I wouldnt agree or disagree, except to say that LPONs often get a bad rap for over powering but this may not be the case for a couple of reasons:
The inverse square law (i.e. as you double your distance from the antenna, your signal reduces by 6db. This law, actually helps alot the closer you are to the transmitter, for example a radio service on 1 watt, could be heard out to 10km for the transmitter, whereas another station on 100,000 watts might struggle to reach 50km. Despite the station on 100,000 watts having a 50db advantage over the 1 watt service.
most car radios can receive signals at or above 20db, therefore LPONs with their limit of 48db at 2km and 10km, gives them a 28db signal margin, thats enough to get you 20 to 40km from the transmitter site if you are line of sight.
Also check out the coverage experiences of 1 watt radio services in New Zealand, many of these services report getting very far (e.g. 30km) from there antenna sites (often on hills or mountains), given the rules the NZ gov have imposed on these services, they are very hard to overpower.
Yes, HAAT or Height Above Average Terrain is critical. You can have quite a high powered service but if the transmitter site is poorly located, it doesn’t get out very well.
Reports that 1341kHz Geelong is back on air and playing classic hits along with classic 3GL jingles from the 80s. Just checking it out on a Melbourne-based SDR now and it does indeed appear to be back alive, and reception is fairly good (as it always was).
Anyone know if they’ve turned back on at the old Leopold site, or if it’s shifted elsewhere? Last I saw the Leopold site was still one mast down on its usual configuration, so had expected to never hear anything from there again.
I’ll be able to check in a couple of weeks but a bit far away now.
Indeed it’s back, very strong here in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. The service seems to be licenced to “GEELONG BROADCASTERS PTY LIMITED” and the transmitter site is still “Geelong Broadcasters Site Portarlington Rd LEOPOLD VIC 3221”
Yeah, I couldn’t imagine the likes of Magic or 3MP would be too happy with it.
The playlist from my brief listening is fairly old, 50s and 60s. But the use of genuine old 3GL jingles/promos has me really intrigued. Is it being run by (the artist formerly known as) Grant Broadcasters? Is it just an enthusiast with access to some old recordings? I’d really love to know the story, and what’s planned (if anything more).
As someone who grew up listening/dxing to the old AM classic hits stations from around the country with my parents in the 90s I’m actually really loving listening to this revival via Melbourne SDR atm - it’s like being a kid again and/or in some type of strange 60s time warp
Had a brief listen today, I have to think at this point playing 60s is just as narrowcast of a format as Country or Dance formats that commonly get a run on HPONs.
If it was FM I’d instantly assume pirate, but I’d have to assume this is coming from the old 3CW site, but it still feels fishy - some engineer having some fun over the holiday period? The signal seems very strong so I can’t imagine it’s anything other than a real AM broadcast site.
Otherwise, does any aspect of the ACMA’s rules on “use it or lose it” apply to high power narrowcasters? They’ve done a push on wasted LPONs before - but this suddenly lighting up all this time later might just be to ensure that the license isn’t surrendered?
Of course, as in Ballarat, the big commercial owner has effectively kept hold of the old AM to prevent any real competition - which in a just world would have the ACMA looking hard at them for such a BLEEP move.
Hmm very interesting if it’s only a HPON licence there’s not much Grant can do though. I suppose if they argued a AM station playing 50/60s music is niche now though…
The 50s and 60s would be the equivalent of music from the early 1900s playing on 1980s radio.
