There’s something not quite right with that proposal?
I’m pretty sure sure the FM antenna at the TXA-T site was replaced 12-18 months ago, it was done literally weeks before TXA replaced the community side mount at Artarmon, so it aint going to be moved or replaced again.
Also where’s B105 on that proposal, they use the same antenna as Triple M?
Nova have just left all the TXA sites, & installed new TX’s at the BAI sites, they’re not going to move to TXA-T site anytime in the next 10-15 years.
ARN (97.3) replaced TX’s about 2 years ago & I’m pretty sure they stayed at the BAI site, TXA got their old TX’s in Sydney as spares/backup for community stations, so again they won’t be going to TXA-T site any time soon.
I’d always assumed that B105 and Triple M were always on the 170m stack on the Ch10 site?? I’m trying to find my photos of the 10 site…didn’t even know there was a FM stack half way up?
I don’t think there is or ever was, here’s a photo from about 2011, there’s 2 antennas but they’re not that far apart & one was main with other as backup. After the antenna replacement a couple of years ago, there’d now be one larger antenna array split into upper & lower stack.
The submissions were supporting 2ST’s move to convert to FM, whilst most are opposing a 3rd commercial licence to be issued. One particular submission that stood out was one from Southern Broadcasters, who are looking to start-up a new commercial radio service.
In that submission, there’s an interesting anecdote by a proprietor of an auto group in South Nowra, where 150 cars came through its service department per day, in which one found that most of its radios were tuned to either i98FM from Wollongong or ABC Illawarra.
It’s worth noting that at around the Nowra area, i98FM (& Wave FM) comes in almost as strongly as the local Power FM, considering that they transmit from the same tower at Knights Hill. According to ACMA, in the direction of Nowra, i98 & Wave transmit at an ERP of 20kW, whilst Power transmit at 50kW.
In the old days, there was value of tuning to Wave FM down in the Shoalhaven, as it was musically very different from Power FM, as well as 2ST to an extent, which the latter was mostly available on AM before the 91.7 translator was set-up in the mid-2000s, and had a more easy listening-skew. But since Wave FM is now musically the same as Power FM (in which they have the same log on weekends), there’s now no point.
On the other hand, there is still some value on tuning to i98 down in the Shoalhaven. In fact, the other day, I noticed that the station mentioned a current temp for Nowra, even though it’s not in their licence area.
It’s interesting that the ACMA states it’s their policy to have all commercial broadcasters on the same playing field, but yet they’ve been issuing licences recently with significantly different conditions to older licences, e.g.:
The Edge vs 2LT and Move FM
Power FM vs 2ST
2BS vs Brock
Also, that they asked for the ABC’s input on whether they intended to convert any of the four RN licences in the area to FM, but no submission was received from the ABC.
I’m surprised Grant/CRA didn’t mention the overspill competition into the market also as an argument about diversity and fragmentation.
Wave FM in the 90s use to provide the forecasts for Nowra. From experience in the 90s, on my portable radios you got overload from ABC Local Radio with i98 and Wave FM (with ABC Fine Music also impacting it too, later JJJ with i98 FM). In the car it was still fine but wasn’t as clean stereo compared to Power FM.
I found the decision to use Knights for Wollongong FM radio to be unusual. I would of used Broker Nose. Power FM is more complex given the way 2ST will have repeater at Kiama as well, so it probably is more logical to put it on Knights Hill. I am sure Broker Nose provides good reception to Kiama, maybe in parts better where the hugs the hill around the ocean.
It’s a shame there aren’t more AM radios with adjustable bandwidth since most are limited to around 6 kHz, meaning a lot of the signal that’s broadcast simply isn’t heard. Here’s a clip from my SDR showing how much of the broadcast is lost on regular AM radio receivers and how much better AM can sound when a wider bandwidth is used:
Most people only hear about the first 3 kHz of frequency response when the broadcast has up to about 10 kHz. For comparison, FM goes up to about 15 or 16 kHz.
I decided to try recording the FM baseband (i.e. recording every station at the same time from 96.5 MHz to 105.5 MHz) to compare the different news bulletins. This was captured at 9am this morning. I’ll try doing one this evening and with AM as well.
I haven’t included in the clip the stations that were just playing ads or music at the time.
2LT seemed to be having some sort of tropo co-channel. Unfortunately, 100.1/100.3/100.7/104.3 can only be received more clearly when I use a narrower bandwidth and tweak the gain settings (which I can’t, since I was recording an 9 MHz block).
I did a bandscan of one of the lesser-known bands with broadcast stations (VHF NAS). I was able to receive 20 stations broadcasting around the Sydney area:
My attempt at trying to figure out what these stations are:
151.45 MHz - 2VNR (Vietnamese) [Hurstville]
151.675 MHz - Radio Symban (Greek) [Hurlstone Park]
151.85 MHz - Galaxias Greek Radio [Lakemba]
151.9 MHz - Unknown [Not listed in ACMA Radcom]
151.925 MHz - 2MM (Greek) [Lakemba]
151.975 MHz - Radio Navtarang (Hindi) [Pennant Hills]
152 MHz - Australian Oriental Radio (Mandarin) [Sydney CBD]
152.05 MHz - Voice of Charity (Christian) [Horsley Park]
152.075 MHz - 2CR China Radio Network (Cantonese/Mandarin) [Sydney CBD]
152.125 MHz - Greek? [Heckenberg]
152.225 MHz - 2AC Mandarin [Sydney CBD]
152.25 MHz - 2AC Cantonese [Sydney CBD]
152.3 MHz - Australian Tamil Broadcasting Corporation [Pennant Hills]
152.325 MHz - Radio Gefira (Greek) [Belmore]
152.425 MHz - Voice of Charity (Christian) [Sydney CBD]
173.35 MHz - The Voice of Islam (Arabic) [Lakemba]
173.375 MHz - Austral Radio (Spanish) [Mount Pritchard]
173.425 MHz - The Voice of Islam (Arabic) [Horsley Park]
173.7 MHz - QK Radio (Arabic) [Horsley Park]
173.75 MHz - QK Radio (Arabic) [Sydney CBD]
. That guy in Adelaide wow what a mess! You know its 2020 when one guy can shut down a city.