This is amazing, 325-330km from Mt Cairncross.
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An illustration of ‘height is might’. You’re nearly at 1100 m ASL there. I would think it’s semi permanent (Middle Bro would certainly be 24/7).
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Yes, and both Middle Brother and Cairncross are over 500 m ASL as well. Height at both ends does great things.
With a yagi and TEF, perhaps Moombil and even Dowe would be regulars into the Mountains as well, given they’re also over 1000 m ASL.
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Moombil would certainly be there at Dargan via As, and also via pure Ts a lot of the time. I’ll have to confirm that in April 
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According to ACMA’s Draft FYSO 2024-29 that was released this morning, Wangaratta is due to have a consultation paper released for a LAP variation on Q3 (Jul-Sep), which would enable an FM conversion for 3NE.
Meanwhile, one AM commercial station in Toowoomba has provided a B92 form for an LAP variation, and has an in-market licensee agreement.
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I see Maryborough (QLD) has popped up on the competitive licence areas where an AM station has expressed interest in converting. This can only mean 4FC (Radio TAB) is looking to convert to FM. Bit of a waste of FM in my opinion. They should look at getting a narrowcast licence and then sell off the commercial FM service (in my dreams to Breeze!). A commercial FM licence in a LAP with a population over 100,000 should still be worth something.
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I’ve also noted in that ACMA draft FYSO 2024-29 that Muswellbrook has everything lined up to convert 2NM to FM, & Newcastle has I assume 2HD lined up with everything but In-Market Licence Agreement for conversion to FM.
Given there’s pretty much no available frequencies in this area, what frequencies are they going to convert them to, are they going to be at the same power levels of the existing FM’s or will they be lower & have multiple translators for coverage, further congesting the FM band in this area, & for Muswellbrook what other Central Coast frequency are they going to double/triple up on & screw over?
91.7 won’t be able to be used in Muswellbrook as it’s too close to Tamworth, it could be used in Newcastle but probably not at the 20kW of the other commercial FM’s as it would have to have protect the Tamworth station thus making 2HD need translators & that then screws Coast FM Gosford being able to use it.
Some of these conversions don’t make sense to me, the bean counters & those who really have no idea on how to run a radio station obviously think FM is cheaper to run & they’ll get more listeners & more commercial revenue from ads, when in reality that’s likely nowhere near correct.
Take 2HD Newcastle for an example, it’s AM service uses a AM transmitter that runs at a bit over 2kW output, it’s an old transmitter so probably not that efficient in power input to RF output use, but a new one could get about 86% efficiency, & it’s coverage goes well into & past the Central Coast albeit a bit weak & scratchy, but still listenable.
Going FM would mean they have to use a 5kW transmitter to match the power of the existing commercial FM’s & it’s efficiency is only 72%, so there to start with you’ve doubled you electricity use & costs & the FM is less efficient in it’s power input to RF output than the AM.
On FM it’s coverage South will reduce to roughly the Southern end of Lake Macquarie (assuming it has the same power & DA as the existing commercial FM’s), then it’s also not likely to pickup many listeners just being on FM as those who aren’t interested in the programming aren’t going to listen just because it’s on FM & they also won’t be able to get more revenue from ad sales just being on FM, though they might think it & try.
I’ve always said it’s not the medium but the program on that medium as to how many listeners a station will have, take 4KQ before it was sold & now 4BH, then also 2UE has just out-rated both Sydney SCA stations who are both on FM but 2UE is on AM.
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I think you also have to consider that AM radios are becoming rarer. You really have to look to find an AM radio to buy. Even some cars no longer include AM.
Yes, 4KQ and 4BH do great on AM, BUT they also have DAB to supplement that. 2HD doesn’t have that.
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That is true, however it’s very close to being law in the USA that all new cars if they have a radio in it from factory, they have to have AM included & that’s for all locally made & imported cars, which will have a roll on effect for us, as manufacturers aren’t going to produce a non-AM radio & swap it out for our small market, it wouldn’t surprise me if the next step in the USA would be to make it that all new radios that have FM must have AM also.
I believe a lot of the AM stations in the USA are now also (given AM radios have to be included in cars) pursuing the FCC to do their job & investigate & stop all electrical interference to AM radio from things that shouldn’t do it, like EV’s & LED lights, & poorly maintained electrical distribution networks (power lines in the street), etc. & ACMA should do the same here.
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They do have 90.5 and 97.5, though, which amounts to a pseudo FM conversion anyway. Most folk in the 2HD licence area have access to one or both of these FM translators in addition to the big show on 1143.
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Yes, which if they stay only adds to the ongoing running costs on FM conversion over & above the reasons I posted before that I think will actually add to the operational costs not reduce them, & the sound on those FM’s is woeful, I’d much rather listen to a scratchy AM than those FM translators.
NEW FM sounds fantastic (audio quality not programming), so I don’t know why they can’t get the 2HD FM’s sounding just as good, if 2HD converts to FM with it sounding like the translators, I think they’ll actually lose listeners not gain any.
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Could one of those translator frequencies be turned into a higher powered service instead? None of the other FMs in Newcastle have translators.
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Could they end up doing what they did in Launceston, where the AM converted to a new commercial FM and the racing station (7EX down there) became an AM HPON? Best outcome really
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Is that similar to what happened in Warrnambool with 3RPH and 3YB swapping?
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90.5 and 97.5 wouldn’t be suitable for a high power Newcastle FM.
Best choice out of not much is probably 89.3 for 2HD, with perhaps a null towards Liverpool and new frequencies for a couple of Hunter Valley Mining TXs.
98.9 probably best option for 2NM.
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I’d say your option for 2NM would be on the mark & right next to Power FM on 98.1, but then maybe they would swap & convert 2NM from 981 AM to 98.1 FM & put Power on 98.9?
Yes 89.3 is also probably best for 2HD, but then it’s way down the bottom end of the band with nothing in Newcastle even remotely close, so you’re not going to get band scanners flipping stations from one of the other commercials or even ABC FM’s, closest would be someone scanning up from Triple M Gosford.
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Programming can’t fix technology.
I’m 44 in a week and a bit, so… purely out of interest, how many people in advertiser-friendly demos do the person or people in this thread that are praising AM music formats think listen to AM?
Or even know that it exists?
For later millennials and Gen-Z, it’s streaming, smartphones and apps, not a transistor radio or a Sony Walkman.
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Good to see Canberra, Muswellbrook, Orange, Dubbo, Albury and Toowoomba to be getting AM to FM conversions.
Perth is a mess, obviously half the operators in that market don’t want it, so it will probably never happen.
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Though Smooth in Melbourne and to a lesser extent Nova in Adelaide were successful despite being at the other end of the dial from more established competition (with only community radio for company).
And 2HDs current ratings suggest they don’t have that much to lose anyway.
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Is it though? While it might improve the listenability of a handful of stations across the country, it’s a system that is designed to lock out radio spectrum from new uses and continue the poor use of spectrum because we’ve lacked the fortitude to force a more orderly allocation and use.
This thread (and others) are already full of discussion of the litany of issues simply jamming in new services causes - the ABC has raised on many occasions the difficulty this program makes for any future rollout of an additional national music service (currently Double J).
I’d rather see the regulator better investigate and plan a sustainable digital radio option for the whole country.
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