Not familiar with the area - what services would the 2PNN service be interfering with?
Probably the following services, which in both cases are potential adjacent-channel I/F to 102.7 2PNN Armidale:
102.5 4BRZ Tenterfield
102.9 2GEM Warialda
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94.3 will be a good DX target in Sydney as there’s nothing using that frequency to the north at the moment. We will get the full 10 kW as well.
There is potential for interference to 4ABCRN Goondiwindi- I’ve even received it at Guyra- but the ACMA are aware of this and so limit the ERP to 1 kW in Goondiwindi’s sector.
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Proposed changes to Armidale radio frequencies
Listeners to Armidale based radio station 2AD could soon be enjoying clearer and better quality audio under a proposed move from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
The proposal will see the station moved from its current AM radio frequency to a new FM transmission.
Deputy Chair of the ACMA Creina Chapman said the proposal was part of a nationwide project converting commercial radio stations in regional areas from AM to FM.
“There are a lot of benefits to FM radio, the sound quality is better than AM and it can be more cost effective for the station operators,” Ms Chapman said.
“We have recently transitioned stations in a number of regional areas including places like Bathurst, Warrnambool and Port Hedland which has resulted in better broadcasting environments.”
Ms Chapman said AM and FM radio signals have different characteristics, resulting in coverage differences.
“AM signals are spread by ‘ground waves’, which are more susceptible to interference from power lines, electric lighting and electric motors,” she said.
“FM signals spread via a transmitter on a high location such as a hill, mountain, building or tower and are less susceptible to electrical interference.”
The ACMA has released a consultation paper on the proposal and is currently seeking feedback from the local community before going ahead.
“We want to hear from the people of Armidale to get their views on the conversion proposal,” Ms Chapman said.
If the proposal goes ahead, 2AD listeners will need to re-tune their radios to 94.3FM.
Submissions on the Armidale proposal are due by Friday 8 November, 2019. More information about the AM-FM conversion is available here.
If the ACMA approves the conversion, the timing of the transition would be up to the broadcaster.
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Not exactly, but hey don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.
FM isn’t susceptible to electrical noise because it’s all to do with the modulation/demodulation, not anything to do with ground waves or coming from a high location.
FM is modulated by the Frequency, & thus ignores the Amplitude component in demodulation, AM suffers from electrical noise because it creates spikes in the Amplitude, which makes unwanted noise in the audio during the demodulation process.
The Analogue Television vision carrier was Amplitude Modulated or AM, & it also suffered from electrical noise, with sparkles or lines across the screen, & TV was always/mostly transmitted from high locations along with FM radio, generally from the same towers.
It also concerns me greatly, that the Deputy Chair of ACMA has said those incorrect facts.
Did CRA tell her to say that?
What hope do we have when the heads of ACMA don’t know how the spectrum is used & how each particular RF modulation works, what was said wasn’t even dumbing it right down, it was just plain wrong.
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Will be interesting to see whether 2AD broadcasts in stereo or not. I wouldn’t be surprised if not after what happened at 2BS.
Since SRN took over 2BS they have turned back on the stereo pilot.
This was about a week ago received on my car radio in Stanhope Gardens.
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Dodgey, unreliable and when ive heard it… sounds like absolute crap.
The price of C band satellite capacity is cheap these days… much cheaper then 30+ Telstra data accounts.
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yep… just offair DVB
Thats what I said in my last post… staggered panels… there is some thought that the signal changes polarization as it comes down the valley… it doesnt work that well… a 2m gridpak has made a world of difference!
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It will be stereo… Likely either via MPX from a Orban Processor or using the built in stereo encoder of the Elenos TX that will be used
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Not forgetting the years she spent as counsel and secretary at SCA prior to ACMA, she should know better, then again, SCA let Steve Adler go in her time at the company.
Is that the same Italian based company that supplied the 103.5 translator for Radio 97?
That that unit is a Waveart which we trialed and we’re going to use but decided that the Elenos is a better unit… Well that’s what I last heard 
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Thanks @gordo92, great to know. Those companies are not linked at all? Great for Italy to have so much local R&D, pity we can’t do same here.
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I’ve heard they use them for a lot of the low power transmitters, but I’ve seen local AudioVault playout for the larger KIX relays in action first hand…
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Nah not to my knowledge mate think it is a different company to join the ranks of RVR and Elenos over there I believe
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Not surprised SRN are using Elenos TX’s, as they have multiple BE (Broadcast Electronics) TX’s in the network & BE are part of the Elenos Group of companies.
I’ve never used any Elenos TX’s so don’t know how good they are, the RVR’s seem to just go & go so I don’t mind them, but if it was my recommendation or operation for AM/FM I wouldn’t use anything except Nautel, they have very little issues, parts are easy to get even on old models, & factory support is fantastic if you need it any time of day or night, they’re simple to setup & use, you can monitor just about anything you want in the TX remotely, they take just about any input, even a web stream straight off a Shoutcast server, if you want to do it that way or as backup feed, you don’t need a seperate decoder to feed the exciter audio.
I’m a factory trained & certified Nautel tech though, so I guess I’m a bit biased.
For DTV Rhode & Schwarz is the way to go, the entire metro DTV network is built with these, except for a few 18 year old NEC backups, & a lot of regional DTV networks are now being changed over to R&S TX’s.
Broadcast Australia are now installing a lot of R&S TX’s for the ABC/SBS & SCA radio network around the country, but I wouldn’t be using them for FM, there’s generally no field repairs can be done, some minor repairs can be done by R&S workshop in Sydney, otherwise the TX (or part) is shipped back to Germany for repair or replacement.
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Elenos are good quality bang per buck.. great features.. they are approx. half the price of a Nautel of the same power…
RVR’s are ok… until they stop!
IMHO.. nothing is as good as Nautel in the radioworld. not only the best quality product but best support and just a great bunch of people!
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Yeah they go alright, out of all the ones deployed in the SRN network only had one gives us issues and it was a CPU board and when Elenos was contacted they sent a free replacement board express shipping to gets things fixed as quick as possible…
There lightning resistance is incredible
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With news that community station EZY FM in Lithgow has shut its doors (see “Community Radio” thread), the 90.5 frequency could potentially be reassigned for the proposed FM conversion of 2LT. It would have to lower its power towards Sydney (and by extension, Lithgow) to protect Alive 90.5 in Baulkham Hills/Parramatta to make it happen though.
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Is 89.7 FM free there?