It’s all Mee

On the evening of April the 23rd, a spontaneous decision was made to travel to Mount Mee. This mountain is also part of the D’Aguilar range. Access was via Dayboro (below).

Once at the destination (below), altitude and temperature measurements were taken.

The photo (below) illustrates conditions. The weather was fine with a temperature of 27.8 degrees celsius. The altitude was approximately 580 metres above sea level. There was no fog present (one indicator of potential tropospheric ducting).

The altitude is no match for the mountains of Glorious and Nebo on the same range, but the location is probably easier to navigate. Whilst permanent FM reception suffers at Mount Mee, there are far fewer residential streets. That means more remote parking spots are available to choose from. There is also less risk of getting the car bogged in mud.

This video shows broadcasts from Rocky & Bundy, including:

• 105.5 News Radio – Rocky (QLD) – 80 kW – 435 km
• 103.1 Radio National – Rocky (QLD) – 80 kW – 435 km
• 93.9 4RUM Hitz FM – Bundy (QLD) – 3 kW – 252 km

Prefer a longer recording of News Radio?

This video shows broadcasts from the Kingaroy CBD and an unknown Christian station. If readers have any clues regarding 100.5 MHz, please don’t be shy! None of the stations filmed have been heard in the city:

• 93.1 Radio TAB – Kingaroy (QLD) – 25 watts – 108 km
• 96.3 K FM – Kingaroy (QLD) – 50 watts – 108 km
• 100.5 Was ist diese Station?

With the car facing north, co-channel interference from Lismore was alleviated. As a result, RDS (below) was possible from this 5 kilowatt station, 101 kilometres away.

RDS (below) was taken from this 200 watt translator, 79 kilometres north.

The aforementioned Mount Mee highlights were made with a ‘marginal’ Hepburn tropospheric index of 1.4.

As good as it gets

Last year, memorable mountain top reception was heard at the same spot. On those occasions, moderate tropo ducting prevailed; so weather conditions were optimal for some planned mobile FM madness.

1 May

98.3 2NOW Now FM Mt Dowe – Narrabri – 100 kW – 435 km

10 May

107.9 Hot FM Mt Archer (pictured below) – Rocky – 10 kW – 471 km

The following bloggers have photographed D’Aguilar NP. Their travels and observations are definitely worth reading:

Mt Mee Wedding
Relocation to Mt Mee
Sunday drive to Mt Glorious
Day trip to Mt Nebo
Camping at Archer Creek

A previous trip to Dayboro can be found here. Coming up: the final entry from Mt Glorious.

Station logos are solely provided for the purposes of research & education under the Fair Use provisions of the Copyright Act in this jurisdiction.

Sunset in the shire: Lake MacDonald

Let’s examine Lake MacDonald in the Noosa shire, a short drive from Mount Tinbeerwah. The photographs were taken during a typical winter sunset.

This lake incorporates the Mary River Cod Park. Mary River Cod is indigenous to the lake. Sounds delicious.

As with most in-land waterways in this region, a SEQ Water sign lists a warning that the lake may contain Blue Green Algae, a marine weed.

The topography of Lake MacDonald and its surrounds is particularly suitable for radio reception. Evening jet scatter reception from the high powered Coffs Harbour FM stations was easily heard from a southerly azimuth.

Sunset in the shire by FMDXing is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License.
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