Returning to the scene of the Glorious crime!
January 1, 2014
Welcome to 2014 dear readers!
Back in December (sadly, yes it is January already) there was a return visit to Point Glorious undertaken for a hike on the dry dirt roads that were generously littered with horse excrement. This tower was spotted by a companion at the deserted lookout, whose eyesight is evidently better than this humble blogger.
The towers are situated nine kilometres (5.5 mi) away in a straight line, or 26 kilometres (16 mi) via the shortest vehicular route. This broadcast centre is sited off Eungella Drive at Black Mountain near Cooroy. Three 20 kilowatt FM public broadcasts originate from this site. In addition, five regional television affiliate stations are broadcasting on UHF from this site with power of five kilowatts. More photos, taken by photographer Tallowwood Place .net can be found on Panoramio.
Apart from precipitation that accompanies heavy-duty thunderstorms, rain has been rare in this region throughout December. Weather conditions have remained extremely dry (along with excruciating humidity) as is clearly evident in the photographs. Professionals expect this hot weather will continue: it may be South East Queensland’s hottest summer on record since 2008.
Yes, these are new photos. It is probable these are even duller than usual but it is New Year’s Day! Let’s not be too critical please! 🙂
On this occasion, a sedan was used on the sealed dirt road to access the lookout. This time, a German-engineered FM receiver was better suited for mountaintop reception but the fact that particular automobile was taken was more a matter of luck rather than any foresight!
Images from the four FM broadcast sites within 15 kilometres (9 mi) were not readily encountered. This includes the site pictured in the first photograph. Inter modulation and cross modulation was acutely obvious with the factory 2011 Nissan X-trail Four Wheel Drive radio used in 2012. On both occasions, a six-band shark fin antenna was used, as is typically supplied with modern vehicles with on board Global Positioning Service (GPS).
These are a compromised design to preserve space but frequently provide satisfactory FM reception. It helps enormously if the shark fin antenna’s inbuilt preamplifier is built to the highest contemporary standards using GaAs pHEMT Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs), for example.
A curtailed five-minute FM band scan performed the early afternoon revealed few surprises. Only the 100 kW public broadcasts from 425km (264 mi) from the coastal south could be heard belting in. Last time, the 80 kW public broadcasts 389 km (242 mi) north-west were audible even from the edge of Lake Cooloolabin, with coastal tropospheric enhancement playing a starring role.
Data furnished from FM Scan, the ACMA Register of Radio Communications Licences & Google Maps.
The three photographs of Point Glorious may be freely used for non-commercial activity provided attribution is given. Should readers choose to use those photos elsewhere, please link back to this page or attribute this blog as the copyright holder.
Related blog posts
Off road: Conondale National Park & Cooloolabin Dam
FM DXing 