I have reposted the Nautel coverage map for the Gold Coast dab+ towards Brisbane.
As from the experience of people here, it explains why there is coverage in the Bayside suburbs and around Calamvale.
Gold Coast dab+ is 5KW towards the Bayside suburbs of Brisbane and the Hyperdome at Loganholme, that is why these areas have the better reception.
Same thing with Mandurah DAB+ which eats into the Perth LAP by including Rockingham. Heck when I hear those irritating HN commercials they always mention Mandurah and Rockingham together. And I know Rockingham is part of the Perth LAP because 6iX has an FM repeater there since their main AM station doesn’t reach that far.
Displays twice, one for each multiplex, in order of multiplex, 9B, 9D etc.
River is often in full stereo quietening with RDS in Grafton when atmospheric conditions are right.
@Ant5476, excellent, thank you. 1.25kW is the theoretical maximum ERP towards Bris, I have a feeling that the actual output is less.
Even at 625W which Gold Coast dab+ broadcasts to the west of Mt Tamborine it still gets into Bayside Brisbane and some of the southern suburbs according to the coverage map.
This is fascinating:
https://www.digitalradioplus.com.au/can-i-get-digital-radio
Commercial radio broadcasters in the following markets have expressed an interest in adopting DAB+:
Gold Coast,
Newcastle,
Dubbo,
Albury,
Lithgow,
Sale,
Bathurst,
Cooma,
Goulburn,
Warragul,
Sunshine Coast,
Cairns,
Bundaberg
and
Murwillumbah.
Glaring omissions such as Geelong. Also, why Cairns and Bundaberg, but not Townsville and Maryborough?
And Murwillumbah and Bathurst are strange too (being Caralis markets)
I’m guessing it’s Grant’s that we’re interested for those markets given they were the drivers of the Gold Coast licence.
So that explains why Maryborough is not included. Maybe for Townsville, having 2 FM stations that rate OK they don’t see as much to gain as in Cairns where 4CA could rate better with the improved reception that DAB would give.
Caralis was always interested in DAB. He even purchased extra capacity in Sydney. He just doesn’t do much with it and can’t even keep the streams online. In Murwillumbah especially he’s see it as a way of better competing with the Gold Coast.
I wonder why not Wollongong?
Then we would have NSW (Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong coveted which are the biggest population areas of NSW.
I know way back years ago Newcastle was interested in going DAB+, probably along with the others that are mentioned?
A transmission plan was done & IIRC there was the main site at Mt Sugarloaf with 6 or 7 translator sites around Newcastle & Lake Macquarie (not including the Maitland/Cessnock area or further up towards Singleton), & coverage still wouldn’t match that of the FM services (much like DAB+ around Sydney), I think costs for all that build & operation, put it on hold indefinitely & I think the interest was lost after that.
I haven’t heard that the interest in DAB+ in Newcastle or any of those other markets has been re-ignited, that comment on the Digital Radio Plus web site could be years old, going back to the original interest regionally years ago?
Mandurah wanted to sneak some coverage into the Perth market, & the Gold Coast same with Brisbane that’s why the interest there, other markets there’s no real point, even though SCA & ARN now own something in most places, Geelong with Grants maybe the only place with a possibility of sneaking into Melbourne, the others would be technically crippled to not get into adjoining or close-by Metro markets, neither SCA nor ARN would want their regional stations taking away audience from their metro stations if their metro & regional offering were to be different.
Nothing special to report today with the official commencement of DAB+ on the Gold Coast.
Everything is as it has been the last couple of days. Hot Tomato Gold is still announcing as a test broadcast and asking for interference reports.
Hot Tomato Gold is now available on iHeart Radio.
Interesting point, wouldn’t you think if ARN were wanting to sneak some coverage from their regional market into a metro market they would be keen to implement dab+ in Wollongong??? Wollongong like the Central Coast has a significant population that commutes to Sydney for work. and they would love to continue the overspill that happens on fm.
I assume Wollongong would be easier to setup as Brokers Nose would cover most of suburban Wollongong, obviously you would need the infills at Saddleback for Kiama, and Stanwell Park for the far northern suburbs obstructed from Brokers Nose. We also know that Brokers Nose does not get into Sydney anywhere as well as Knights Hill.
If dab+ was to be implemented at Knights Hill for Wollongong I imagine there would have been lots of interest. To adequately cover Wollongong from there you end up overspilling into Sydney quite significantly.
Re Newcastle dab+ if I remember correctly it was going to be only low powered 5KW with lots of infills to provide the coverage. Gold Coast was going to be similar but in the end got 25KW ERP directional. If Newcastle was to get 25KW too it surely would make the implementation easier with less infills required.
The problem is that there’s only so many times you can pull the high power trick and still roll out DAB in the allotted blocks.
Those proposals in the first place might have been a bit over cautious, but you’ve already seen in practice just how far the Canberra and now Gold Coast multiplexes are getting out - once you actually have some stations nearby sharing a block that’d start to be problematic.
Wollongong would not be as attractive as under the current band plan, they are cochannelled with Central Coast, so to minimise interference, they are limited to a max of 5kw from Brokers Nose.
That is why they are using Brokers Nose and not Knights Hill. 5KW from Knights Hill would cause potential CCI to any CC dab+
They would be better putting Wollongong and Newcastle on the same frequency. It is pointless having allocations for Campbelltown and Katoomba considering Cada is on Sydney dab+ just let c91.3 onto the Sydney muc.
I don’t think the overspill into Brisbane has anything to do with the interest from Gold Coast operators. The Gold Coast is big enough in its own right to make it work. The population is over 700,000 and it’s fast growing. There’s no comparison with Mandurah.
I have been driving around the southside of Brisbane over the last few days and there is no useful Mt Tamborine (Gold Coast) coverage here - you can only get it on top of the highest hills with clear LOS to Tamborine.
Best of luck with the DAB+ at Brokers Nose: I used to look after that site years ago - big vandalism problem, 11KV electric fence around building, gronks constantly rocking the aircons on the roof and when they put a locked gate on the road access off Mt Ousley Rd they rammed it with a stolen car. Lovely place!
Campbelltown DAB is on the same frequency as Newcastle.
The only reason CADA is on Sydney DAB is that ARN own KIIS and WS as well as CADA. If they (or any other Sydney broadcaster) owned C91.3, they could put C91.3 on Sydney DAB.
