Not much. The Mittagong dipper is probably the overall boundary as I went past it today.
First hint of cochannel heading south from Sydney is Hilltop/Mittagong exit but 2GO still dominant. In the ‘dipper’ (Mittagong to Welby) it’s mostly static/neither but once you pass Welby it’s mostly 2GN. There is a fairly high hill near Berrima where 2GO comes back briefly with RDS but then it’s 2GN from there.
When the test carrier was on last week I was travelling North. The first hint of cochannel approaching from the south was between Sutton Forest Maccas and the Illawarra hwy, not enough to get over it until Berrima though. When I went south the day before, GN wasn’t on yet and I had clear (but no RDS) reception of 2GO at Sutton forest maccas. There were some hills as far as Gunning where 2GO was still heard.
All the promo ID’s sound good with slowed emphasis on the ‘G’ & ‘N’ in the new station identification (IDs) & even most of the announced ID’s, with one exception during the recording at the 6m29s mark. If you were casually listening from around the 6m20s mark & heard the ID especially with weaker reception it would be unintelligible & the ID does sound like a bit of a mumble unless there’s raised tone & emphasis on both letters ‘G & N’ as both @RFBurns & I expected.
Great & appropriate songs to end 1368 & commence the 107.7 broadcasts with.
Great video @dxnerd, thanks for sharing the closing of 2GN, and launch of GNFm. BTW how does the signal compare with XL fm?
Pity GNFm had to go on 107.7 and not on 96.7 or 97.9, unfortunately the best I will get it is the CCI sounds under Triple M CC when tropo from Goulburn is intense.
We are at day 2 of GNFM being on FM and what you expected came true, Had the radio antenna on the Sangean pointed in the position where GNFM is strongest and Triple M is already coming over it here in Bowral meaning some Tropo is about. Of course in some parts of Bowral, including the Coles Carpark Triple M is dominant over GNFM without any Tropo at all.
I wonder what it would be like up at the Gib. My guess Mittagong lookout it would be permanent reception of Triple M CC even without tropo.
Bowral lookout GN Fm, but even at that spot would CCI from Gosford still occur?
107.7 was such a dumb choice of a frequency by ACMA, they should have moved QBN fm to 95.1 as no service has ever launched from Tuggeranong on that frequency. QBN fm to be offered a permanent licence on condition they move. GN fm could then have had 96.7 at 40KW OD, and no CCI with Gosford.
The old ABA moved Manly community radio off 92.1 and 93.7 for 2MFM, and 2LND, and the station formerly known as Kiss 95.3 (107.9 Move fm) to allow Smooth fm to launch on 95.3. Moving a community radio station that is only on a TCL would have been the correct solution, and then they would not have had to move the ABC off 107.7 in Crookwell too.
ACMA just needed to do a bit of thinking outside the box!!!
To be fair, when the 1st Goulburn LAP Variation that detailed the first proposal of 2GN’s conversion to FM was released for consultation in March 2019, 2QBN still had a permanent full-time licence which they held since 2000 before ACMA decided not to renew it in March 2020.
True but the community stations in Sydney and Kiss 95.3 Lithgow all had full time licences too when they were asked to move by the ABA.
In April 2020 after QBN lost their licence ACMA could have offered a sweetener to both parties, QBN move to 95.1 to continue their TCL with it to potentially go permanent. GNFM can now have 96.7 with the same specs as Eagle fm.
GNFM could have gone to air quicker under this scenario. All they would have had to do was install their new transmitters and combine into the existing Eagle fm array. They would not have needed the current funky array to meet their current licence specs, to protect Triple M CC.
BTW how is the intermodulation issue from Mt Gray now that GNFM has gone to air? The Capital Radio engineers managed to fix the problem at Mt Roberts when they converted 2XL to fm. Have things improved, or did they make it worse this time round?
The ACMA seem unable to even consider moving stations when needed and always take the easy route. It’s ridiculous and they are abrogating their responsibily.
The ACMA needs to go harder at licensees that have been allocated frequencies for infills/blackspots but don’t get them to air.
Agree re QBN and moving GNFM to 96.7 - this still leaves 103.1 and 107.9 in Tuggeranong for 1CMS, 2XX and SBS. The ACMA should write to those 3 and state that there are now only 2 frequencies for them and 103.1/107.9 be made available based on a business case/timeframe to get them on air. The first 2 with the best case / earliest timeframe will get them, the last one misses out.
Total agree with the above points. ACMA should have taken the same approach as they do with the LPON’s use it or loose it , and these operators have been hoarding these licences for quite some time.
If the above was done 2GN could have had a better frequency then the one that they were allocated.
I may head up that way if I get a free day; I’ll also check 106.1 Crookwell for RDS.
Eagle 103.7 has RDS by virtue of the off-air relay from 93.5; I’m guessing 106.1 may be the same now. The audio on 106.1 has definitely improved suggesting an off-air relay from 107.7 is now in place. I don’t get 106.1 strong enough for RDS here.
I am happy that 95.1 is blank here, which allows for DX on this ‘Canberra’ channel (also 103.1) and allows me to receive 2BS, which actually has quite a good music format outside of its talk programmes. Very similar to The Breeze Queensland.
Agree with this, ACMA need to do a clean up nationally. A somewhat similar situation happened in VIC back in the 00’s when the additional licenses were allocated to Warrnambool and Hamilton where commercial fm’s were squeezed by existing community and ABC services. 88.9 in Hamilton was an odd choice and 95.3 in Warrnambool a bit more friendly but was subject to substantial co channel interference from Shepparton in the north east corner of the listening area. During times of troppo can be real mess once you get towards Lismore.
