@Ant5476 you may wish to check your FM stereo reception of 98.5 Radio 2000 again.
I’m noting that the stereo pilot carrier now appears to be in spec -23dB re SDR# MPX
(ex -30dB) Your stereo reception may be improved now.
The audio still looks to be sharply filtered though.
I am getting it in stereo now, thank you. Big improvement in signal strength now it is coming from Artarmon V North Sydney, however still a bit of a hiss in the stereo.
Really need a minimum of 50KW from Artarmon / Gore Hill for clean fm stereo at my location at Stanhope Gardens, this is due to distance and some minor obstructions. I know this because Hope at 50KW is perfect, then the quality drops down for 2000 which is at 25KW, and 2MFM is worse again which has an even lower ERP.
The 16kW Central Coast and 40KW Wollongong Commercial fm stations are received much better thanks to their higher transmitter sites.
I assume they cannot increase power do the same as “Hope” due a interference issue? Or is it purely financial?
I wonder if they blasted 25 Kw from WS FM 99.1 site, how many people people will miss out on the coast? Given they do have a DAB option. My opinion WS FM 101.7 FM should come from that site and go back to being a western Sydney station but I won’t go there 
.
Or let SWR be a western sydney community station at high power rather than all the high power community stations being concentrated in the the east. I won’t go there either . The 200W transmitter seems to do a pretty good job of covering most of the old 2WS heartland with the exception of the Campbelltown area (although Oran Park had good reception when I tried).
I don’t think SWR covers Liverpool very well either, but then I guess isn’t designed to given they have 2GLF 89.3 for local community radio.
Same with Campbelltown, also Parramatta and Penrith, all part of the traditional 1224 2WS coverage area.
SWR main coverage goes to around Hoxton Park near Liverpool on the 50W beam. It starts to weaken in Liverpool. However a good car radio should not have too much trouble receiving it.
I received it OK in Oatley on a car radio when I used to live there. 2SWR transmitters site at around 150m ASL sure helps.
BTW here are the community fm stations ranked by ERP from highest to lowest from @anon71206228 new fm array at Artarmon, according to the Sydney Radio LAP.
Hope 103.2
50KW at bearings 0-15, 20-200, 205-360
25KW at bearings 15-20, 200-205
2000 Fm
25KW at bearing 0-15, 20-200, 205-360
12.5KW at bearings 15-20, 200-205
2MFM
15KW at bearings 0-10, 170-360
7.5KW at bearings 10-40, 140-170,
3.8KW at bearings 40-140
2MFM’s Licence has different radiation patterns across different bearings compared to the other two on the same array, how does @anon71206228 make this work??
We don’t, 2MFM are currently looking at getting the licence changed to match the specs of 2OOO.
So 2MFM would just use their assigned lower ERPS over the same bearing as the other communities while they wait for the change to their licence if understand correctly?
Yes.
Thank you.
Note the advisory Note 1. on their Artarmon licence.
https://web.acma.gov.au/rrl/licence_image.extract_pdf?pLICENCE_NO=1170504/3
I saw where it said that they can broadcast from an antenna at a higher height, so I am assuming this also allows the radiation over different bearings until the licence is amended too?
I would imagine they could probably use the same tower as SWR with a different radiation pattern southwards.
Without checking google maps, the tower at Horsley Park is probably closer or similar to Liverpool’s CBD when compared to the Blacktown CBD.
I just pulled up one of my saved Nautel coverage maps for SWR, 200W to the SE would cover Liverpool quite well, probably to the same level as what SWR is like up around my area Stanhope Gardens.
To get to the same level as what the local transmitter does they would need to increase the ERP past 200w which then increases the overspill significantly. BTW SWR transmitter is in the Fairfield Council area, not Blacktown.
Thanks! @Ant5476
Yeah. When I listen to it, “most of the focus” is on the Blacktown area rather than the Fairfield area but there are exceptions. Probably overall Fairfield gets the best coverage though.
Yeah, Horsley Park.
Although I’m not in the main listening area, 99.9FM reception is generally good to the point of being able to receive the RDS.
I wonder how the reception of SWR in Fairfield compares to that of 2GLF.
SWR gets into Fairfield slightly better then 2GLF. Problem is 2GLF is only at 80W from a low site at Mt Pritchard v 50W in the direction of Fairfield from Horsley Park at 150m ASL. SWR is going to have better coverage.
Two questions of absolute curiosity,
a:) with 2GLF, just wondering what happened to that Smithy guy who used to present the Saturday Night Hot Mix. I was able to get it for a short time when living in a unit between 2002 and 2005, but since living where I am now, 2GLF has been completely off the dial. Spose I could have tuned in via internet streaming, but just never really thought of it. I vaguely remember Smith doing that show in 1988 when picking up that station in Leura, so he’d been doing it for a while, but I guess with many of the community stations there’s both organisational and staff changes, so I guess they would have been a mass format / program change at some point?
b:) Done some digging around with the Hawkesbury situation regarding WHCR and Hawkesbury GOld. Seems to be a lot of news regarding both stations from about October November 2017 and a bit from 2018, but nothing on the net about them now. To what I can ascertain, both stations are still on TCBLs still vying for a permanent license, four years, and still aspirants, that seems to be a very long time for ACMA to make a decision, unless I’ve missed something? Can’t find anything on ACMA making any final decisions yet?
They need to prove their capacity as permanent broadcasters and none have met the criteria yet.
Smithy is now based in Melbourne and presents on 97.9 FM in Melton. I used to work with him when he was at Hawkesbury Radio as well.