Did the loop drive from Sydney-Moss Vale-Kangaroo Valley-Berry-Wollongong-Sydney this afternoon.
I listened to SBS Chill (mux 9C) on the Sydney-Moss Vale leg. Reception was rock solid with not a single dropout until the outskirts of Mittagong town. Hereafter it was very hit and miss; more miss than hit after Bowral. No reception at all in the heart of Moss Vale. Atop Mount Gibraltar (‘The Gib’), Sydney DAB was error free. No sign of Canberra DAB at the southern facing Bowral Lookout. I did get 2XX with RDS on 98.3, though, so it must have been close. It could well have been there at threshold levels but too weak to scan in.
I didn’t try DAB from Kangaroo Valley-Berry as even the analogue was struggling on this zero tropo westerly wind day. 2BRW Braidwood is currently simulcasting on 88.9 and 94.5; presumably they will cease transmission on 94.5 in the near future. They started broadcasting on 88.9 about a week ago. The coverage of 88.9 is far superior to 94.5, in the main because co channel interference from 2RSR is much less severe than that from FBI.
Next stop was Gerroa Headland; no DAB reception here. Reception is possible in the higher parts of Gerringong, though, such as along Tasman Drive. I could not scan in the ABC/SBS mux from here so it must be the weakest of the three from Sydney.
The final leg of the trip was conducted in DAB silence for the most part with MMM Classic Rock on; reception is near non-existent south of Bulli Tops at least while mobile. Only a few small pockets of reception were noted, such as the Kiama Bends and near the Nan Tien Temple at Unanderra. Patchy reception returned at the bottom of Mount Ousley near UOW but then vanished again until the ‘big dipper’ near Cataract Creek.
Dropout free reception from Bulli Tops all the way home.