The whistle would be a heterodyne caused by the slight difference in frequency between the AM synchros. You can still here heterodynes (‘hets’) when a weak US station is present next to a 9 kHz channel (1070/1071 is an example). There is also a het on 612 caused by 610 kHz Vietnam.
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at night here in Melbourne 4QO/4QB can be heard over the local community station 3CR even near its studios in Fitzroy.
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I don’t know if anyone is interested in any more old radio bumper stickers but here’s a couple from 2BL, back when each city’s ABC station had its own identity and image… none of this bland ‘one size fits all’ branding that they do now.
1986
1988
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4QO started in 1965. I’m surprised that in the at least 10 years before the change of frequency due to the introduction of 9 kHz spacing that something wasn’t done to fix the heterodyne whistle. I wonder why it was ever decided to have two MW stations on the same frequency as that option would have suited other ABC stations that always carried the same program and freed up frequencies.
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I remember when it happened @Rossco . Though my memory can be fuzzy sometimes! So I’ve now checked. The SMH death notice the day after Wayne Hutchings died, and the 2GB lineup for that week also from the SMH.
Of note in that 2GB lineup is Peter Anderson, a former Labor politician who lost pre-selection and his seat at that year’s election. 2GB tried a few former politicians in those years, including the very dull Michael Yabsley.
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Galaxy Pay TV- there’s nothing more 1995 than that. Except for perhaps a polaroid of a bill poster for a Eurodance rave party in Intencity Hurstville.
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Yes, put an AM radio near a CRT and you will get a high pitched whistling interference. (Pretty much anything with give interference on MW 
). But this was a different type of thing, it was present no matter where the radio was located and how good the reception.
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Thanks for this, I wasn’t exactly sure but I seem to remember Malcolm actually telling me the story, maybe it was somebody else as Malcolm was even with 2GB at the time
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Has anyone noticed that any aircheck from the late 1990s onwards pretty much sounds the same in terms of production?
I was listening to an aircheck from Wild FM in Sydney in 1997 at a friend’s place. It sounded like something that could have been recorded yesterday, I am dead serious.
I suppose the advent of everything being computer controlled and digital has basically meant that radio production has reached its pinnacle and there really isn’t much that can change other than music.
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4SS had already converted to FM (under Randell Ferris’s ownership) when RG Capital purchased it and the Bli Bli site was not part of the sale to RGC… the main 4SS 828 transmitter (Harris DX10) was sold to 6SE Esperance WA.
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This was caused by both QO and QB transmitters pre the 9 KHz change “free-running” so to speak, when the change occurred PMG broadcast added a rubidium standard to both QO & QD so the transmitter oscillators were synced together using a common reference… in later years they are now use a GPS reference to keep both locked along with delay / timing of the audio, same sort of thing used for a DTV Single Frequency Network or SFN.
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The 855kHz signals were in quite well the other evening into Coffs Harbour. I was getting both stations because the audio sounded like it was in a tunnel.
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Thanks for the info, clarifies a lot 
I guess the question that had to be asked though was why two stations were on an effective SFN in the first place? Just seems unnecessary, I can’t imagine there was that much shortage of channel space to accommodate them both?
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Sitting in the cupboard at 4AK Studios as a spare, either to be used for 4WK should the card it has in it fails or for 4AK should we get our hands in a BE after one of the NSW stations convert to FM
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The main problem there would’ve been because of the ground conductivity, being all or a large proportion of sand, even though there is probably an underlying water table in the sand.
As sand doesn’t conduct electricity (RF) very well & being AM/MW, the ground half of the wave (from the Earth mat) which normally holds (attracts), the above ground half of the wave to the surface of the earth would be weak, thus the above ground half of the wave would drift upwards towards a sky wave, & reduce the overall signal strength, so the received signal would be more susceptible to any other electrical interference at a much lower level.
2NX & even 2WL being so close in frequency wasn’t really the issue for 2GO, though it did make things worse, the main problem was the 1323 frequency was only 2kW & the TX site at Ourimbah was less than ideal, with ground conductivity & being right at the base of the hill essentially in a hole with the area surrounded by hills back into Gosford CBD & to the North, South & West, that’s why the 1323 signal didn’t get out very far.
But moving the TX to Chittaway Bay & going to 5kW they had to change frequencies also as 1323 may have interfered with 2NX on 1341.
Yes 2WL would’ve caused some grief in parts of the Central Coast to the 2GO 1323 frequency, it wasn’t a major problem/cause (see my other comment).
You are so correct with the move to 801 & it booming into Newcastle, back in the day a lot of people in Newcastle listened to 2GO on 801 like as you say one of the local stations, unfortunate with subsequent broadcasters using the site, the coverage deteriorated a lot as the site upkeep got left to minimal or no maintenance. One thing with SEN now taking over the site, they’ve restored the coverage to back as it was in it’s prime, unfortunately with the now higher noise floor, it’s no longer as good as it was in Newcastle, but still almost like a local.
Funny thing is that the 2GO studio in Henry Parry Drive Gosford, never had a good off air signal from either site, 801 was better at the studio than 1323, but still not good enough for engineering monitoring, studio off air monitoring for 2GO on 801 was done by having an off air receiver at the TX site, & then they fed the output of that back to the studio over a landline link.
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Sorry for the non-engineer question. Is this because of the modern world wifi and mobiles? Or more to do with SEN setup?
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Modern world, electrical noise, power line insulators & transformers, electronic lights & other equipment, switch mode power supplies, etc. general RFI noise.
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Some more vintage ABC logos, this time from Adelaide’s 5AN
1986
1988
1989 – all Local Radio, ABC FM and Radio National stations and ABC TV adopted this style nationally.
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Abandoned Sydney delivers again!
(Image credit: Jen Tapley)
Found in the abandoned Balmain Leagues Club.
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At 12.00am, 30 years ago (24 June 1990), 3TT on 1026 became TTFM on 101.1
The last song on TT was Listen To The Music by the Doobie Brothers (which was also the first song played on 3TT when it began in 1988)
The first song on TTFM was In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins
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