At a guess, unlikely at that distance. Maybe pockets of weak signal here and there if anything.
It’s very low elevation there, although there is some water in between. Not sure how much that would help.
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97.4 is ripe for unofficial activity in Melbourne, be it of the legal or pirate persuasion.
Many years ago when I ran an “iTrip” iPod transmitter in Sydney, I used either 91.7 or 103.6. This was before 91.6 was used for temporary broadcasts (they could still use 90.9 then). It’s a struggle to find a clear channel now
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89.5 and 90.7 would be the only ones suitable in Sydney nowdays.
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What frequencies do most people put their FM car transmitters on nowadays, with most of the FM band being taken up by various broadcasters. I’ve always assumed that they were on 87.5 FM or 108.0 FM, although I’m not exactly sure. Cheers.
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It depends on where you are and what frequencies are vacant in your area, as per above examples for Sydney and Melbourne.
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3 at once is my car transmitter PB. Usually in the 107.0 to 108.0 range, but can see them any where on the dial.
Few mornings ago had -
107.5 - blank carrier with stereo sidebands, slightly off frequency.
107.9 - blank mono carrier, over weak Radio Fremantle.
108.0 - rubbish music.
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Perth and SW WA have a lot more clear channels than over east- for now at least.
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I found the same with mine.
The best use I found for mine, was for my Grandmother’s 90th birthday garden party - plugged it into a laptop and put radios in the garden, made a neat atmosphere without overwhelming anyone with noise. Way better than a big speaker in a corner!
Fortunately, here in NZ, there’s an 8MHz band that isn’t in use anywhere (just above RNZ National)… it’s perfect for this sort of thing.
Edit, 8MHz should read 0.8MHz… woopsie.
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Do you mean above 100.0? I thought NZ was starting to use that space now.
Yep, that’s all well-allocated, especially in the metros. 101.8-102.5, there’s a gap there for the “Youth Radio” that govt’s of ages past promised, but never delivered.
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There’s nothing between 101.8 and 103.4 in NZ, so you’ve got that open for Australian DX and any other tomfoolery. There was Kiwi FM on 102.2 at one point, and I also remember the short term ‘B Sport Sailing’ on 103.0 MHz (Auckland only). Believe it or not I manage to get that via tropo from Sydney!
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I’d forogtten about the next reserved block, you’re quite right! There’s plenty of space there, and I imagine that will remain under the current govt. I might have posted this in the past; the graphic below shows NZ FM blocks and bands. Columns 17 & 18 are the ones in the clear.
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A lot default to lower frequencies in the 87 or 88MHz area. Can be very problematic with all the LPONs around.
In SEQ, something like 88.3 would be fairly safe most of the time. 89.0 would probably be my choice, away from Coraki and Kingaroy enough (and they’re weak here anyway), and nowhere near any local blowtorches. Only a problem if Es are in from NZ/NCL (in which case I’d want to be listening and know).
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Thanks! Does NZ not plan to use 107.8 to 108.0 at all?
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It’s left as a guard band, I think.
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I’ve never picked up a NZ station on 88.4 or 88.5; I think these were used for LPFM too at some point? The lowest full power FM stations are on 88.6 such as Mai FM Auckland.
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Received some rap and hip-hop music on 87.7 FM, another FM car transmitter. The signal was super strong for under a minute due to their car being so close, before eventually going away as they turned off to go another direction. There was some explicit lyrics in the first song I received, the second song was most likely the same dealbreaker too, because it was all hip-hop music that no one is familiar with, and, it’s explicit.
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Word
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I’m posting this here since i think it’s what I heard today.
At Belmont in Lake Macquarie NSW, my car radio detected a station on 103.4 playing a modern up tempo dance/pop song (don’t know what).
That stayed in range for about 2 km until Belmont North. That faded quickly so I suspected there must have been a car in front or behind me using an in car FM transmitter on that frequency that had just turned off left or right.
A few kms later, it returned again! (near Bennetts Green). This time i heard a few seconds of a few different songs, a bit of Queen, The Veronicas, Don McLean, quite different to what I heard earlier. Then it faded again.
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