Capital Radio Network

@dxnerd Is your reception of 106.1 2GN from Crookwell good enough to detect whether they are running RDS and stereo from GNFM 107.7 as yet?

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3GG could go to FM Next

does it need to? It gets pretty good coverage into Melbourne as an AM. I am not sure it would be able to as an FM. Be interesting to know if there are any available FM slots, too.

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They’re not eligible as the Warragul stations don’t have common ownership.

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They seem to be taking the feed direct from 107.7 already, as the audio quality is much better. I don’t get it strong enough for RDS though; will have to wait for either a good tropo opening or perhaps I’ll take a trip up that way.

@RFBurns- unfortunately Canberra is a horrible place for DXing which is part of the reason (not the primary one) I ended up in Bungendore. Unless you’re on Mount Ainslie or Red Hill you don’t get anything much from out of town. Both XL and GN aren’t listenable on the car radio. Once you get out of the ‘Canberra bowl’ you do start to get reception from places like Cooma, Goulburn and the South Coast/Illawarra.

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Thanks for that.

I’m doing a road trip down to Victoria early June, so will come back via the Hume and check out GNFM around the Goulburn area, and hopefully get up to the wind farm near Crookwell.

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That is what I have experienced too and it does not help with the 20KW and 80KW blow torches coming from Black Mountain less than 5km from the city centre.
I have not been to Red Hill, will check it out next time I am in Canberra.

I have found that I can receive Snow and Eagle around Canberra airport, Eagle is better in the northern suburbs around Belconnen but most of the time it is no better then what I receive in Sydney. Mt Ainslie is quite good, last time I was there I had 104.3 Power fm and 103.5 2BA Batemans Bay.

General rule with Canberra there is very little to no dxing until you drive out of the Canberra bowl. North side Eagle fm and Illawarra nationals come in quite good. South side Snow fm.

I did a mock up coverage map on Nautel, if Snow / XLfm broadcast from a tower on Mt Roberts at 167m (Knights Hill Nationals antenna height), most of Canberra would have rural grade coverage 54dBuV . The Canberra bowl, the low 25m antenna height, and the restrictions towards Canberra do a fantastic job of keeping the Cooma signals out of Canberra. It also makes reception difficult north of Bredbo within the Cooma LA when you loose LOS of Mt Roberts.

In the case of Goulburn, increasing antenna height would not increase overspill into Canberra to the same extent as it would from Mt Roberts Cooma.

@dxnerd I see what you mean about GN fm and XL fm coning into Bungendore at similar strengths. These coverage maps are exaggerated due to much higher antenna heights.

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If anything XL is a little stronger as it has a clear shot across the Hoskinstown Plain to the south (which your coverage map identifies perfectly as a narrow green path). I know that XL map is hypothetical but it still works in showing the areas of stronger signal. At best GN is rural grade reception (yellow).

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@dxnerd Where in your region would be the best place to get coverage XL fm, GN fm as well as Canberra DAB and Braidwood FM?

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The east side of the Lake George Escarpment (Wamboin) would be the place. Specifically around Denley Drive. Awesome for DX but big, expensive blocks up there.

Bungendore itself isn’t bad; I can receive all of them without too much trouble.

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Had a quick listen yesterday afternoon and I was glad to hear the beds in the TOH are gone. Also noticed the newsreader in the pre record local news sounded more natural.

I noticed the website has a heap of broken links, including Facebook. I would have thought the webguy would have been all over that for the change in domain name and new Facebook url.

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Nicola is ex 2SM parliament reporter. Based at 2CC/CA. No local 2GN journo.

Having worked for the covid prevention mechanism network (Caralis), she will need a few weeks of gentle therapy to get over the experience. I’m sure Becko and the news room team will ensure Nicola Field is in safe hands.

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Where is Lance White based? He reads the local news on XLFM. I assumed he did all the capital stations.

It’s nearly ski season so time for the other Capital announcers to VT for XL/Snow to update us all on the ski conditions.

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He’s based at 3GG in Warragul, Gippsland

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Streaming a bit of GNFM to hear what messaging there is about the retune to FM.

They are promoting it well, but Crookwell listeners could be forgiven for thinking 106.1 is being switched off… as I heard a line of something like “No matter where you are in the Southern Tablelands, tune to 107.7”….

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As with @dxnerd YouTube video, when tuned into 106.1 you might mistaken you were on 107.7 as the RDS indicates that.

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From the same engineers who brought you intermod from the top of Mt Gray and Mt Roberts, is it any surprise they can’t work out RDS for Crookwell?

@Ant5476 Yes, Mt Roberts not Brown Mtn.

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Is there intermod with the ABC’s from Brown Mountain?

@dxnerd will update us next time he is passing through Goulburn on the intermod situation. They managed to fix Mt Roberts, lets see how Goulburn goes.

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Forgot to check the IMD situation; realised it as I was passing through Collector on the way back home. D’oh.

Yes it’s still there on 95.1, went past it today :wink:
1368 is now just looping the retune promo.

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