242 4AK, Toowoomba QLD (weak, strong CCI with Gold 1242 Traralgon)
1251 2DU, Dubbo NSW (weak, lots of harmonic interference)
1260 RSN Sport, Shepparton VIC (weak to good, fading)
1269 2SM, Sydney NSW (fair to good, fading)
1278 Magic, Melbourne VIC (strong)
1287 2TM, Tamworth NSW (good, some CCI with UUNID music station) - Converting to FM soon
1314 RSN Sport, Ballarat VIC (very weak to fair, strong fading)
1341 3GL, Geelong VIC (good)
1377 3MP, Melbourne VIC (weak to strong, strong fading)
1395 5AA, Adelaide SA (very weak)
1404 2PK, Parkes NSW (weak)
1413 SBS Radio Wollongong (good)
1422 3XY, Melbourne VIC (very strong)
1440 SBS Radio Canberra (good, has some interference from River1467 overmodulating)
1494 2AY, Albury NSW (good, has some interference from River1467 overmodulating)
1503 3KND, Melbourne VIC (weak to strong, strong fading) - Was playing new music
1512 ABC RN Sydney (weak to good)
1521 2QN, Deniliquin NSW (weak)
1530 2VM, Moree NSW (weak to good)
1548 ABC Capricornia, Emerald QLD (fair to good)
1566 3NE, Wangaratta VIC (good to strong)
1593 SEN Track, Melbourne VIC (good)

I also tried the “low powered” narrowcast stations and sure enough, there were some there too.
1611 and 1629 were playing Christian music
1638 and 1647 were playing Indian music
1674 claimed to be Indian Radio
1701 had what appeared to also be Indian music

Overall, I’m happy with the performance for what it is, and for the price (sub 5AUD)

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99.7 Bridge FM, Qld coverage from their current site, might not be much better than this rough plot.

1413 SBS Radio is Newcastle not Wollongong

1512 ABC RN is Newcastle not Sydney

900 2LT is Lithgow

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Not bad for going off the top of my head. I’ve updated my notes for next time so they’re a bit more accurate

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I’m tuning around on the Mildura webserver and came across some weak alternative pop on 102.3. It turned out to be Triple J, clearly in parallel with the local outlet on 101.1. The only candidate I can see is from Central Western Slopes at 718 km on a bearing of 66 deg. This is all the more remarkable considering the beam there is aiming at 250 deg.

The Triple J signal didn’t last much longer and has since been replaced by Mix 102.3 from Adelaide.

Edit: it’s back at 1931 UTC.

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Good catch there, I jumped on this morning and sure enough Mix had strong CCI still, rapidly switching between Triple J and Mix

250 degrees I would say is aimed towards my location, hence why the Western Slope stations come in with some strong troppo.

All of the other Central Western Slopes ABCs are there as well, with 107.9 ABC Radio National coming in strongly.

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Wow, that’s some pretty serious winter tropo there at approx 720 km! Great catches.

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Good work on getting Mt Cenn Cruaich at your location.

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Nice work on Coonabarabran. I had it strong out at Hay back in June 2020, though that was mainly via aircraft scatter (and on a 3 el beam).

I am doing a @Radiohead next month and travelling out to Broken Hill, via Mildura on the way and via Nyngan on the way back. Hopefully there is some winter tropo then.

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I am also doing a ‘Radiohead’ (oops that’s me!) from this Sunday, down the NSW South Coast through Gippsland, Melbourne, Great Ocean Road out to Warrnambool and up to the Grampians, back through Bendigo, and then capture some of Alpine regions RDSs that are too hard to get on the Hume (so through Alexandra, Mansfield, Bright etc) and then up through Albury, Narrandera, Parkes and then back home! Well that’s the plan at this stage anyway.

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Low level ABCs from Central Queensland into SEQ

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Both trips sound fun boys, enjoy them. I miss the days of being unencumbered and able to do things like that…

Great reception too from Mildura, especially during winter. Gotta love signals just rolling across those plains.

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Ah, but you’re nurturing the next generation of DXers, a much more worthwhile pursuit. Same goes for @Mechsta .

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Some tropo here too, Shepparton is enhanced plus weak stations from Wangaratta and Albury at the moment.

Edit: Albury and Wangaratta getting stronger now, pretty unstable but peaking near RDS level.


RDS now!

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Huge ‘blueball high’ at the moment over the SE mainland. I call them thus because these highs produce temps of -5 and below here in mid winter, leading to blue skies and blue extremities. This high is predicted to ‘sit’ until at least Saturday, so expect more inland tropo the next couple of mornings.

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I decided to have a bit of fun DXing on a remote server based in England, got some E-Skip from Italy and Serbia on it. Of course, as the person who runs the server is using a TEF, I did get some E-Skip Signals next to their locals.
Back in the land down under at my location, just a bit of inland Tropo, 93.1 Wagga with RDS, 95.5 Wagga. XLFM in a null of Cada, Canberra much stronger than usual tonight, no DAB received on the Sony. The FM Signals were on the TEF
Edit: Canberra DAB Received, 8D and 9C, 95.9, 99.1 Tuggeranong.

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Some good tropo tonight, including some rarer catches like KRR FM and Roccy FM.

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Mt Dowe very strong tonight including commercials. Also getting Armidale ABC and HPON. Unfortunately no sign of the new TMFM from Tamworth yest.

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Another good evening of DX in Sydney. Goulburn coming in so strong that for the first time I managed to get GNFM over the top of 2GO - with RDS too:

Also got RAM FM on 103.3 and caught ABC NewsRadio Bega on 89.7 over the top of Eastside.

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Nice!

I just spent a very chilly 10 mins outside doing a very quick bandscan … had all the main Canberra high power stations with RDS (where available)… had Hit105.9 Orange in clear stereo… fair Triple J 90.7 SW Slopes with staticty stereo… I’m sure there were others too.

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