Random Radio

No they might not want to, but that’s irrelevant. The regulator is (supposedly) in charge and should be ultimately working for the benefit of the listener (ie taxpayer).

Frequencies should where possible be within set ranges like they have for years in the UK. Eg. BBC Radio 2 is 88 - 91FM across the country.

I’ll be interested to see the outcome of the LAP reviews scheduled for early this year in Brisbane and Perth. I won’t hold my breath of course but surely any re-stack could accommodate stations like 96FM in Perth still being 96 point “something”. Similarly Hit 105 in Brisbane.

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Is there a technical reason in todays setup why that is optimal to have bandplan at odd? More out of my curiosity. The logic would be newsradio for example it could be on 98.2 on the central coast and say 98.0 for power fm in upper hunter. I98 would remain on 98.1. Lots of examples where it might help to some extent with limiting interference. Lake macq fm could be 97.4 fm which will help them too.

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True, but I think there are other suitable options that still fit the current spacings

E.g.
Power FM Muswellbrook could go to 97.9
Lake Macquarie FM to 89.5

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I would have made it a condition of participating in the transition of stations from AM to FM in regional areas - if a radio network benefits from that, their stations have to be involved in any band restructure.

Add community/national/narrowcast radio to that and you’d be able to effectively replan most of the band.

The sale of new licenses would offset any reasonable amount of compensation for forced moves.

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It’s pretty much like that, becasue that’s the way it is around the rest of the world, some places in Europe use even frequencies, & NZ after their restack use entirely even freqencies?

Standard channel spacing is 800kHz apart or 0.8MHz.

Standard FM channels are 200kHz wide, your theory on frequency use (as example given) wouldn’t work though, as both channels would butt up to one another, (top channel frequency on one would butt against bottom frequncy of the upper channel, with no guard space). Transmissions would have to be tightly monitored, & enforced to the limit of 75kHz deviation, which very few stations currently adhere to. If you go over 75kHz deviation your channel gets wider than 200kHz & would overlap with each other causing interference, even at the distances you noted. Given this would be better than the current co-channel interference, still not ideal or desirable for the amount of works needed to be done to change the status quo.

DTV works with adjacent channels well, but that’s becasue unknown to most people, even though the allocated channel bandwidth is 7MHz, at maximum multiplex capacity, it doesn’t use the enitre 7MHz, there’s a guard band at the top & bottom of each channel, which is doubled in size, when added together from top & bottom adjacent channels, giving all carriers within the channel block a clear & interference free space to operate.

The FM band could be tightened up & use both odd & even ending frequencies, but idealy you’d still want 300kHz spacing to allow 100kHz in each top & bottom channel & a 100kHz space between them.

For example in Newcastle you could have 102.1, 102.4, 102.7, 103.0, 103.3, 103.6, 103.9, etc.

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Sorry not getting it - why is the standard channel spacing so much larger? Is that an Australian standard, International/EU standard or US standard?

I think this is overseen by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) which also designates uses for portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (e.g. VHF Band II for television).

Yes international standard, though some parts of Europe pack them in tighter than that.

I think it’s to give plenty of guard band between stations, & alowance to put something in between in an adjacent market, still having 200kHz guard between stations?

With older transmitters & receivers they could drift on frequency, & packing stations in close together could be problomatic with interference between the two?

Modern solid state transmitters & receivers with PLL don’t drift, so it’s not really an issue any more.

Even with my suggestion of 300kHz spacing & using both odd & even frequecies, would still need tight regulation & monitoring on deviation, becasue it wouldn’t take much if both stations over deviated, for that 100kHz guard between them to disapear.

When was the last time you saw someone using a pocket radio on public transport? Granted if the radio is in the persons pocket you cant see.

I used one on the train from Newcastle to Sydney not all that long ago.
It was an FM / DAB Sangean unit like this one

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/sangean/sangean-dpr-35-dab-pocket-radio-black/334608/

Was curious to see what performance was like on the train.
It was not all that flash.

I used my sangean radio today on public transport other than the lane cove tunnel it worked well. But even outside of public transport its been a while since I noticed someone listening to a radio in public (via ear phones).

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I see it a bit at the footy where someone might have an actual radio to be listening in, but it’s rare.

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Yeah sporting events is prob the last time I saw someone using a pocket radio.

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When I’m in Melb I use a little pocket radio purely because I don’t want to drain my phone battery.
Yeah, generally in my pocket though.
See it all the time at Aussie Rules games too.

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I still use my Sony Walkman AM/FM at the gym :slight_smile:

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Which was THE “cool” gadget of the 80s to have… much like the iPhone has been for most of the last 10 years or so.

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It’s one of the few gadgets I have kept but have no idea if it still works.

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Last week, AirCheck released their Music Radio Crossovers for Sydney. This week, it’s Melbourne’s turn: https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/nova-and-kiis-melbourne-share-most-music

Key points:

  • KIIS & Nova share nearly a 1/3 of their playlist, whilst Fox & Nova shared just over a 1/4 of their playlist. Fox & KIIS share just under a 1/4.

  • Gold 104.3 has a higher crossover with 3MMM (23%) than with that of Smooth (18.8%), with Gold playing a higher amount of unique tracks than its rivals. This is the opposite to that of Sydney, where WS has a higher crossover with Smooth (22.7%) than with that of 2MMM (15%), indicating that WS is more female-skewed than Gold. 2MMM plays more unique tracks than WS, the opposite to that seen in Melbourne.

I think it proves that Melbourne has slightly better commercial FM radio stations than Sydney. Of course, having the likes of community alternative music stations 3RRR & PBS really further enhanced Melbourne’s standing over Sydney’s overall. :slight_smile:

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I sometimes use my Tecsun PL-360 on V/Line when on longer trips to Adelaide etc but will just stream from phone when I’m going to work

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It is interesting heard Clinton Maynard reading the sport for the Macquarie news , Ian MacRae does traffic every now and again, a lot the “famous” announcers are now floaters between stations. Times have really changed. It felt (whilst there was still station movement) there was a certain air of stability with the on air teams of radio stations back 20-30 years ago. You would not have a “seasoned” announcer reading the sport. So it seems, except for a selected few, anyone can potentially do any job at a radio station.

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