The Variation to Licence Area Plan - Goulburn Radio - 2019 (No. 1) is now on the Register, which wasn’t there yesterday when I checked that Bega & Cooma has theirs up.
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Sad that the ABC submission has been ignored resulting in 2GN coverage forever limited in locations north east when the 2GO troppo floats in as it was on a hot run of summer days in January, belting in to Mount Fairy between Tarago and Bungendore (problematic those towns too).
Of course, SCA is more interested in IT than broadcast engineering to care sadly. They would have in the past, 2GO’s largely clear channel will be gone.
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The mighty 5MU coverage from their humble site at Giffords Hill beside the South Eastern Freeway is clearly valued by many who have commented when the topic of conversion has been mentioned on the 5MU and ACMA facebook pages.
The biggest complaint is the lack of coverage of the existing s39 FM service Power FM which is far outpaced for coverage by 5MU.
Those up the Murray from Murray Bridge as far as Swan Reach within the licence area lament the loss of coverage. They mention they cannot receive Power and know they won’t receive an FM 5MU
Many more complain of the lack of fortuitous coverage which ACMA doesn’t protect nor attempt to replicate.
On IT Wire, occasional online commentator for radio ‘JJcoolAus’ submitted the following:
This is bad news for those communities and I genuinely hope they unite against this proposal.
Where this has happened in WA the AM transmitters have been replaced with low power FM transmitters that gives no where near the reception range and can barely be heard 20km out of town.
For an area as hilly as Mount Barker to Murray Bridge and Victor Harbor a little 1000 watt transmitter won’t cut it. They want 20,000 watts at least.
Sad day for DX fans and fans of the radio station who live in Adelaide, where 1125 5MU can easily be heard all over the city.
A good radio can also pick this up on the Yorke Peninsula, the Riverland, and mid north. Even with 20KW of power it will barely cover its coverage footprint on FM
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A question for those who were around for the initial rounds of FM conversions (I’m a bit young to remember), was this a problem that was publicised then?
I recall hearing stories of it as a kid, that the old 3GL used to cover a lot of Western Victoria as well as metro Melbourne, and a lot of people out west who received fortuitous coverage were upset to lose it (the Geelong Football Club has a very strong supporter base out west and many used to listen to the games that were always broadcast by the station). But was it generally a thing that those in the cities were happy enough to forego the wider coverage area for the high-fidelity stereo reception FM offered?
I guess the other factor as well was that the earlier conversions were awarded far more powerful transmissions than those currently being offered. The power allowed for say a 3BO or a 3SR on FM at least gave them some chance to match their AM coverage across the more distant rural parts of their markets
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The flat topography north of Bendigo and around the Goulburn Valley was a huge factor in 3BO and 3SR matching their old AM coverage on their FM services without the need for translators.
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Indeed. If this cannot be matched, conversion resulting in ending AM TX should not occur.
Thank you @tamago_otoko and @TheHomeOfMusic for your great slices of history, appreciate reading them.
Mt Lofty Ranges host Australia’s highest TV TX site out of the 5 metros.
Of course it will be a problem for the Murray Bridge licence area.
The wonderful soil however provides for excellent ground conductivity for AM, hence the huge span of fortuitous coverage.
Federal MPs for Mayo and Barker are aware of the impacts of ending the AM TX of 5MU and continue to follow the matter closely.
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I agree that 1125 5MU can be heard all over Adelaide, but I wouldn’t call the reception 100% fantastic once you get over the Adelaide Hills & into the city itself. As for Power FM, I can barely receive it in Adelaide, either on 98.7 or 100.3
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In a car or in a building? Where?
In a Car.
Google Street View proves 5MU FM only is a dud:
I’ve driven along the South Eastern Freeway many a time and looked over at the shared AM/FM site at Giffords Hill on the Adelaide side of Murray Bridge.
It’s a curious site.
The AM sticks are extremely close together, any other directional AM site I’ve seen in Australia or viewed via Google or Nearmap is much further apart.
Most sites have also updated guy wire cables to longer lengths without multiple insulators along each guy wire. It’s not the 1960’s and it’s not Tasmania.
The FM tower, again a most curious design.
Rather than mounting on the AM mast, a four post tower is nearby that resembles a short TV tower.
There is a stack of 5 FM antennae.
They are far from OD, simply throwing the signal towards the Mt Lofty Ranges and some ill considered hope of Adelaide.
I can’t recall the timing, however in a submission to the ABA attributed to Janet Cameron, it wrote of them buying the AM station and the s39 and the FM specs to not be what was hoped.
Due to VHF 4 being used as TV for Spencer Gulf, they were required to run on lower specs which knobbled their coverage. Hence the 2 translators at Mt Barker and Victor Harbour.
Now those 2 translators are on air, especially Mt Barker, it does not need the five stack at Giffords pointing in the same direction.
The FM services are licensed for 20kW ERP to the north and south of the TX site. The TX antenna should be modified to provide the full ERP north to Swan Reach with a -3dB reduction for 90º from 45º to 135º and likewise to the south.
Interestingly the consultation paper has a survey line (a highly conservative guesstimate I’d say) of the 5MU rural grade coverage but only predictions of the FM coverage. Apples and oranges despite identical specs on air, they were too tight for field survey or didn’t want to divulge the actual FM coverage as they know their main site is not within spec.
In the late 90’s, Janet complained the ABA about the freq allocation, the ERP, site location and any other defining characteristics you can think of.
Interesting that 20 or so years on, Janet and her board isn’t fussed at all. ACMA should be.
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With today having been the last business day of Q4 2018-19, here’s what didn’t eventuate during that time that was promised on the draft FYSO 2019-23:
It looks like it had been delayed, much like what happened with the three NSW markets (Bega, Cooma, Goulburn) earlier this year, which was promised for Q2 2018-19, but was delayed until the end of Q3.
Only Murray Bridge, which was mentioned on the draft FYSO document that was set to be consulted during Q4, went ahead at that time.
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Typical bureaucratic inefficiency.
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Meanwhile, Scottsdale, which was proposed to have the final outcome of the AM to FM conversion of 7SD next quarter (Q1 2019-20; July-September), has been finalised early, in which it had been determined last Friday according to the Federal Register of Legislation.
Listen to 3GL as a kid in Hamilton, was heart broken when they moved to FM and no longer able to received the station.
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Remember who is pulling the strings for these matters outside ACMA?
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https://www.acma.gov.au/theACMA/proposal-to-vary-the-murray-bridge-and-riverland-licence-area-plans
Submissions
This consultation is now closed and submissions are under review.
They’ve been under review for 17 days come Monday.
Is it just me or is ACMA taking much longer than usual to publish the submissions?
This one appears to have caught the ACMA off guard with the apparent number of complaints that Power FM doesn’t offer the same level of coverage.
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Perhaps I’m reading too much into this, but according to the ABC faults & outages page set to Crookwell, the Wades Hill transmitter at Crookwell, which covers both TV & radio, will be off-air for maintenance this Tuesday (July 2), with TV off from 11am to Midday, followed by ABC Local Radio on 106.9 from 1:06pm to 2pm, and then RN on 107.7 from 2:15pm to 3pm.
This above planned outage could be in relation to installing new broadcasting equipment for RN’s new frequency for its Crookwell service on 104.5, freeing up 107.7 for the incoming 2GN’s main FM service for the wider Goulburn region. 
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I can’t see how a frequency change would require new equipment?
Wouldn’t it use the existing hardware and just require the existing transmitter to be retuned?
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That’s what I was thinking too, but if the most recent ACMA Broadcast Transmitter Data is to be believed, the current Local Radio & RN service in Crookwell is transmitting at an ERP of only 2 watts (!!) from an antenna height of 15m, whereas the new RN service on 104.5 is set to be transmitting at an ERP of 100 watts from an antenna height of 18m.
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