This is just speculation, but I believe it’s the operator of Hawkesbury Gold, “Jason Stead” who is doing this, he has full control over the transmitter and would be able to modify things like the RDS and output, and if it was hacked he could just turn it off.
I would say that maybe ACMA have rejected his license, (His transmitter info has been sitting in a rejected status on the ACMA database), and so is having a bit of a dummy spit.
Jesus christ… is the music explicit or just heavy metal?.. because if explicit he could find himself in more trouble, like court related trouble. I’m inclined to lodge a complaint myself even though I’m not in the area.
Has 89.9 been totally removed from the Hawksbury now or is someone else supposed to be on right now?
EDIT: Listening on tunein to Hawksbury radio all seems normal. Are they just continuing on stream while this happens on the FM?
Its explicit, some themes would be not appropriate for radio, for example some of the lyrics referred to rape and violence.
Community radio can play Explicit content however it still need to meet guidelines, from the CBAA Guidelines website:
We will attempt to avoid censorship where possible. However, in our programming decisions
we will consider our community interest, context, degree of explicitness, the possibility of
alarming the listener, the potential for distress or shock, prevailing Indigenous laws or
community standards and the social importance of the broadcast.
Starter FM (My Station) would play content uncensored but it would have warnings/be abiding within the CBAA guidelines.
Pulse FM Hawkesbury will on at 12, so it be interesting to see of GOLD/FUKUFM switches off at that time.
Yes Hawkesbury Radio still is broadcasting normally online and goes to air at 12pm Thursday to 12pm Saturday.
Ah, lets see if they stop at 12 or keep going just to piss everyone off… pardon the language… Hawksbury Gold’s stream is as normal though.
Edit: Did they switch?
Yes went off air at 12, Pulse FM is on air now.
WHCR has returned but not using his own transmitter
It’s beaming into my area… haven’t heard it sound this alright in ages… sounds better than when HR is on air I must admit
Interesting. Thanks @Alex_Aliheim for the feedback on this. 
I did some measurements & it does appear to be their same transmitter, but
looking at current ACMA data & comparing to what was the case earlier in the year they appear to have changed their transmitter site from Grass Ski Centre Bells Line of Rd or Warks Hill Road to either Archibold Hotel (Standby site) or most likely the Transgrid Tower site.
I too noted a much better signal from Vibe (WHCR/Vibe always appeared to be same signal levels & characteristics) this evening.
I’m guessing they’ve finally changed sites or maybe increased power or both.
You guys would know more than me.
Reception isn’t as strong here as Hawkesbury Radio though.
Is Vibe/WHCR still transmitting RDS these days? It’s never strong enough at home to detect & still not.
With all these different sites for the different TCBL operators, I’m wondering how the coverage compares across Sydney? Would @Ant5476 be interested in plugging these tx powers & 89.9 Hawkesbury TCBL sites into his RF Coverage Map app?
Port Stephens FM 100.9 not running any RDS at the moment.
Not for a while, last time they used RDS was about 2 years ago… when they were associated with Hawkesbury Gold.
I don’t crack out the SDR toolkit all to often to check,…
I’ve always been curious tho, is the PI code of an RDS set by the transmitter manufacturer, or can someone who knows what they are doing spoof it?
Thanks for that.
PI code is a software & end user definable code for RDS Encoders or for the transmitters with in-built RDS encoders via software via appropriate interface comm ports.
So in answer to question, yes anyone (with basic training) could spoof someone else’s transmitter with same RDS PI code & with same other (basic) RDS ‘Group’ data, but only in terms of RDS.
On 94.1: Pulse FM (Illawara) & Today’s Country (Central Coast) carry the same PI code, that must play havoc with the memory & displays on some vehicle radio tuners I could imagine…?
Triple J from Sunshine Coast strong enough to decode RDS tonight in Brisbane.
Funny that, when I was on the Sunshine Coast recently, I couldn’t get it to appear anywhere (on the car radio or my Sony radio).
Some enhancement from the north again now and RDS is again seen on Triple J 89.5 but I don’t know how looking at the spectrum there is little evidence of any spikes at 57kHz
This is Sea FM 91.9 by comparison.
Yup, there’s definitely no 57kHz subcarrier RDS carrier there… Have you tried different SDR’s, SDR software, RDS decoding software? Even with weak signals & “iffy” RDS decoding you’ll see the RDS carrier before any RDS decoding occurs.
I wonder if this is some kind of receiver generated or TX generated spur from 107.7 Brisbane? How does Triple J 89.5 source its program feed?
Those spikes appear to be in the 70 kilohertz range
Enhanced reception again from the north tonight but at a higher level.
Triple J 89.5 RDS using different software
You can see the notches at 57 tonight
Interesting, I’ve never seen this this…
When was that updated?
This is new.
100.9 2BAC - Connect FM (Sydney)
I’ve only ever seen the RDS of 100.9 Bankstown when they’ve activated their
standby transmitter & usually when that happens the transmitter just runs a backup music source.
However today it’s live programming on 100.9 with new RDS. Wonder if it’s a new transmitter or standby transmitter running live programming? Either case, they’ve
updated their RDS data, includes new PI code, PS & RT. They’ve also dropped their use of PTYN.
Re CAMS & Archibold Hotel site
A quick peak at ACMA data shows May 2nd, 2022 for both of CAMS services.
I vaguely recall someone saying here on Media Spy that during the floods, access to one of the usual transmitter sites wasn’t possible & a hotel site was used. Was it this one?
Great spot to broadcast out of if you could get an 1/4 dipole on the hotel… I have no clue who is involved with WHCR/Cams, or how they even operate… or every time I contacted Ralph Heness this so called chairperson of cams… and the same old response “your gonna have to talk to Joe”
Every time that group was contacted all the community got back in return was nothing but silence or a demand from the “figurehead(s)” to other community groups in the Hawkesbury… saying they have to do this or they have to do that, money from sponsorships this or pay me money for that… 
All I know is when I offered him a show when I first got involved in community he didn’t want to know about it…
Cams/WHCR ever since @TheChase left has been no one else on air but Joe with his drive show a country show a hot 30 that’s … and a female voice who gets on vibe and reads out what’s going on at the library… and it sounds like it had been recorded earlier and played out between the music…
It’s just always been automated music and Joe…
It’s been quite a farce indeed lol
I’m lost - what’s the schedule for the Hawkesbury broadcasters again?
