Got back home to Charlstown (near Newcastle) from Canberra last night.
Turned on the radio and the Canberra stations were still there!
102.3 Classic FM peaked here at 30db around 10pm.
All other high power Canberra stations were there, but Classic gave the highest figure.
QBN 96,7 from Queanbeyan was also receivable, but at very low levels.
Also received Far Sourh Coast stations in 104.3 Power FM, 2EC 105.9 and a rare appearance from 107.5 2EAR.
Faint reception of Orange stations, 102.7, 104.3 & 105.9 (which were nullable against Far South Coast) and 106.7.
Yes, this consistently clear but humid weather has been great for DXing of late, the general weather forecast is for similar conditions for the next week or so still, which should hopefully mean more DX opportunities.
Good to hear theres been some tropo of late. Last Thursday had tropo from the North with Upper Hunter 104.9 and 105.7 breaking through MMM and JJJ on the car radio while going past the new IKEA at Marsden Park. This happens quiet often on Summer mornings (moreso with 104.9 than 105.7) but this time it would have been enough that even the average “normal” radio listener would have noticed something was cutting over and probably tuned to something else.
Last week I drove down The Hume to Melbourne from Syd in the car alone so plenty of DX was done. Heres a quick report;
There was some tropo between Syd and about Yass, after that it was pretty much permanent only.
92.7 was interesting just North of Goulburn with Zoo Dubbo coming in quiet well and battling it out with both 2BAB and Artsound Canberra. Zoo was the strongest at times, a quick flick over to 93.5 on North facing hills, Star Dubbo was making a mess of Eagle FM but not getting over it. This would have only been about 15km North of the Goulburn txs.
Middle Brother Classic FM 98.7 was coming in south of Goulburn as was Classic FM Newcastle and 2GO.
Jugiong would be about the cut over point for Sydney and co-channeled Albury. There was one hill there where 2Day was received on the NE side and Classic FM Albury the SW facing side.
The Albury TXs make it nearly to Seymour, The Shepparton TXs cover pretty much from Holbrook all the way to Melbourne.
Benalla would be the cut over for point 93.1 SBS Melbourne vs Star Wagga. StarFM is a lot better to the South than the Mt Ulandra nationals are I noticed.
Happy Days!
Some very interesting FM reception during my stay at Huskisson on the weekend. Managed to pick up the Mid North Coast ABC stations on 95.5, 96.3, 97.1 and 98.7 on Saturday.
And last night, at times there were very strong signals of all major (commercial, JJJ, ABC, SBS and metro-wide community) Sydney FM stations with RDS being picked up on the stations that transmit it.
Other signals I managed to receive on the FM tuner of my DPR-65 at Huskisson last night…
The Edge 96.1 Western Sydney
101.3 Sea FM and 107.7 2GO Gosford
102.1 JJJ, 106.1 Classic FM and 102.9 KOFM Newcastle
99.3 B-Rock and 100.9 Sky Sports Radio from Bathurst - stations I NEVER receive at my home location in suburban Sydney for obvious reasons.
One of the 2RPH broadcasts on 100.5 mixing it with ABC NewsRadio.
That’s on top of being able to receive slightly scratchy reception from Batemans Bay (ABCs, Power FM and 2EC) and Bega (just the ABCs most of the time, although I did hear a tiny bit of Power 102.5 when Sydney’s Fine Music wasn’t dominating the frequency so much). Of course, the Wollongong/Nowra stations and the 2ST 91.7 translator were in with strong reception as expected.
I may have been able to receive a few other stations, but that’s most of them accounted for.
Well, 'tis another good nite with the extended summer giving us a bit more DXing to boot.
Can’t quite match dxnerd’s efforts, but pulling in SW Slopes ABCs in JJJ 90.7 and News Radio 91.5, though both quite weak.
Canberra stations also in, along with South Coast and South East ABCs, better than SW Slopes but still nothing better than about 15db.
The 1600 watt 2EAR 107.5 from Moruya is also there, along with Power 104.3 and 2EC 105.9.
Best effort out of that all is a very weak 93.1 Star Wagga.
-Mallacoota’s 101.7/103.3/104.9 are pretty muddy, they even struggle coming into Genoa in some parts.
-Genoa 96.9 (a repeater of 3MGB 101.7) is transmitting some sort of interference (buzzing sound), and cannot be heard any more than 10 km away. 95.3 is not on air.
-Orbost doesn’t even make it in to Mallacoota, at least not where I’m staying.
Your best bet by far would be the main Mt Tassie stations (95.1 News and 96.7 JJJ). These don’t make it “round the corner” via coastal ducting though. When I’ve had them at 2 bars strength, it’s usually via tropo+As, with an intense tropo path between Gippsland and the Canberra region, then As reflecting that into Sydney. Direct tropo “round the corner” is pretty rare. Although it is over the border, Mallacoota is right near the corner (Cape Howe), so the NSW coastal ducting gets in. I think an amateur radio enthusiast used to receive ABHN5A Sugarloaf quite often from Mallacoota, when it was on air.
It’s little wonder why I can barely get 3MGB when I was in Eden back in October. As far as receiving ABC Gippsland & RN on FM was concerned, I’ve received the Cann River services on 106.1 & 107.7 respectively, but not the Mallacoota services.
I did get Hobart a couple of times in the past… mostly 100.9 Sea FM and 101.7 HO FM, though this a long time ago, before even 2WS converted to FM!
Still waiting for just a bit of 93.9 Claasic FM, which should be possible whereby at my location I am protected from Radio National Tamworth, but haven’t pulled this one in yet.
Launceston, whilst I’ve never received this, could also be possible, mostly via 91.7, on the proviso that it can overcome a weakish 2ST, which is never particularly strong here, even during tropo. Most other frequencies are occupied by strong semi local stations.
Re Scottsdale, so did I, but the video I made says otherwise. 7SD (540 AM) is still parallel with 7BU etc so it’s a strange situation.
The forecast is for rain tomorrow so probably little tropo. The opening to Tassie died around Midday, though the high powered Lonny FMs+ King island could still be heard at the south facing Portsea Beach in the late afternoon which suggests they are permanent reception there- at least in summer.
OT, but I thought 7SD is these days virtually a relay of LAFM Launceston, considering that they’re broadcasting the same programming as the latter station. On weekday mornings, they do broadcast Tasmania Talks with Brian Carlton (aka “Spoonman” from 2MMM), which is broadcast across all of Grant’s Northern Tasmania stations (LAFM, 7SD, 7AD, 7BU, 7XS).
so plenty of DX was done. Heres a quick report;
Taree?!