Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Kris Partridge, who notes that the July/August 2020 issue of the Australian amateur radio magazine QTC (an issue we noted in a previous post is free) actually has an article about the mediumwave scene in Australia.
Click here to download a PDF of those pages only from the magazine, or better yet, grab the full issue from our previous post.
Thanks for pointing out this article, Kris. I really enjoyed reading this issue of QTC. Great to see a ham radio publication that covers more than *just* ham radio!
It is a pity that Glenn has such an incomplete list of 50 kW transmitters. Their CMFs in descending order are;
ABC Melbourne 774 kHz 3.11 kV ABC Sydney 702 kHz 3.11 kV
ABC Adelaide 891 kHz 2.91 kV
ABC Central West (NSW) 549 kHz 2.9 kV ABC Western Victoria 549 kHz 2.9 kV ABC Perth 720 kHz 2.9 kV
Radio National Melbourne 2.8 kV. The frequency is not a typo!
ABC Brisbane 612 kHz, 2790 kV, ABC Capricornia (Qld) 1548 kHz 2.79 kV, ABC North Coast (NSW) 738 kHz 2.79 kV, ABC North Queensland 630 kHz 2.79 kV
ABC Radio National Sydney 576 kHz 2.69 kV
ABC Radio National Adelaide 729 kHz 2.53 kV
ABC Great Southern (WA) 558 kHz 2.4 kV
Note: The coverage area not only depends on the CMF, transmission frequency but also the moisture of the earth in the transmission path.
Remember Australia is a maximum of 3136 km North to South (excluding Tasmania which has its own transmitters) and 4088 km wide.
Radio National Melbourne is 621 kHz
It’s a pity that Alan hasn’t understood the purpose of the article. It doesn’t claim to be an exhaustive list of 50kW or highest power transmitters, but an introduction to ‘clear’ channel AM DX in Australia. To that end, it simply points out the most notable ‘clear’ channel stations in Australia, and refers to the ACMA database for those interested further.
Despite “clear channel” being both in the title and text of the article, many on Alan’s list _aren’t_ on ‘clear’ channels. For example, on Alan’s list ABC Perth 720kHz is shared with 2ML ABC North Coast & 4AT ABC Far North (both of which are occasional catches here); 630kHz 4QN North Qld is shared with 2PB ABC Newsradio Sydney (again, both are occasional catches here) and others (6AL Albany & 7RN Queenstown); etc.
I’m not much into broadcast DXing, let alone AM BCB DX – but of the ones mentioned in the article, 2CR Cumnock (~730km) is a not-uncommon afternoon catch, 5RN Adelaide (~1600km) is an occasional late afternoon/early evening catch, and 4QD Emerald (~650km) is a frequent evening catch. That’s in suburban Brisbane using a homebrew tuned-loop antenna (~30turns of 0.250mm enamelled wire on a round 10″ form, tuned with a standard plastic AM tuning cap) coupled – not connected – to a PL-660.