An SDR radio is one option. Can easily tune in the frequencies and switch to narrow FM.
I use a SDR at the moment but I was more thinking something more user friendly like something an old person would be able to use.
I canāt think of the last time I saw one of these. Often they are modified radios, often modified to only receive the one channel. Such radioās are usually purchased by the radio stationās themselves from memory. To the best of my knowledge all these VHF NAS stations in the 151 & 172MHz NAS Band are all foreign language broadcasters. Mainly dominated by Greek, Arabic, Chinese broadcasters with some other language group stations broadcasting in Hindi, Vietnamese, Tamil etc.
You could ask someone at one of these stations.
Have you thought about purchasing a desktop scanner? They would cover those NAS VHF frequencies & FM (but canāt recall any that do mediumwave). Uniden & other brands come to mind re scanners. Itās not a field of radio that Iāve kept upto date with.
I should importantly add:- The NAS stations on 151 / 172MHz only use Narrowband FM. The audio quality is only intended for speech. 25kHz bandwidth. Music sounds horrible.
I know Double J can be a bit eclectic at times, but Iāve discovered some of my favourite new artists on there. A lot of very talented musicians are completely ignored by both commercial radio and Triple J, so Double J provides some much-needed exposure.
I do get where youāre coming from - they could spin more lost classics from the '70s and '80s in addition to new material. However, I feel that playing Dua Lipa and Harry Styles would be a bridge too far. You can tune into any commercial station in Australia and hear them
Iāve seen various radios these NAS operators have sold:
- A handheld unit that looks like a scanner and has preset buttons for ā1ā, ā2ā, ā3ā for the different frequencies they operate on - it also has channel up/down buttons for going through the other NAS frequencies run by other operators.
- A normal-looking desktop radio, but on the band toggle has AM/FM/NAS instead of just AM/FM. AM/FM was rotary tuning but the NAS band had a toggle for the three frequencies.
- A car transmitter that rebroadcasts the signal onto the FM band, again with a toggle between the various frequencies they operate on. The FM frequency it broadcast onto was fixed (~91 MHz - but it drifts up and down). Driving around Iāve scanned into a few of these at various times on my car radio.
This be what I was after ultimately.
Has anyone been to Port Lincoln? It looks a good place for DXing.
I wonder if Adelaide come in like a local station even if it is over 600 kms away by road.
I think the last time I went to South Australia was 1991 and that was only Adelaide.
Mt Lofty to Port Lincoln is approx 260km by a straight line, so it would be a bit of a stretch to receive them like a local station in normal conditions.
At least the local āclassic hitsā station, 5CC, is now available on FM.
yeah depends on the Peninsula (how hilly it would be) between Port Lincoln & Adelaide. I probably should look at a topography map.
It looks like a pretty cool place to visit some day and do some radio dxing.
I was there on new yearās eve/day one year. Clear, consistent Adelaide FMs from car radio at all times, only dropping off when went NW towards Coffin Bay.
No signal in Whyalla, however, came in gently from Cowell and consistent as the highway hugs closer to the coast from Port Gibbon south.
It was some time ago and I was most impressed, one of the Adelaide stations was running a local summer drive show, it was good quality talent, show sounded good. We need that investment level back again for people to engage with radio.
Port Lincoln has/had many homes and commercial businesses with the SA ubiquitous three legged towers or high guyed masts for Adelaide TV, phased array band III. About one in three with a three element band III for Adelaide FM.
AM bounces across well. The ABCs at Pimpala and commercials at Wingfield and Parafield are of good quality in Port Lincoln. As is AM 765 in Adelaide, extremely relieved 5CC will not be turned off unlike the loss of 5MU 1125.
Thanks Cranky by look at the map I guessed about the same. It pretty cool how the land goes out to the sea like that. Peninsulas are great spots often for scenery and also for DXing. I remember the Beecroft Peninsula down in Jervis Bay is a good spot. However nothing like the tip of the Eyre Peninsula.
Iād proffer that Adelaide FM is permanent into the SE Eyre Peninsula, particularly with an outdoor antenna. Signal strengths would vary through the year and would be lower in winter/spring when cold SWālies dominate.
Like you I havenāt been to that part of the world; itās on the to do list.
Not sure where to put it but 2LT on 104.9 in Temora has minor distortion.
I think you meant 2LF.
Almost unlistenable last time I heard it.
According to my mate 1611 am in Darwin is back to playing the continuous VAST music loop. The licence still seems to be held by SEN. Doesnāt seem to be the best business model to waste money on a station playing a continuous loop that nobody would listen to.
The Hobart SEN service was playing SBS Chill (from memory) for agesā¦Still is I think
SEN doesnāt have a Tassie station, does it?
Yes, itās on 1629kHz. And I have just found another on 1611kHzā¦
There is also a Tasmanian Stream on the app.
1629 was carrying SBS Chill or similarā¦
https://web.acma.gov.au/rrl/assignment_search.lookup?pEFL_ID=7785364