Agreed but when you have good techs like myself and others asking if they can help for free. Seems a little silly not to take the offer…
I am a big proponent of everyone staying in their own lane and not interfering with anyone else. Because were all in the radio game together, community and commercial, and when something like this happens you can’t put your head in the sand and pretend nothing is wrong… hence why I reported it.
You potentially have 3 companies that are being interfered with due to the close band stacking in SEQ/NENSW
Rebel Media
SCA for MMM Country
ABC for NewsRadio Northern Rivers. (potentially over the last weekend with the rain an emergency service!)
All bar the last one on much much lower powers than the 12kw Blowtorch on Cootha on 98.9.
And who knows what other spurs its causing on the band.
ACMA did have a compliance campaign a decade ago after they received complaints from Airservices about third order intermods associated with community FM landing in the aeronautical band. Most stations back then did not have anyone who knew what the ACMA were on about. Hate to think what its like now.
Yeah I remember that. So many stations got caught out. I do wonder… from memory they co-site and combine into the same antenna as the other Brisbane Community Stations. So I wonder what interference they could be causing to them. Possibly 98.1 4EB I could be wrong.
So if that’s the case, their combiner filter must be pretty loosely filtering, considering how wide they’ve been at times, most of that extra bandwidth should be being dissipated as heat from the combiner filter itself or going into the dump load.
I’m guessing they don’t have a channel filter inline & are just going straight up their own antenna?
The aeronautical intermods were usually caused by single FM transmitters on community sites co-sited with things like two-way bases running into an antenna with no filter in the line - FM broadcast transmitters have broadband power amps in them so amplify VHF low and high band two-way very well and being class C amplifiers are also good mixers.
Broadcast Park has a big RFS combiner in there from memory - some stations like 4EB seem very well run and as far as I know have never been in trouble with the regulators. Sadly not so some of the others.
Probably into the wideband port on the combiner - as you probably know commutating FM combiners always have a wideband port to allow for expansion but usually when another station was added it was just plugged into the wideband port which has no filtering. I have only been to Broadcast Park briefly a long time ago so don’t know the configuration.
It would be good if the ACMA would make it a licence condition that commercial broadcasters provide some level of technical assistance/expertise to communiity radio. Or maybe have the ABC provide this.
It’s in everyone’s interests that the FM spectrum operates smoothly.
Not my station, but just wanted to quickly mention the right people are aware and it’s being worked on. Just an unfortunate combination of people unavailable at the moment to get it sorted quicker.
That’s where the rot started in broadcasting - no ticket now required so unskilled pay and conditions followed. Multiple issues with that like interference to other broadcasters but the big one is OHS/safety - untrained people working on high power transmitters, often alone on remote mountain tops at night.
The other one, non-existent driver fatigue management with large mileages driven often at night with the only rest periods during daylight hours - I personally know 3 commercial techs that have died in road accidents to/from broadcasting sites or studio’s.
Hi @anthonyeden. Thanks for the update.
Also whilst I understand this isn’t your station. Do you know anyone at the station that might be interesting in resolving the RDS PI code issue between ‘Pulse’ & ‘Today’s Country 94.1’? Neither station appear interested in changing their RDS PI code. All’s probably fine in their respective LAP’s but in Sydney it does cause RDS data to populate incorrectly for the received station.
Good salient points. Has any of this been addressed with Safe Work Australia?
I think if I was in management I would be sending to those remote & dangerous tx sites at least two people, even if one was technically untrained, but trained in CPR/First aid & with a drivers license & for both the tech & ‘safety support person’ to have extra driver training for handling those 4W drive vehicles on dangerous mountain rocky terrain which can often be the case to access many mountain/hill top FM sites.
I’d also be having extra regular safety checks on those vehicles, especially brakes.
I’m so sorry to hear that. Three too many…
I know of one person too & occasionally think of them & how that accident could have been avoided.
Not that I am aware of - broadcasting and telecommunications are a Federal responsibilty so a body such as Safe Work or even ACMA would be responsible.
One area that is a better of late is height safety - training such as rigging, working at heights and tower rescue are now required but that has probably come from the telco industry rather than broadcasting.
One fall from height in the last few years was a fatality at the community radio site at Panorama Heights at the back on Noosa. Another one I am aware of was a double fatality at the Basin View MF station on the NSW South Coast when the towers were being erected.
Good point - most access roads are just dry waterfalls now. The only time they ever saw a dozer or grader was when the site was built 40 years ago. Responsibility for the roads is probably with the site owner but even that is ambiguous with lots of sites having no clear property title. No wonder organisations like SRN stop paying rent.
One community site that comes to mind is Bay FM at Mt Cotton Qld - it was a walk in only when I was last there due to a huge landslip. Mt Hopeful TV at Rockhampton was another one that was walk in only at one stage.
Taking into account the callsign, CRA guidelines, surrounding area PI codes & binary bit differences & our community Aus RDS List: I reckon a PI code of 294A would be suitable for 2LIV ‘Pulse 94.1’.
My second preference would be 294C. (I don’t like 294B due to only being one binary bit difference to Power FM’s 2949 at Nowra)
