Lake Macquarie FM is off air due to last night’s storms. Message up on their website.
Am currently getting nice and clear ABC Illawarra, even though there’s minimal tropo.
Yeah I remember at Lake Munmorah when I wanted the ABC I sometimes tuned into 97.3 FM. This was back in the 90s.
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2EAR seem to be back on Mt Wandera as it was received with RDS all the way from Batemans Bay to Tuross Head.
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This was posted on the EAR FM Facebook page dated Feb 11th
(seemingly not updated yet)…
THE CBF- PARTNERS OF COMMUNITY RADIO IN TIMES OF NEED!!
AND
BREAKING NEWS!!
On the 11th of February 2020 2EAR FM received some much appreciated Great News!! This followed the total destruction of 2EAR FM’s Main Link Antenna on Mt Wandera by bush fires on the 31st of December 2019. 2 EAR FM was seeking financial assistance to purchase and install a new antenna and to re-establish their service from Moruya to Mt Wandera. This is a huge and expensive operation for any Community Radio Station to have to deal with!
The Community Broadcasting Foundation (CBF) came to the rescue by providing an opportunity for 2EAR FM to apply for a “Quick Response Support Grant”!! Secretary Kathy Shields set to work immediately and submitted the comprehensive Grant application on the 4th of February 2020! Notification of the success of that grant came on the 11th of February 2020!!
The Grants Team at the CBF have been remarkable too in viewing, assessing and processing the Grant application in such a short period of time …. We are all extremely grateful to both the CBF and to Kathy.
“THANK YOU” TO OUR COMMUNITY FOR BEING SO PATIENT AND UNDERSTANDING DURING THIS DIFFICULT TIME! OUR TECHNICIAN IAN CLIFFORD WILL MAKE FURTHER ATTEMPS TO ESTABLISH ANOTHER TEMPORARY LINK AND A BROADER SERVICE, UNTIL SUCH TIMES AS WE ARE BACK TO FULL BROADCASTING CAPACITY WITH OUR BRAND NEW ANTENNA!!
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE NEWS AS IT COMES TO HAND. THE ANTENNA NEEDS TO BE PURPOSE BUILT AND HEAVY EQUIPMENT TRANSPORTED TO MT WANDERA TO COMPLETE THE TASK, BUT BE ASSURED THAT WE ARE ALL KEEN TO BE BACK TO NORMAL JUST AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!
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They love their exclamation marks at 2EAR !!!
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and their “quotation marks”!!!
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It’s in case your 2 ears can’t hear the excitement.
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Magic. The Best Songs of All Time.
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Not really Community Radio either, it’s a LPON, operated by Andrew Andrews/NoiseFM.
This came out of what was 2UW a few months ago, after he lost lost the court case over the trademark that had been registered to Noise FM but owned & operated by the New2UW business in Newcastle.
I’ll have to check, but not sure if he’s also registered 2UE & for that matter Magic as business names & trademarks, he registered a lot of no longer used radio call signs, but if he’s registered those two in particular, he won’t be making the money he thought he would out of them, he’ll be going broke very fast when Nine Entertainment takes him on.
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So Andrews left Real/2MG and started this? Or did he already own Magic whilst at the other stations?
TBH, I don’t know, I think he already had this?
He also owns another 17 (I think), LPON licences around the area, which I think he might have got out of the Craig Allen network of LPON’s?
Regarding Lake Macquarie FM being off air, which they were for almost 2 weeks (being Live), were on backup tape for most of the 2 weeks.
Since getting their STL antenna replaced & getting back on air live, on 2nd March, I’ve noticed strong interference on the AM band with a pulsating like electrical arc (as if they were using an old Spark Gap TX), it also distorts the audio on the AM channel, & is very noticeable on 1143 & 1233 (I haven’t tested others) for I guess roughly 1KM either side of the TX, with the strongest interference around the intersection of the road where the TX is located.
The interference does seem to be stronger, & goes further to the North of the TX site, rather than South, which leads me to think they are spewing out interference across who knows how much spectrum, & it’s stronger to the North, because that’s the way their antenna throws the signal most.
If anyone’s around that area & has some time to test & see how much of the AM band gets this interference, & if there’s Lake Mac FM audio on any frequencies across the FM band would be good, because I don’t have the time to do it right now.
If I can get a second opinion with some further evidence, I’ll confront them with it to look at the TX.
I don’t think it’s just interference from the power lines, as there’s no reason for it to just start & end at a certain point along the power lines, & also the fact the interference didn’t start occurring until the the point just after they started broadcasting live again.
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I’ll try and get down that way tomorrow and see what I get.
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Yes, the interference dominates the audio totally.
Took a short audio clip of it.
1143 was worst affected, 1233 not so bad, also heard it as far away as 873 too.
It’s worse on the north side of the transmitter, but gone after about 1 km like you said.
Am guessing it’s a power supply issue, as there’s no issues on FM anywhere that I’ve found, and that I’ve never heard of an FM TX interfering with AM radio.
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Thanks for that.
Did you notice how the audio beneath the interference is distorted too? It’s a bit hard to tell that on the recording for those who can’t hear it live at site.
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No I didn’t really … like you said hard to tell though since that interference is so bad! I reckon it’d be the interference causing any perceived distortion as 1143 sounded fine away from the Lake Macquarie FM TX…
Also noticed that the TX tower can’t really be seen from any main road anywhere near it … the trees don’t help of course, am guessing it’s up near the Mini Cycle Club track (north/north west corner of Kanangra Dr and the highway).
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Actually it can be seen from the Hwy heading South as you round the bend just after the Big Prawn, it can also be seen from the Hwy as you head North from about the Elizabeth Bay Dr intersection, in fact just after you pass that intersection heading North, you’re looking straight at it.
You probably didn’t notice it, as it’s only a roughly 30m high power pole (concrete I think) right next to the water tank (on the West side) next to the intersection & close to the mini bike track.
It just looks like a mobile phone monopole tower without mobile antennas on top, doesn’t look like any radio/TV broadcast tower as such.
I’m sure the post is leaning to the West & always has been, it stands out as you head North looking at it against the backdrop, but maybe it’s only an optical illusion?
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Sydney’s Koori Radio has temporarily stopped some live programming - due to a trainee testing positive with coronavirus. A number of their staff have had to self isolate - and they are advising volunteer presenters to not enter the building for the timebeing.
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Anyone know where to download community announcements nowadays. I still get the regularly weekly RADD send out, but trying to find anything else is pretty difficult. Google searches always end up with American sites, but can’t find anything local anymore, like for example downloading the government Covid 19 PSA.
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