Community Radio

It’s like they have new lease on life.

I love the town. Great local supermarket with local produce and products, great community hall/gallery, great local businesses, lovely town square park and street format (Adelaide-esque).

Excellent road connections with the always expanding Main Road 92 upgrades soon to extend south and west of Braidwood, great for the ‘neighbourhood’ DX’ers.

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It moved frequency to 100.9 in the 2000s & its licence was not renewed in 2007, as most of the station’s members resided from outside of the Bankstown licence area and that a significant proportion of its programs were directed at communities that were largely resident outside of the licence area.

Source: ACMA

Bankstown has since regained its community radio station under its new callsign, 2BAC, known on-air as 2BACR.

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According to a Facebook post on Wed from Noosa FM 101.3, the station has commenced making improvements to their transmitting antenna system. Brief Video.

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Another update on the Braidwood FM Facebook page dated August 11th.
“88.9 is on the air”
A question was posted on the pages: “…Is it full power 2kW
Reply came back: “yep, full throttle mate
LOL. How Aussie is that expression? Luv it.

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This is how Noosa FM is received at my location in Brisbane tonight compared to some other signals using a basic omni antenna

L to R

100.3 Bay FM
100.5 Zinc FM relay at Noosa
100.7 hit Toowoomba
100.9 ABCRN Wide Bay
101.1 Logan FM
101.3 Noosa FM
101.5 Caboolture FM
101.7 ABCFM Sth Downs
101.9 hit Wide Bay
102.1 4ZZZ

There might be a slight improvement in signal level to previous, though not sure yet.

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Looking at the video again & the ACMA records.
The rigger/tech on the left of tower is possibly working on the Noosa FM STL (Vertical pol) antenna.
The rigger/tech on the right of tower could possibly be working on the vertical folded dipole which might be the FM broadcast transmitting antenna of Noosa FM, although it’s supposed to be located on the other (right mast) according to ACMA records.
The 3 bay collinear mixed polarisation antenna on the right tower that briefly comes into view is probably the FM broadcast antenna of 97.9 Hot 91FM .

Noosa FM is licenced for mixed polarisation, but maybe is/was only vertical if I was to make a guess on what I see in video. This could be proved by a dxer in the area with yagi FM receiving antenna.

FM band looks congested in your area.
Is that SDR Console you are using?
The new version of the software allows you to add markers with labels on the displayed spectrum carriers.

An interesting story out of Warrnambool:

Vision Australia ceased the newspaper broadcast service and shut down its Warrnambool operation and office in May after 16 years of service to the community.

The decision infuriated listeners, who said it was an integral service to keep up to date on news across the region. More than 40 volunteers were left devastated by the decision when they lost their positions.

After the numerous stories this year, you’d have to think Vision Australia is looking at an exit from the RPH stations

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Well, Vision Australia has put up a link on its website calling out for government help to save RPH. It says the stations could close due to funding changes resulting from rollout of NDIS.
https://www.visionaustralia.org/fundourradio

A few days after the announcement of nominees for this year’s Australian Commercial Radio Awards, the finalists for the 2019 CBAA Community Radio Awards were revealed today.
https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/cbaa-awards-finalists-have-been-announced

Also explains the enthusiasm for the frequency swap with 3YB. I think others on here have commented that AM transmission costs more than FM…so there must have been a bit of cash from ACE that kept RPH on air for a bit and a year later, that’s now almost run out… (the swap was last year on 2nd July).

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Voice FM in Ballarat has a similar programme with volunteers reading the Ballarat Courier on air.

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Vision Australia Warrnambool is back (or still) on air, picked up 882 this afternoon during a AM band scan, possibly it’s a 24/7 relay of Melbourne now

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Having a look at the schedules online, it looks like the only Warrnambool based program was (or is) aired at 1pm weekdays and 12pm on Saturdays. Presumably this is no longer the case

Pity the station is practically unlistenable, the sound is horrific, has been for years.
They desperately need a new stick, gear or something.

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no its not !!! when was the last time u actually listened??/

and iam one of the panel operators for it and am one of the readers:)

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HOPE 103.2 & 2MFM 92.1 Sydney are now operating from their new 16 bay side-mount antenna at Artarmon.

I’ve done some testing on the way home & they get out there, due to the way different antennas throw the signals out, both these stations are better (less or no flutter) than the commercials at various parts on the M1 (F3) freeway.

HOPE is still just as good (better in parts) going through Belmont (Lake Macquarie) than the commercials despite being 100kW lower ERP & I can still get 92.1 at Belmont in the car when it’s only 15kW ERP.

Interested to know from others what they find (with flat tropo) especially going West & South.

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Do you think 2000 FM will move to Artarmon? I think they still transmit from North Sydney. There coverage has issues to the north side of Sydney.

2OOO FM do still transmit from North Sydney (top of the old Optus Tower).

They may or may not move to Artarmon, the option is there now with the new antenna?

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Yes, of all the Sydney wide stations, 2OOO (and 2SER even more so) have the weakest signals up Newcastle way.