SWLing Post reader, George, recently asked about the new Radio Australia antenna settings accompanying the modified (trimmed) broadcast schedule.
The following are the new azimuth settings for the antennas at the Shepparton transmitter site:
It appears it may have indeed been a transmitter glitch that kept Radio Australia from broadcasting into North America with their typical blowtorch signal on 9,580 kHz yesterday.
After publishing a post about this yesterday, I received quite a few reports confirming that RA could not be heard in North America. I even received a report from Mike in New Zealand who couldn’t hear RA on 9,580 kHz with his Yaesu FT-817.
I did, however, receive two reports from listeners stating that they could hear a very faint signal from RA on 9,580 kHz–long after I had tuned off frequency. This might explain the carrier I saw on my spectrum display yesterday. Perhaps Shepparton turned down the power on 9,580 kHz for maintenance purposes?
Either way, I’m simply happy to hear my old friend back on 9,580. Since we are officially under the new (reduced) broadcast plan, I hope this means that we’ll at least Radio Australia until they change the plan again.
This morning, when I tuned to Radio Australia on 9,580 kHz, they were not transmitting–or, at least, I couldn’t hear them.
I hope this is merely a transmitter glitch (they do happen).
You see, Radio Australia recently issued their new shortwave broadcast schedule which included cuts to the Pacific broadcast footprint. The changes take effect today. 9,580 kHz, however, should still be on the air between 09:00-21:00 UTC–this morning, I was listening at 15:00 UTC.
I can’t think of the last time I couldn’t hear Radio Australia on 9,580 kHz in the morning hours here in the eastern USA. Indeed, some of my earliest memories of listening to shortwave radio include RA on 9,580 kHz.
I need to look further into the changes to the broadcast plan. I’m beginning to wonder if the transmitter output and orientation have been changed. As you can see in the screenshot from my Elad FDM-S2 (above), there is a faint carrier on 9,580, but it’s much too weak to hear. I’ve no clue if it’s Radio Australia or not.
Fortunately, Radio Australia is quite loud on 12,065 kHz and very audible on 12,085 kHz (see below), which means I still get my Saturday morning dose of Saturday Night Country.
I’ll post an update about 9,580 kHz as soon as I have more details.
Speaking of the Radio Australia shortwave service reductions, I just received RA’s new propagation map (above) and schedule (below). Click images to enlarge.
My source also sent a few RA internal notes/points regarding services, feeds and transmitters:
Radio Australia
Reminder – preferred backup domestic source is Classic FM, not Radio National.
[…]Radio Australia News ex N05 will be the SERN bed news 0600-1800 Monday-Friday.
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, David, who passes along this announcement from Radio Australia via Pacific Beat:
On Sunday, Radio Australia’s shortwave signal to Asia will be turned off, another result the ABC says of recent government funding cuts.
Shortwave broadcasting into the Pacific will continue, but signal strenth outside Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji may be degraded.
Alex Oliver from the Lowy Institute has contributed evidence to Australian parliamentary inquiries and committees on foreign affairs, defence and trade for many years.
So does she view the switch off as a big step back from international broadcasting by Australia, or simply the retirement of some old technology.
Presenter: Adam Connors
Speaker: Alex Oliver from the Lowy Institute