Thanks for that. I was thinking there might have been something wrong with my antenna.
The vertical polarisation explains why the reception is so poor on my horizontal set up.
For the record this is the current level
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Thatâs great news. I had been wondering why reception wasnât so great lately driving around the southside of Brisbane 
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Makes sense. Less of an issue years ago when nearly all car radio FM antennas where actually vertical - and performed better than many of todayâs efforts.
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Excellent news, and yes as others say it explains the poorer reception around parts of Brisbane lately.
I presume 92.9 will link up with 100.6 via AF just as 93.7/99.4 do? The 93.7/99.4 changeover is really well done, itâs totally seamless when it swaps frequencies.
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Thanks. Yes, Breeze GC RDS AF is 100.6 & 92.9.
As a small infill, 92.9 RDS had to wait for a rx antenna position change & DSP FM tuner upgrade (adaptive IF bandwidth), due to intermittent issues cleanly receiving 100.6, with Laheys Lookout 130 km âline of sightâ to 100.7.
Ideally Tamborine 100.6 & Toowoomba 100.7 should not have been co-channeled.
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Yes, true. Toowoomba is very clearly receivable along that western ridge of Tamborine.
Makes me have to ask, why did the Canungra service have to change to 92.9? ACMA requirement? I made the point not long after it changed that 92.9 Toowoomba is receivable with RDS only a kilometre or two down the road from Laheyâs Lookout, and this is with Breeze on-air. Youâd probably receive the Toowoomba service even at the TX site if Breeze was off. 88.9 seemed a much better frequency for that location.
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Makes me have to ask, why did the Canungra service have to change to 92.9? ACMA requirement?
Yes. 88.9 was ACMA LAP allocated to Eagle Heights, 92.9 for Laheyâs. The ACMA were kind enough to allow us to temporarily use 88.9 at Laheyâs to work around a mixing interference issue when the site was initially off air fed from Logan 90.5/92.1. We changed a while back, to off-air feed from 99.4/100.6.
Yes, true. Toowoomba is very clearly receivable along that western ridge of Tamborine.
Yes. Tamborine ACMA planning for Rebel remains a messy inefficient use of spectrum that is costly to operate. Breeze has three allocations on Tamborine; 88.9, 92.9 & 100.6. 88.9 & 92.9 siting & power levels are not sufficient to cover the whole mountain. 100.6 siting & power largely is capable, but suffers severe co-channel interference on the western & northern edges, along the main arterials, that can see the Hit 100.7 Toowoomba tx.
Tamborineâs only 11 km long and 5 km wide, but you canât drive top to bottom and receive Breeze well on any single one frequency. The three high power GC commercial FMâs cover it better fortuitously, as they donât have the severe co-channel issue.
Our original plan was not to have a transmitter on Tamborine. The initial FM test transmissions on 98.5 MHz for Breeze were conducted from Mt Cainbable, 20 km SW of Tamborine and 90m higher than the Tamborine plateau. Modelling & field strength surveys showed 12 kW would have simultaneously largely served Tamborine, Beaudesert/Jimboomba & Kooralbyn. With just one site, one frequency per station. A great solution, cheaper & spectrum efficient.
CRA or ABA (ACMA) figured five lower power sites/frequencies per station were a better idea with less overspill - so we have the mess we do today, with less territory covered in our market.
Weâd love to fix it all, but donât see the appetite for it at the ACMA while we remain under independent ownership. Unfortunately, this is the way.
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Interesting! Good to know, I can imagine the BNE stations being worried about overspill with those specs?.. GC would have been shielded by Tamborine range.
And I think I recall Rebel 90.5 originally being 5kw at Mt Dunsinane, instead of just 200 watts that it is now⌠did that get changed somewhere along the line?
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Yes, ACMA. Tenure is an issue at Dunsinane, so may force a rethink. There are not many alternatives.
Sure, understandable, though indoor grade overspill would not have been extensive. The regulator was not consistent in how it approached planning in SEQ.
For example, River 94.9 would have far less overspill into our market, Brisbane & Toowoomba, if it had also been forced by the regulator into 5 smaller lower power sites on separate frequencies scattered through its market, instead of the single high power FM site the ABA gave it to do the job thoroughly & competitively.
In nearly all cases around Aus, an âin marketâ commercial FM radio station has the best, widest single frequency coverage of its own market. Better than neighbouring stations overspill into its market. Breeze wasnât afforded that typical âhome townâ advantage on Tamborine and the Scenic Rim.
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Fascinating info, thanks for sharing. Not trying to be facetious here, but I kind of always figured the TX at the golf course tower and the associated spill into the GC was always in part more than just a happy coincidence, interesting to know that wasnât the initial plan at all.
I agree the situation with the multiple transmitters to service one area is ridiculous, and such a waste of spectrum in an area where it is already so congested. I can receive three Rebel/Breeze services at once (not quite Kooralbyn), probably could have four if Eagle Heights was also on-air. Totally excessive. Itâs so ridiculous that Rebel Mediaâs own services sometimes interfere with each other - Breeze Tenterfield on 102.5 causes problems to Rebel Kooralbyn in the latterâs service area, and Iâm sure thereâs others.
The obsession with limiting overspill just results in poor outcomes like this. Spectrum congestion from additional relays limits the ability for an additional variety of services to be introduced, and low power services limit coverage area and quality of reception, neither of which advantage the radio listener at all.
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In car reception of 92.1 and 90.5 has improved significantly. Almost back to previous levels. However, not on the home horizontal Yagi - still below previous levels.
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Hi @AJ1
Reflecting back on one of your recent posts re Rebel/Breeze centres that would/wouldnât have RDS based on population and if transmitter location was sited at a Mining camp.
And looking at what Rebel/Breeze locations are/arenât in our Aus RDS List (MS Google Sheets); I have flagged some locations (below) that Iâm unsure if a Rebel/Breeze entry might be missing from our Media Spy Aus RDS List.
Can you kindly peruse through this short list & indicate if these outlets/centres have RDS?
Rebel FM (4RBL)
102.5 Kooralbyn
105.1 Monto
101.7 Normanton
96.1 Weipa
Breeze (4BRZ)
103.3 Kooralbyn
97.7 Weipa
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Sure. The MS list is largely right. RDS is not planned for Normanton, which is a small council self help site. A tentatively planned H2 2024 transmission upgrade at Weipa includes adding RDS for 96.1/97.7.
Your question is timely; two new FM tuners for Kooralbyn 102.5/103.3 are clearing Aus customs at the moment, so it should have RDS in Dec/Jan. They will AF switch to Logan 90.5/92.1
Broadcasting now with RDS, you can add Monto 105.1/100.5, Taroom 92.5/94.1 & Theodore 94.7/99.5 for Rebel + Breeze. The PI and RT live data config follows the rest of the network. Monto has AF switching with Biloela 88.9/89.7.
Weather has held us up, itâs a 4WD track access site. Repaired & back to mixed pol within the next week if all runs smoothly and the repaired array tests ok.
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Good news 
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Monto definitely has RDS as Iâve received both outlets via E-skip. Biloela (Banana) as well.
Here is Monto with RDS, and on open carrier for unknown reasons:
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Just a comment on this, having checked it out over the past couple of weeks. Seems 93.7 is back and roaring, and the AF works absolutely perfectly to 99.4. But 92.9 refuses to send me back to 100.6. Not sure if thatâs an issue with it or not - havenât been able to check the other way.
Well done on coordinating the feeds of 99.4/93.7 as well as you have too, itâs literally seamless swapping between the two. I could only tell as the car radio shows the frequency, it was otherwise inaudible. Not all stations do the swap so cleanly (your Stanthorpe translators, as well as TEN FM there, come to mindâŚ)
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I noticed last time I was up the hill in Miles that Breeze and Rebel have RDS up there as well
Very nice
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Both Rebel transmitters have AF 99.4 & 93.7, PI 4994. Both Breeze transmitters have AF 100.6 & 92.9, PI 4006.
Weâll check the Breeze switching - it should be working. A small percentage of radios ignore AF when the 2nd digit of the PI code is a 0, which in Europe signifies a âlocalâ single transmitter station. Some Pira RDS software we use flags it as a configuration error.
Nova106.9 moving to PI 4106 (they wonât revise) is a bigger issue for 100.6, as some new car radioâs switch on the last two digits.
AFAIK, Rebel was the first broadcaster in SEQ to add RDS nearly 20 years ago. PI 4006 seemed a great choice at the time, with no other Aus stations on 90.6/100.6. PI code allocations would be best managed by the ACMA today.
Our outer regionals primary feed is via satellite. We could sync them perfectly, but the additional investment isnât warranted. Historically Tenterfield & Stanthorpe could âlong term driftâ seconds apart. After some recent upgrades, so far they now stay (while on satellite) within a few hundred ms of each other, which is a good improvement. Welcome recent experience/feedback.
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This is good to know 
Will need to flag that in our Media Spy Google Sheets Aus/NZ RDS List. Thanks @AJ1
This is not good. 
Surely it would also be in Novaâs interest to resolve this for their listeners too. This is surely another example of why ACMA should be regulating PI codes.
I also located another possible (?) or plausible incorrect AF switching case for Brisbane with 4CBL 101.1 with a PI code of 4033 & 4SBS 93.3 with a PI code of 4933 based on the last two digit issue. I wonder if anyone has experienced an incorrect frequency switch between those two stations? 
Thanks again for the detailed reply. Iâll check 92.9 again tomorrow - thereâs some good spots around Nerang/Ashmore where both 100.6 and 92.9 come in well, so Iâll see if it wants to switch me back again. The radio Iâm using is stock from a Subaru Forester.
As for Stanthorpe, I was there in late October and there was a delay on 97.1 of probably a couple of seconds to 93.7. I just presumed this meant 97.1 was fed off-air from 93.7, but maybe not? For what itâs worth TEN FM had the exact same delay on 98.7 from 89.7. Didnât get a chance to check the Breezes on 102.5/90.1. On the whole though, having the two services with AF in that region is really great, as it gives you good uninterrupted coverage along almost 100km of the New England Hwy.