Narrowcast and AM Narrowband Radio

Yeah get well soon…

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Faith FM is now on air in Penrith and Kurrajong and the frequency is listed on their website and credit where credit is due, a very nicely designed website. https://faithfm.com.au/

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I remember that posted at the time, a good read then and again now. Great that Nathan has found a way to have council assist rather than block his plans.

@Ant5476 I agree with @ozbark, take it easy well after symptoms appear to subside. Best wishes, hope you feel well soon. Let us know how your recovery is going.

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Noted today for the first time (on 88.0MHz).
Looking at their website they’ve only provided the one green dot for Sydney (Penrith Area).

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Yes hearing it too here in Stanhope Gardens.
Feeling much better and recovering from COVID, and will be back to work tomorrow, just the lingering COVID cough.

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I drive to Central Coast every day for work… just noticed Newy 87.8 in Newcastle can now be heard in Gosford CBD, they must have another transmitter there

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According to their website, they seem to have setup their transmitter at Somersby, which would cover Gosford CBD. They also have a transmitter at The Entrance & Tumbi Umbi.

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Another of those 16kW LPONs is it?

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It doesn’t seem powerful as you only start picking it up near Gosford. And when you drive North it cuts out for a short period then you pick them up near Tumbi. I can also hear it on parts of the M1

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They have licences all around Gosford on 87.8. I assume it would be one of these.

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One of these on well over licensed power.

There is no proof of that. I would argue height is might, and if located at a high spot with line of sight to the reception area, it is certainly possible to cover achieve what is expereienced. As an amateur radio operator myself, I can confirm using just a watt of ERP at an elevated location can work wonders.

There’s many transmitters across the Central Coast on 87.8, most or all are owned by the same person (Dianne Maree Nacson) & had something else on them previously (but I can’t remember what right now?).

Yes height might get 1W a long way, but going by where the Somersby transmitter is supposedly located (west side of the F3/M1 Freeway, closer to the Somersby interchange than the commercial FM transmitter sites), at 1W it’s unlikely to get into Gosford CBD due to the surrounding terrain, it could be coming in there from the Tumbi Umbi transmitter, but even that’s unlikely due to terrain. There’s a transmitter on the waterfront at Koolewong, that would probably be get into the Gosford CBD coming straight up the Brisbane Water, though it may even be blocked by the lands around Tascott & I’m not even sure if this one would have Newy 87.8 or something else on it?
I’m also not sure what they are saying about listening at The Entrance, there’s no licenced transmitters on 87.8 around there, Tumbi Umbi will probably get into The Entrance, but not sure, the next closest one is up at Gorokan/Lake Haven, that could possibly get into The Entrance as there’s nothing really blocking it across the Tuggerah Lake, but it’s site is only low (not much relative height above lake water level) & it’s quite a distance to get 1W with no transmit height & again not sure if this would have Newy 87.8 or something else on it?

I’m back in Newcastle full time now & haven’t needed to go to CoastFM for a while, so haven’t traveled through, or had time to take a drive around the Central Coast to test things, so it’s all just guess work knowing where the 87.8 transmitters are (supposedly) & the terrain around the Central Coast & how & where the higher powered community & commercial stations have problems.

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As far as I know, Dianne Maree Nacson is Angelo’s wife (correct me if I’m wrong), so those are licences that he uses. I vaguely remember there being one of his 87.8s around Toukley a few years ago that would reach almost to Morisset, causing 3ABN’s signal to only reach half its distance (only about 1km) before significant interference on the south side of Morisset toward Wyee. That transmitter is no longer running though.

Talking about terrain and reaching further than one would expect, in my observations, it’s quite common for people to go significantly over 1W to reach as far as they can, or put the transmitter on a hill to go further or over terrain but still stay at 1W. Many times it’s technically in violation of the distance rules for LPONs though.

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A good example of that is Kurrajong Heights where a 1.64w LPON can cover over 30Kms.
550m above the Hawkesbury plains does the trick.

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Thats even if ACMA can enforce that, it’s another story all together

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Its all about the inverse square law.

Inverse Square Law states that your signal will decrease by 6db (one quarter of your signal) everytime your distance doubles.

Ok so now for some math…

Assumptions:
Most FM radios (particularly car radios), will be able to receive a radio signal equal to or greater than about 20db.

1 watt LPONs are allowed 48db at 2km, whereas 10 watt LPONs are allowed 48db at 10km from the antenna. There are mix of both types licenced in Australia.

So for the inverse square law to work we need line of sight (LOS) between the transmitting antenna and receiver (LOS for FM radio can handle a few trees but no hills or mountains in the way). Therefore, if we take a 1 watt LPON and pop it on a hill or mountain with LOS to its receivers/listeners, here what we could expect in terms of received signals:
2km - 48db
4km - 42db
8km - 36db
16km - 30db
32km - 24db

Therefore, its very possible for a 1 watt LPON to be heard at 32km LOS distance from the transmitter/antenna site.

The ACMA promotes LPONs as only providing 2km of coverage, whereas using a little math we find that this figure can be extended out to > 32km under the right conditions.

LPON operators are often falsely accused of running big power, however the reality is, they dont need to, they just need LOS from a hill or mountain and the signal will go far.

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Thanks for the explanation, I can see now how the 1W River fm LPON from Kurrajong Heights can cover 35Km quite easily. However I still believe it may be over ERP possibly 10w as it is received better then some of the TCL’s from Kurrajong Heights which are at 25w in my direction.

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As you’ve pointed out, the ACMA only gives a 1W LPON 2km of coverage, because LPON’s aren’t interference protected, & as you’ve pointed out (or I’m about to), 48dB at 2km is under the standard reception level for reliable, interference free reception, which is 54dB measured with an antenna at 10m above ground level (using a calibrated signal measuring device).

Of course a car radio can pull in signal levels reliably, well below this level while mobile, as they’re designed to do this, but a fixed (home) or portable consumer grade receiver isn’t designed to pull in weak signals.

54dB is the minimum signal level recommended for reliable, mobile (car) radio reception, 66dB is the minimum recommended signal level for reliable fixed (home) radio reception & AMCA won’t guarantee a broadcast licence (Community or Commercial) to be interference free, unless it has licensed power levels high enough, to have receive levels in all or most of their coverage area above 66dB.

If a broadcast station has receive levels below 66dB in parts of their coverage area under normal operation, ACMA can’t guarantee it won’t receive interference from another broadcasting station nearby on the same frequency. (Such as Rhema FM Central Coast on 94.9).

All this is of course talking FM Radio reception, AM radio, DTV & DAB+ (digital radio) levels for reliable reception vary from this.

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I was trying to find some more information on the 2KA narrowcast licences, particularly broadcast sites, and it appears that these licences are also own by noise fm who also own the 87.6 River fm Narrowcast.

The closest sites for 87.8 2KA appear to be Bowen Mt and Mt Riverview.

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