Auckland Radio Stations

Forums › Off topic › Auckland Radio Stations - 04 Jan

kiwiharry

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#302929 4-Jan-2023 16:42

Just jumped in my car to travel home from work. Not getting any of the major FM radio stations here in Auckland. Get a couple of ethnic radio stations but nothing else.

Anybody else experiencing this?

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#3016910 4-Jan-2023 16:43

a buddy of mine in Auckland has had the same issue, could be Sky Tower Offline?

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Linux

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#3016913 4-Jan-2023 16:51

Yep lost 99.0 Hauraki and no 1ZB 89.4

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#3016919 4-Jan-2023 17:06

91.0 & 91.8 are also off air

AKLWestie

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#3016920 4-Jan-2023 17:07

From RNZ outage page here (https://www.rnz.co.nz/outage_schedule) :

"A major power outage at our Sky Tower transmitter site has taken RNZ National and RNZ Concert FM off air. Other broadcasters are also affected. The issue is currently being worked on."

Linux

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#3016921 4-Jan-2023 17:08

404 on that link

AKLWestie

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#3016922 4-Jan-2023 17:11

Linux: 404 on that link

Try again. My bad.

kiwiharry

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#3016935 4-Jan-2023 17:44

Tuned into ZB on their AM frequency to listen to the 5pm news bulletin. Haven't listened to AM radio for a long time. It was a tough listen in my car. Audio and reception quality was a shocker.

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SepticSceptic

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#3017117 4-Jan-2023 23:42

I find the loss of that many radio stations across Auckland somewhat unsettling.
In the event of a major, or even semi-major disaster, TV out, power outage, i.e. after a moderate earthquake, eruption, etc, most people would turn to the radio for information and updates.
After all, we have been exhorted to have an emergency kit on hand, including the radio

Just about all stations off air, and no backup, no signalling tones, nothing, nada. Just the soothing hiss of white noise..

Shindig

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#3017170 5-Jan-2023 07:35

George FM was off as well...thought it was my car and applied the, 'another excuse to get an EV6'

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steve2222

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#3017197 5-Jan-2023 09:32

Incrediable that there appeared to be no working back up generators.

In my day in radio (admittedly 40 years ago) it was a requirement for transmitters to have back up generators which had to be live tested on a regular frequency. I remember going out to the Mangere sewerage ponds where Radio Hauraki had its AM transmitter and aerial (pre FM radio) and testing the cutover to the generator one night just after midnight.

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#3017220 5-Jan-2023 10:22

steve2222:

Incrediable that there appeared to be no working back up generators.

In my day in radio (admittedly 40 years ago) it was a requirement for transmitters to have back up generators which had to be live tested on a regular frequency. I remember going out to the Mangere sewerage ponds where Radio Hauraki had its AM transmitter and aerial (pre FM radio) and testing the cutover to the generator one night just after midnight.

That was my initial reaction too, but when I worked up Sky Tower back in the day there were three very large generators to run the facility in case of power outage.

At an educated guess, it was not a supply issue but a distribution panel has a fault that has had to be urgently repaired.

I too remember testing generators at transmitters and studios too, mostly during they day however, a few at night.

John

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techricky

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#3017270 5-Jan-2023 12:14

There is quite a bit of backup and redundancy up there, two independent power feeds to the transmitter floor and auto changeover at the distribution boards.

It seems that there may have been a fault with the auto changeover system not failing over, despite there being one feed still available..

The whole system including the backup generators is tested regularly so will be interesting to see the incident report.

gareth41

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#3017371 5-Jan-2023 14:55

SepticSceptic: I find the loss of that many radio stations across Auckland somewhat unsettling.
In the event of a major, or even semi-major disaster, TV out, power outage, i.e. after a moderate earthquake, eruption, etc, most people would turn to the radio for information and updates.
After all, we have been exhorted to have an emergency kit on hand, including the radio

Just about all stations off air, and no backup, no signalling tones, nothing, nada. Just the soothing hiss of white noise..

In a situation like that, there is a van/truck with extendable mast they would use. It would be driven to the top of Waiatarua - probably Quinn's Road, or if that's inaccessible they would likely fallback to using Mt Eden, Mt Wellington summits etc...

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#3017445 5-Jan-2023 15:54

Linux: 404 on that link

Also off the Sky Tower then.

SATTV

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#3017522 5-Jan-2023 18:01

gareth41:

In a situation like that, there is a van/truck with extendable mast they would use. It would be driven to the top of Waiatarua - probably Quinn's Road, or if that's inaccessible they would likely fallback to using Mt Eden, Mt Wellington summits etc...

If only it was that easy, you would need to have all of the transmitters, studio to transmitter links, antenna couplers and filters all ready to go plus power to boot.

It could be done with a couple of containers, truck and several million dollars sitting around until something catastrophic hits, then all of the stations will have to change the direction of their STL antenna to the new broadcast location, if there were some that ran on fibre you would need to have standby fibre some ware.

There is a lot more too it than meets the eye.

If something was to be thown together for one station, sure it could be done in a few hours, but as soon as you add another station you are adding complexities up the wazoo.

Is something bad really happened, there is always AM radio or even FM radio from out of town such as 89.8 in the waikato, this gets good coverage into most places in Auckland.

John

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