FM DX in Australia

[Guiseppe]

What antenna are you using?

A masthead amplifier, yes/no, what brand?

What tuner/receiver/?? are you using?

I fired up the old National Panasonic SA-6200 this afternoon and received a few stations. To be expected seeing I was using rabbit ears about 1m off the floor.

[gordon_s1942]

80 feet up in a pine tree, 2 X CA16 Hills Phased arrays with an old Kingray MHA over 25 years old facing Sydney to the East and I could pick up down as far as Nowra (old 2ST?) and North to Newcastle.
Obviously the MHA doesnt have an FM filter which is why I lost my Sydney TV reception when they opened the local FM commercial Radio station.
Because the antennas have a front to back ratio, I can barely pick up Orange to the West although its closest in distance to the others.
At one time I used to receive a community station from around Sutherland somewhere but it was patchy.
Get up on a Mountain top and you will be surprised what you can receive on just a run of the mill car radio setup.

Visiting friends at Wangi Wangi years ago, I used to tune in 2 NUR Newcastle when I left Lithgow until I got to Richmond and it was patchy until I got north of Hornsby then varied all the way to Wangi.

[mitaux8030]

Pair of co-phased Fracarro FM 5 element yagis. No masthead amp.
Receiver - for the moment AR5000.. Have to build a variable notch filter to knock out some of the ultra-powerful locals - 3x 1 Megawatt EIRP broadcasters are pretty hard to keep out of the front end of any receiver! Hopeful of finding a decent compact component receiver, second hand - in no hurry for that.
Quite frequently able to hear Melbourne & southern Vic coast FM stations in inland northern Tas. Provides some interesting listening compared to the local offerings.

[ol' boy]

I have the same Fracarrro FM 5 element antenna, its brilliant.

If you are interested in FM DXing Guiseppe, i have the 8 element version also, its brand new, still in the bag.
Purchased it for myself, then never used it.

Details:



It will be a step up from Rabbit Ears

PS: No Masthead Amp for FM, i like my signal clean and pure
I have run into problems with FM receivers and Mast Head Amps in the passed, introducing bad harmonics and other nasties into the signal.

Internet Streaming kind of killed FM DXing
But the sound quality from a good FM antenna is amazing, most have no idea, until they use a proper FM antenna, then they hear the difference.