The speed of progress is blistering 
Did you notice the ‘arc’ of locations that long distance reception of TEN FM with enough signal for RDS is available? From the hills down into Grafton to almost Ballina.
104.3 from Cawongla also seems to reach far beyond its 50 watt sectors along the M1 and surrounding byways.
Re TEN FM, I only really spotted that around Maclean.
But that wouldn’t surprise me.
And yes, 2LM on 104.3 gets out really well to the south, I heard that from about Tabbimoble up (same with 103.5). I kind of chuckled to myself when I tuned from 103.5 to 103.9 to 104.3 and all of those were John Laws. I was a bit too far south to hear him on 104.1 from Currumbin as well.
Such an efficient use of broadcast spectrum! More of this waste to come it seems.
Funny that. extremely well considering its printed specs.
Why would you turn it off if it has that feature?
Local frequencies and a slide show of station schedule both weekdays and weekends. If you can program by time what text slides display, put up who is the current show.
I was in the North Lakes area of Brisbane earlier today, and was surprised to get good in car radio reception of Radio 97 on 972 AM. Strong enough to cause interference to 4WK on 963. Makes the fact that they need a repeater for southern Gold Coast all the more remarkable.
What time of day?
In central suburbs of Brisbane, 972 suffers from a terrible harmonic or similar problem that even the best of AM recievers cannot resolve due to the brute force of local Brisbane stations that add up to the freq of AM 972. Shall try next time over North Lakes way, I usually try to avoid there, traffic is often poor and suburbia there is of a just add water variety of fast food franchises and the like.
AM 963 does not suffer from this as it is not a multiple/exact addition.
Try driving around on the Gold Coast or receiving AM 972 at the northern end of their licence area (Broadbeach/Surfers boundary close to revolving restaurant hotel, Crowne Plaza near Monaco St/Florida Gardens tram stop), it’s less than ideal. FM 104.1 from Elanora covers this area with a good signal for in vehicle/mobile reception, however cheap radios can be swamped by Tamborine signals if LoS is strong westwards.
What FM 104.1 also assists with is reducing selectivity on cheaper radios to receiving 4MMM.
I wrote a snide comment about the whole of the Gold Coast being like you describe above, but then realised you’re referring to an area on the northern side of Brisbane!
It was about 1pm.
It equally applies to the Gold Coast, much of it. If you look at the old Albert Shire/GCCC boundary, virtually all built up locations within the former Albert Shire suffer from this low value form of development, cookie cutter rubbish.
Apart from Dreamworld or Movie World, take either of these exits and you enter a parallel world to what is sensible with a bunch of overpriced mega builder brand homes with cheap design and fit out, nauseatingly repetitive lists of franchise businesses (must be lots of fools wasting money buy themselves jobs), two bit private schools that cost a bomb yet are basic but the parents think its fancy and a bunch of blown in residents, most highly transient and all very angry about sitting in constant traffic congestion on inadequate infrastructure, all of their making due to their residency there.
There you go @dxnerd, done it for you.
Now @gordo92, what is the problem that AM 972 suffers from? It’s a combination of what freqs or harmonics?
Thanks, so very much ground wave. Car radio?
Yeah I generally find AM972 pretty dodgy even in Broadbeach.
Oh Cranky you are so, so right about that parallel world near those exits North of GC. I actually LOL’d at “two bit” private schools - so true! The blow ins - mostly from intestate, UK and South Africa think they’ve found nirvana. I work with some of them. So delusional :). Anyway, sorry off topic but you made my day! North Lakes is similar.
Yes agree it’s a pretty impressive radio in the Focus
I know this issue is bad in Brisbane, as where I lived at Cannon Hill, 1116 and 882 would mix and show up on 234khz of the LW band, not a major issue for the general public but for us Hams and SW/Radio lovers, it can be a pain in the neck.
Noise from the powerlines is also a major killer for AM in Brisbane… Over the Bayside of Brisbane there are parts where stations such as 882 and 1197 get smashed by noise.
This is my view and does not reflect who i work for 
I think is just urban noise these days on the AM band, as I have found it to not be to bad while driving along the M1 in a RAV 4. Tho in saying that having the 2 stations 9k apart does make it interesting at night time because they start getting into each others sidebands… But I guess thats why they have FM translators to help with issues such as increasing noise floors etc
Yes, picked this up on a 150 - 29 999 kHz tuner. What do Hams use LW for? Unfamiliar with this.
None of which were a problem until the ‘gold plating’ of the distribution networks began around a decade ago. The over investment has seen an increase in line equipment and noise.
That’s the big problem to the local reception of those stations and the FM translators will be a great help.
In Brisbane, it’s fortuitous reception and 972 is three quarters of 1296.
I was wondering if you checked the program as it might have been a harmonic from the nearby 4QR Bald Hills transmitter. 972 suffers a lot from that harmonic/mixing in other Brisbane suburbs.
No I didn’t really… Though it sounded clear, and there was no obvious mixing or anything else to suggest that it was a harmonic, as they are usually obvious - as there is often noise or some other tell tale sign.
Closer to the 1296 site, there’s more of their program, it’s quite garbled and inaudible, accompanied by a constant thap, thap, thap. It’s always been this way, as long as there’s been an audio carrier on 1296 in Brisbane.
I checked a couple of radios today and could heard 4QR clearly without distortion on 972 at about the level you’d expect from a nearby market. There was also a clear signal on 1224 (612 x 2) that was as strong as many of the local AM stations. Clearly not the best radios but even better one’s I have couldn’t totally get rid of the signals.
Thanks.
That was probably it then.