Two bandscans taken in the Telopea area (north of Parramatta), one using a phone and headphones, the other with a USB tuner and a TV antenna connection:
Xperia Z3
87.6- Voice Of Islam
88.9- Radio SkidRow
89.7- Eastside Radio
90.1- NBC FM, Peakhurst
90.5- Alive 90.5
90.9- ABC News Radio, Illawarra
92.1- 2MFM
92.9- ABC Classic FM (RDS)
93.7- Koori Radio
94.5- FBi Radio
94.9- Power FM, Nowra
95.3- smoothfm (RDS)
95.7- ABC Classic FM, Illawarra
96.5- Wave FM, Wollongong (RDS)
96.9- Nova 969 (RDS)
97.3- ABC Illawarra
97.7- SBS Radio (RDS)
98.1- i98FM, Illawarra (RDS)
98.5- Radio 2000
98.9- Triple J, Wollongong
99.9- SWR FM
100.5- 2RPH
101.7- WSFM (RDS)
102.5- Fine Music (RDS)
103.2- Hope 103.2 (RDS)
104.1- 2DayFM (RDS)
104.9- Triple M (RDS)
105.7- Triple J (RDS)
106.5- KIIS (RDS)
107.3- 2SER
107.9- Show Radio
USB Tuner (via TV antenna)
88.5- 2RRR
88.9- Radio SkidRow
92.2- 2MFM
93.7- Koori Radio
94.5- FBi Radio
95.3- Smoothfm
95.7- ABC Classic FM, Illawarra
96.9- Nova 96.9
97.7- SBS Radio
98.5- Radio 2000
98.9- Triple J, Wollongong
101.7- WSFM
103.2- Hope 1032
104.1- 2DayFM
104.9- Triple M
105.7- Triple J
106.5- KIIS
107.3- 2SER
FWIW (not much) on the car radio, Show Radio is reasonably dominant in my southern Sydney suburb, with Move FM breaking through in a few spots. I’m assuming Move is still dominant on the Yagi (CBA to check though).
I was driving in a Toyota Camry down the F3 towards Sydney from Newcastle today and picked up 774 ABC Melbourne loud and clear around 1000km away - clearer, in fact, than 702 ABC Sydney.
I’d imagine this would basically an everyday occurrence if I could pick it up in a bog standard Toyota Camry, right?
It wouldn’t be possible say around midday, AM radio waves only really start bouncing off the ionosphere back down to earth from a bit before sunset to just after sunrise.
AM radio generally only travels a few hundred km during broad daylight hours, but I have received some Melbourne and Sydney stations at the same time during such hours in a roughly equidistant location (on the Newell Highway between Forbes and West Wyalong).
Yes, I think the closer you are to midnight, the less stable it’s likely to be… even around say 9pm, you can start to get a bit of drift happening on a good station like 774, where the signal starts to fade in and out a bit.
Some excellent tropo from Newcastle tonight in Stanhope Gardens with all Newcastle commercials and National fm’s in perfect stereo and with RDS where applicable. The duct seems to be only as far north as Newcastle as Mannering River is at normal strength and Goulburn, Bathurst and Orange also not being enhanced. This may be the last tropo of the season.
And I am getting somewhat the opposite with very strong Illawarra signals in particular with 95.7 ABC at 54db, which is local strength.
Even got VOX Wollongong at 28db in a null of NXFM.
Sydney community stations are mostly in, with 4 or 5 of them at 20-25 dB.
But the Sydney commercials from Artarmon are very volatile, in at anywhere from 20-40 dB, Gore Hill ABCs and Nova/Smooth being more stable at close to 40db.
Faint ABCs from South Coast and Canberra, even got SW Slopes ABCs fur a bit too.
I managed to get 100.1 Life FM (2BCB) from Bathurst on the car radio over the top of 2HHH Hornsby around 9pm. Also managed to get the Central Tablelands ABC services (e.g. Radio National on 104.3)
There has been some troppo into Brisbane from the north into Brisbane over the last couple of days - various parts of Wide Bat, Coloola etc. This morning Hot FM 107.9 Rockhampton was at RDS levels.
I managed to receive 107.9 MOVE FM Lithgow on my standard radio just a few minutes ago! When I first received the station at around 4pm, the signal was quite faint and I actually had to put it on full volume just to hear the station. However, the reception has improved considerably since then, however there is still a lot of static coming through.
567 RNZ NATIONAL Wellington
657 RNZ AM (STAR RHEMA) Wellington
909 CNR-6 Quanzhou, China
1035 NEWSTALK ZB Wellington
1089 CNR-6 Fuzhou, China
1260 TAB TRACKSIDE Christchurch
1647 UCB VISION Mackay
666 Noumea & 729 Touho-Popome have NOT been heard for several weeks, including at the beach. China has been difficult; last heard on both 27 & 30 March at strong levels. The 50 kilowatt powerhouse 567 Wellington seems best around 7-8pm; readily received at comfortable levels on the car radio around that time.
Antenna is a non-resonant directional indoor antenna typically facing south… a seriously dirt cheap & lazy approach! (Hard core outdoor wire antennas are not viable here due to the size of the backyard, a lack of big trees for mounting, electrical interference & saturation across the band from 612 & 792 courtesy of the Bald Hills Radiator).
I forgot to mention SWITCH 1197 has been off-air in recent days at night time (have checked most nights around 10-11pm). Not sure whether this is normal? Off-air currently.
Unfortunately no DX seems to take its spot (well, for me anyway) when 1197 is off-air, but might be worth checking elsewhere.
909 China is reasonably common into Sydney in the cooler (well, low sun) months, and 837 China is also sometimes audible. I’ve never heard 1089, it’s just the Aussies (GZ,WM) for me.
For those who may be curious about the 600 kW CNR-6 mediumwave stations, here is a video illustrating reception of 909 kHz CNR-6 Quanzhou with parallel programming to the shortwave service.
Audio:
Shame about the SWITCH 1197 transmitter, but (assuming that is indeed the case) it does explain why the signal could barely be heard at the coast recently!
