What locations can you receive Noise FM 87.8 (dance)? Im getting a lot of interference from radio austral around Northwest Sydney.
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Stanhope Gardens on my dx setup, and car radio, but very noisy stereo on the hifi.
Both 87.6 and 87.8 were much stronger in the past. I wonder if they were previously over ERP?
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Iām going past Stanhope Gardens later this arvo so iāll do some DXing on 87.8 on both the car radio and ye olde Tecsun S2000 and see what the signal is like.
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To provide more accurate reception, along Sentry Drive with LOS to the west Noise fm is dominant but weak. In the car park of Stanhope Gardens shopping centre Radio Austral is received instead of Noise fm.
I was out Box Hill way this morning for work, and the signal was weak there too, our work trucks radios are not very good for pulling in weak fm signals.
I am assuming 87.8 2KA was previously used at a higher site, if North Richmond then that explains why the signal is weak here.
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Iāll try at the trusty water tower, and Iāve found exactly here: https://goo.gl/maps/nf2wQwxTXiHxzJai8 parked facing up the street is perfect for receiving Bathurst radio, specifically B Rock FM 99.3
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My favorite dx spot for western and southern signals.
Radio Austral have just cranked up the power on 87.8, now can only get Radio Austral on the car radio. Can only now just get Noise underneath the CCI with my dx. Living up to its name!!!
Edit, they must be playing around with the power as Noise is back stronger than before on my dx setup, or some ducting??? I think I would be receiving from the higher Mountain Lagoon site,. BTW they are playing some decent dance music, stuff you would hear on UK radio.
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ACMAās mapper is pretty decent hereā¦ on the lower parts, they have (or are supposed to have) 1W spots for 87.8 at East Kurrajong [close enough to North Richmond but more up the Putty Road than up Bellās Line], Lower Portland and Colo Heights.
Further up, Bilpin and Mount Wilson, with a spot at Mountain Lagoon [east of the Bilpin one; 3rd on the left] where the licence is supposed to have expired last month.
Sites for 87.8 to the west of Katoomba (at Hartley and Portland, ie. both around 10 km from Lithgow) not shown.
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The location of the Mountains transmitters also explains why I got ā87.8 2KAā (as it was) okay at the foot of the mountains once, but when you go around the end-of-M4 hairpin between Lapstone and Glenbrook, the hill it goes around absolutely kills it and itās all Radio Austral for that half a kilometre or so of road. 
Not for too long though; Radio Austral disappeared by Glenbrook itself. Few months ago, canāt exactly remember when though.
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The drop in signal level of Radio Austral 87.8MHz (SW Sydney) fault persists.
Every 1hr+ or so the signal level drops significantly for a period of 10-15minutes.
Itās a sudden drop & resumption in RF power fault.
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That makes sense, and would explain the power flucations and increased CCI to Noise fm.
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Hi all just been listening to a local MF NAS/ LPON network up in my home town and not sure what the legality is of what is been broadcast.
It is a mix of Music, the odd voice tracked break here and there and the part that I not sure would be allowed is Anti COVID 19 and Anti Vaccine Propaganda that sounds like has come from Facebook and YouTubeā¦
What is the legality of broadcasting anti vaccination / Anti COVID contentā¦ Surely Narrowcasters would be held to some sort of decency rules like Commercial broadcasters are??
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Without hearing the content it smells like a potential breach of the ANRA Codes of Practice, particularly codes 1.2 and 1.3.
https://www.acma.gov.au/publications/2019-10/rules/anra-codes-practice-open-narrowcast-radio
Do you know who the licencee is?
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Thanks for the link and the info
Reading that document on the ACMA website I definitely feel they would be in breach of
"1.2 Narrowcasters will present accurate and fair news and current affairs programs, and where practicable will ensure that:
(a) factual material will be clearly distinguished from commentary, analysis"
Yes I personally know them and have done for a number of years, but been that I no longer live in my home town I donāt have that much to do with them except the other day when I dropped in to mention some issues with their narrowcast stations modulation levels and occupied bandwidth, and I also mentioned that the content might not exactly be allowed.
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It hadnāt, but the SCA complaint against FAB FM made me curious, so i submitted a FOI request, and just got a reply back a few days ago from ACMA, it was Orange Community Broadcasters. i believe the dynamic happening here is that community broadcasters are regulated more thoroughly, where lpons are just simply restricted.
Usually community radio stations broadcast with about 200w to 250w erp, while lpons broadcast with 10w or less, so still seems somewhat ridiculous that acma would take such a complaint seriously, as the community station has a much more superior power output then the LPON.
I just find complaints regarding formats and program styles are way open to much interpretation, while erp power is a more defined technical characteristic. If the LPON were broadcasting over their power restrictions, then the community broadcasterās complaint may have had some credibility.
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Had some credibility? Broadcasting a community radio format on a narrowcast license is a clear licence breach - no matter who has the most broadcast power.
You clearly have an axe to grind against ACMA, but the reality is that they enforce the Broadcasting Services Act and (for the most part) do a reasonable job. If you donāt like the limitations on narrowcast licences, lobby your local MP/s to change the Act.
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No, I just have a disllike toward people, government agencies, companies, or whoever, who completely contradict their own rules and regulations.
Because putting aside the whether it be a community or LPON or whatever, 2YOU is finding itself at the end of a similar complaint to One Central West. They operate on different license tiers, yet seem to find themselves at the end of complaints of having a too broad format.
If one breaks down the complaints lobbied at 2YOU, and then look how HOPE 103.2 operate (public having access to broadcast on station) then they are discrepancies considering they are both community broadcasters.
The idea of a community broadcaster is a member of the public can pay and join up with a membership and then hop on the air, this is what community broadcasting is about, well thatās what I think it should be about. If the situation is that 2YOU is a closed shop, then such a criticism is fare enough, then why isnāt HOPE 103.2 also looked into for the same reasons.
On the other hand if they are reasons why HOPE 103.2 doesnāt want to just put volunteers to air (they must have their reasons), then 2YOU should be allowed the same discretion. One canāt treat one entity different to the other, whenever it suits.
If the rules are the rules, then so it be it, they should be applied consistently. Unfortunately every town and city has different broadcast environments, thus stations are going to fill in different needs and gaps left by other services. With this theyāre going to be several different broadcasters with different programming styles, so passing judgement on what one station should do to an exact regulated ruling is more then highly probable to being viewed as not exactly in the precise scope of what is desired, because itās always going to be interpreted differently from varying people.
I get the impression that ACMA wants to have a very clear defined blue print on what exactly goes to air on each service, in reality thatās not possible. They are always going to be some delineations and in my opinion, reprimanding LPONs and Comunity Stations for such silly minor breaches in a rather hostile fashion doesnāt exactly create good energy.
Thatās what Iāve been doing. Whether it will change anything, I donāt know.
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@dxnerd Yes i had a listen to 87.6 GTFM Bombala todayā¦ Good music (90s rock), but yep way too mainstream to be a narrowcast, particularly with SNOW and XLFM on air in town.
Is stereo too with good sound quality, suspect its more than 1 watt as I could get it 15 kms away in Cathcart.
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Snow and XL have very few (if any) advertising dollars in Bombala so I doubt they care much. The greater sin in narrowcasting is not providing hyperlocal contentā¦GT FMās previous owner provided some of that.
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This is probably best suited here as it is Narrowcast, but didnāt know whether to post in Newcastle Radio?
Supercars track radio is on 96.1MHz at the Newcastle 500, not sure they did their due diligence prior to choosing this frequency, they really shouldāve used 91.7MHz while itās still clear.
I tuned the car radio into 96.1 while heading in to the track yesterday, & CADA was just so strong, I could get track radio patchy around Merewether, but even going through The Junction & The Hill/Cooks Hill areas, CADA was still fighting with it, I had my little Sangean pocket radio with me & at the top end of the track near the police station (top of Watt St) it was okay but not the best, down the hill on the East side along Newcastle Beach, it was quite noisy, the only real places it was good, was around the bottom of the track, along the pit straight, in the centre of the circuit behind the pits & over towards Nobbys Beach, the transmitter is on the Newcastle Port building (more or less at the exit of the hairpin corner). Sorry I didnāt take any pics, the antenna is just mounted on a pole on the upstairs verandah handrail, & is your average folded Dipole FM antenna mounted vertically.
Given itās licensed for 50W OD & protected above 66 dBuV/m, if it really is running at that, it shouldāve traveled a lot further out & been much better around the track. With that power & protection level, on a better frequency, Iād have expected to be able to get it on the car at least around Adamstown Heights, probably even around Charlestown, & maybe even further South if you stayed close to the coast. https://web.acma.gov.au/rrl/licence_image.extract_pdf?pLICENCE_NO=11943249/1
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